#6507 – Isaak Walton Pitch Pine Bog – April 24, 2016
Leader: Sue Williams
Co-Leader: Eric Vander Bogart
Write-up: Sue Williams
We hiked the Isaac Walton League Pitch Pine Bog trail in Rome, NY.
This is urban hiking at its best. Walmart is probably 1-2 miles away!
The weather was balmy until we got into the woods, where we found the air comfortable. It had not rained for sometime and we found the trail very dry with only an occasional presence of mud. Mosquitoes started to come out toward the end of the hike when we stopped for someone to catch up.
Of the 21 people that hiked, 3 were new to the group. One of the three hobbled out with sore ankles.. It was a bit more then she anticipated.
Snakes, cherry blossoms, pitch pine, white pine, tamarack, and a cousin to skunk cabbage were spotted. The cranberry bog and the thought of finding cranberries next fall intrigued the group.
Cindy McCormack, our newest member, as this was her fifth hike, wants to return to look for cranberries and the white puffy flowers that seem to float just above the bogs’ surface in the fall.
It was a good…low stress hike.
We took the spur over to Shingle Mills Falls and people got ‘lost’ roaming around seeing the different little cascades. After about 30 minutes, we got back together to continue on to Catpaw Lake, walking through an open field of wild blueberries. Reaching Catpaw, some people stopped at this shore to eat lunch, while others went ‘down’ the shore to get up the ‘rise’ for views of all the Paws. (“Yes Jim, I went down to rise !!!”)
The hikes were noted as “S/SS” but not a flake was in sight – neither on the ground nor in the air! We walked – strolled really – through the Griffiss International Sculpture Park on Saturday and tried to channel the artists’ thoughts to divine titles for the sculptures. Bill Warren consistently came up with “Consternation” and “Confusion” as titles – I’m still not sure if those were actually his ideas for the titles or his state of mind in viewing them! On some we came quite close: “Chimney” – an aluminum piece by Tomasz Domanski was seen as a volcano, “Lookout Landing” by Jenny Polak, we all knew it had something to do with the sea and “Land Forms” by Rob Licht, well were weren’t exactly close, but somewhere in the ball park parking lot.
On Sunday, an equally pleasant day, we ramped up the pace a bit and completed 6 miles from Mohawk Street in Whitesboro to the Harbor Point Lock in Utica and back. Passersby wondered if there was a fundraiser going on or if maybe a nursing home had brought a bus out for a walk in the fresh air! We fed into the latter by asking if the Bingo game was up ahead! (Some got the joke.) The Husses were instrumental in parking the many cars as we wondered if the lot was big enough to accommodate us all (35 people and about 20 cars). By their able direction we were able to get everyone into a spot! Unfortunately, not much was happening yet in the way of wildlife and all we saw were 2 geese and a couple of songbirds. 
At Harbor Lock we investigated the lock and looked beyond into the Utica harbor. Don Fellows suggested that with all the new businesses and hotels in Harbor Point they should create an ice skating rink in the winter so that guests could enjoy dinner or lodging and look out onto a lighted skating scene. We all thought that would be a great idea. Hikers stopped at 69 Steakhouse to continue the fun!
