Join us on Sunday at the Finger Lakes Boat Museum. In 1996 a small group of dedicated antique boating enthusiasts, motivated in part by a common concern over the rapidly dwindling population of locally-built wooden boats, committed to establishing a museum that would preserve the boating heritage of the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. The museum founders, all active in the “antique boat world,” felt that a museum focusing on the impact that recreational and commercial boating had on the development of the lakes and tourism in the Finger Lakes Region would increase appreciation and awareness as well as help preserve these vintage craft.

The Museum Collection has now grown to more than 200 boats built by many of the 40+ commercial builders identified to date as having built boats throughout the Finger Lakes Region during the last century.

The museum currently has three floors of the historic former Taylor Wine Company’s main building to explore with several exhibit spaces and a new wing renovated in 2015.  Visitors can see canoes, rowboats, row outboards, outboard runabouts, inboards, hydroplanes, and sailboats. Many related artifacts and ephemera are also on display, including a 130′ x 10′ lake and nature mural and replica lake cottage. A 60′ x 10′ lake mural was also recently completed in the Inboard Motor Boat exhibit room. Our main building also contains an active boat shop where visitors are able to see restoration projects underway.

We all plan to meet at the museum at 3:00 for an hour or so to check out the boats. You should feel free to come earlier if you expect to spend more time. If the museum is not of interest, join us for a hike to start promply at 4:30.

After exploring the Boat Museum, head south on Pleasant Valley Road (County Road 88) about .8 miles to the Urbana Town Hall at 8014 Pleasant Valley Road (  42.389558, -77.260007 ). We will gather between 4:15 and 4:30 for a 4:30 start. The trail will take us through a vineyard, over a bridge, along a former rail line, and up along the south rim of Mitchellsville Creek, a very pleasant climb through a hemlock and pine forest with frequent views to the deep gully below. Mushrooms and tiny toads abound. The full hike (Climbers) is 4.8 miles (total out and back) and about 2 hours; Tourists and Naturalists can head back to the start whenever so inclined. The path is well marked and cleared, though on the steep side in a few places.

After the hike, please join us for the social at the Pleasant Valley Inn, just a few hundred feet south from the Town Hall parking lot. Bear right at the intersection onto Fish Hatchery Road and then enter the first driveway on the left, between two white posts – this is the back way into the Inn, which is pink and white. The main entrance is at 7979 Route 54. Please let us know ASAP if you plan to join us at the Pub, so we can let the Inn know we are coming.