Hi, there is a wind advisory for western New York. So if you are out driving on Sunday, please be careful. Check your favorite weather channel for details. If you come to Swain, expect an enjoyable hike, but dress warmly!
See you at Swain!
Monthly Archives: January 2013
Upcoming event
At our holiday social last month, Springwater Trails announced the new members of the organization who had earned a membership by hiking with the hiking group during the year, or by working on the Springwater Trail or by volunteering as an officer or seasonal coordinator. At this time, I would like to thank the contributing members for 2013:
Pati Clark
Mark Hopkins
Pam Masterson
Wil Oliver
Cal Richards
Chuck Winship
Speaking of membership, our first annual meeting of the Springwater Trails Organization will be held during our social on March 24th at 5:00. Our primary business at this meeting will be the election of the 2013 officers. Dean Faklis will chair a nominating committee to nominate candidates for President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer for a one year term. In addition, members may make nomination at the annual meeting (as long as the person being nominated agrees to serve). All members, hikers, trail builders and friends of Springwater Trails are invited to the annual meeting. All members may vote for the officers and other business brought up at the meeting.
FLT Robinson Loops – Swain NY – Directions
The Loop hikes are east of the Swain ski area and will start from a parking area at the end of Mill St and across from the tubing hill. Parking may be limited, especially during ski season, so car pools are recommended.
Hikers are welcome to carpool from the Town Hall in Springwater or from the Municipal Parking lot on the right side of Clara Barton St (Rt 36) in Dansville across from Church St. If you do not carpool, we will meet at Mill St in Swain. Since you may need to drive as part of the carpool, please bring these directions with you.
Carpools
Carpool from Springwater: meet at the Town Hall on Rt 15, 0.2 miles south of the flashing light. Please meet at 1:00 and be ready to leave promptly at 1:15 for Swain.
Carpool from Dansville: meet at the Municipal Parking behind the Sunrise Inn at 1:15. We will leave promptly at 1:30 and drive to Swain.
Directions to Swain
From Springwater: Take rt 15 south through Wayland to I360 N. Turn right onto I390. Take exit 4 (NY 36 Dansville). Turn right on NY 36S for 6.4 miles. Turn right onto NY 70 N, for 7.4 miles. Turn left onto Co Rd 24 and take the first left onto Mill St.
From Dansville: Head southwest on Clara Barton St (Rt 36) for 7 miles past Stony Brook Park. Turn right onto NY 70 N, for 7.4 miles. Turn left onto Co Rd 24 and take the first left onto Mill St.
From Rochester or Geneseo: Head south on Interstate 390. Take exit 7 for Mt Morris. Turn left at the end of the exit on NY 408 South for 1.9 miles. Turn left on Main St and then the first right to stay on NY 408 S (Chapel St). Follow 408S for 13.7 miles through Nunda. At the flashing light turn left onto NY 70S. Follow Rt 70 for 7.2 miles. Turn right onto Co Rd 24 into Swain. Take the first left onto Mill St.
Honeoye Inlet, whirlpools and red maples
Hikers, who passed them, stopped to look at the whirlpools, that started and stopped, in the stream, before it went under the road-trail. It was noticed that most of the strong ones were spinning in the clockwise direction. In the Northern Hemisphere, the planet’s rotation causes large cyclones, such as hurricanes, to spin counter-clockwise, and clockwise, in the Southern Hemisphere. This is why, as mentioned earlier, Sandy, which landed in Southern New Jersey, pushed sea water into the New Jersey coast, Staten Island, Rockaway, and Lower Manhattan, while Irene, in 2011, landed north of New York City, and pushed water toward the sea. The water, in the stream, was primarily controlled by local forces in the stream.
The dominant tree, in the wetlands, was the 
red maple, Acer rubrum. It’s also commonly called the swamp maple, because it can thrive in wet soil. By contrast, the sugar maple, A. saccarum, requires a well drained soil. Remember our earlier post on how to identify maples in the winter, about them differing from most other hardwoods by having 2 buds to a node, opposite each other? Remember MAD HORSE? Also, If you look on the ground, by a tree, you will often see last summer’s leaves. You’re familiar with the typical palmate lobed maple leaf. The 
sugar maple (Canada flag) has 5 lobes. The red maple has 3. The word, red, has 3 letters, and sugar, has 5. Help you remember it? On the red maple, also look for the red color on the buds, and other structures.
While the sugar maple is the best syrup producer, the red maple also has sugar in its sap, only not as much. Not to waste a resource, Chuck also has tap lines in the red maples in his forest so, his delicious syrup is a combination of sugar and red maple. The sap will be starting to rise soon so Chuck is getting his tap lines ready, to get it, when it starts rising. In March, he will show you, in complete detail, his operation; how he gets the sap from the trees and boils it down to make the syrup. The smell of boiling sap is one of the greatest aromas. Sure sign of coming spring. See if you can guess how much sap it takes to make a quart of syrup. We will be using the Maple weekends to raise funds for our hiking club. Pam is organizing this project so, if you’d like to help, let her know.