Write-up: Lu Blanchard
Leader: Lu Blanchard
Co-Leader: Meg Higgerson

The 100th Anniversary Hike took place on April 24, 2021 and the day could not have been nicer. (Our Tramp forefathers were watching out for us!) We met at the top of
Elm Street, in the Parkway parking lot and a fine gathering it was. Our members really got into the spirit of the 1920’s with bloomers, pack baskets, cloche hats and the like. WKTV was there with a reporter and a cameraman and they interviewed Meg Higgerson, 100^th Anniversary Committee Chair; Bobbie Scarpino, President; Lu Blanchard, representing Abigail Dimon; Linda Cox, Abigail Dimon’s great-niece; and two hikers joining us for their first time, Terry R. and Lisa L. Meg had all 50 strong line up behind our new banner for pictures and a “champagne” toast! Five of the members who hiked the Glen in 2005 also were present, Mary Cameron and Bill Wilson who led the hike, David Drew and John Gilbert. They didn’t hike with us this time, but it was good to have them come for the pictures and toast. Madonna and Don Fellows, Jean and Emil Misiaszek, and Nancy Agen also hiked in 2005 and did hike this time as well.

It was a first in a couple of ways. First time a leader was lost! Lu forgot her pack at the Parkway and went back to get it only to find that Bill Higgerson had picked it up and taken it to the other end of Valley View to wait for the hikers. Trouble was her car keys were in it, and her phone was home, so she couldn’t tell the others that she would have to catch up with them instead of driving around to meet them at the Parks Maintenance building. The info that she had gone back never made it to the front of the line, though, so Kathy and Meg were frantic trying to call her! Oh what a way to start!

It was also the first time most of us had seen Cascade Glen or the lovely property now owned by Mohawk Valley Water Authority (MVWA). The willows were beautiful and the reservoirs were full. We didn’t see much wildlife with this many hikers, but the antics of the hikers made up for it! The stream through the Glen was still strewn with shale and the effects of the floods of 2019 could be seen by the huge trees spread around the glen. The MVWA graciously gave up permission to hike into the property and it really was a special feeling to know that we were retracing the steps our founders had taken on their inaugural hike. In the words of one of our Tramps who couldn’t be there, “This is so much fun!”

The toast was, “To all the Tramps who led the way, who blazed the trails and seized the day. To all the Tramps now here today, and all those not yet born to play.
We salute you! Mazel Tov! (Good Luck)”

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