Author Archives: Mark

About Mark

President of Springwater Trails, Inc

Join our email list

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It is easy to check this website for information about the Sunday hike. Usually, the hike for next Sunday will appear as the first story on the home page. Some weeks our hike planner is busy and doesn’t post details until later in the week, so if you don’t see the hike on Monday, please check back later in the week. Also, check the calendar on the right hand side of the page, for events that are coming up.

If you prefer a weekly reminder, you are invited to join our mailing list. Most weeks you will receive a single email in the latter part of the week, with the full description of the hike and instructions for the drive to the hike meet point.  Here are instructions for joining our mailing list.

  1. Browse to Google Groups. If you have a Google account, make sure you are signed in.  If you don’t have a Google account, you can create one, using your current personal email address, or a new gmail address. Once you have a Google account, remember to browse to Google Groups.
  2. In the search box near the top of the page, enter Springwater Trails, and press the search button.
  3. Click on Apply for membership.
  4. In the box labeled “How did you learn about the Springwater Trails Organization”, please respond in a way that we will know you are a human interested in our hikes. You don’t have to promise to hike every Sunday, but that would be a good New Years Resolution!
  5. Click on the Apply to join this group button.

That’s it.  It may take a few days for us to approve your membership, but it is important to us.  If you think it is taking too long, a friendly reminder email to [email protected] will speed things up.  Thank you for your interest.

There are several ways you can stop receiving our email messages.

  1. Send an email to [email protected].from the email address where you receive our mail. There is a reminder about this at the bottom of each email from us.
  2. Visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.and enter your email address where you receive our email.
  3. Go to https://groups.google.com and sign in.
    1. Click on My Groups
    2. Search for the Springwater Trails group.
    3. You can manage your emails on this line.

Finger Lakes Trail Events

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The Winter edition of the Finger Lakes Trail News magazine arrived in our mail box recently. and as always was filled with interesting articles. I wanted to share a few with you.

On page 6 was an article about Ron Abraham, who completed his End-to-End hike of the main Finger Lakes Trail, and all of the Branch trails in 2018. Ron has joined Springwater Trails several times and was kind enough to mention us in the article.

On page 25 is a quick teaser about the FLTC Spring Weekend in Bradford, PA. There will be opportunities that weekend to hike, bike and kayak in Allegany State Park over the three days (June 7, 8 and 9) of the weekend at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

On page 26 is an add for chainsaw training in May. This two day course is required to allow you to use a chain saw while maintaining hiking trails within the Finger Lakes Trail system, or on state land. It is also valuable if you have a chain saw and would like to use it safely. Training will take place May 4-5 and May 18-19. John took the course last year. If you are interested, talk with me at any hike or at [email protected].

The next Howard Beye Hike sponsored by the FLTC occurs Saturday, Jan 19, 2019. The hike will be 4.5 miles on the Onondaga Branch Trail through Morgan Hill State Forest. If you are interested in carpooling, we would need to leave Saturday morning at about 6:45 from the Springwater Town Hall. You can leave a comment on this post, or contact me at [email protected] to help organize a carpool.

New WordPress Editor

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Yesterday I received word that the Springwater Trails website has been upgraded to WordPress version 5.0.

The major change in this version is a new editor. When you create or edit a Post you will be using the new editor.  This occurs if you want to write about a hike we have taken – for example, if you lead a hike and would like to describe how it went and include some pictures.

Here are some of the changes to the editor. 

Melissa and Donna go over the edge
  • The editor seems much cleaner. In other words, things you are used to seeing around the editor box on your screen have moved and you will need to hunt for them.  So far, I haven’t noticed anything missing, but you will need to look.
    • Specifically the right side shows Document and Block tabs.  The default is Block, which contains settings for the current block – often a block is just a paragraph, but more later.
    • Most of the old settings are under the Document Tab.
    • Above the editor region is a short menu on the left and a “Publish” menu on the right.  If you want to save your Post to come back to later, you can “Save Draft”.  That way, only you can see it when you go to the Dashboard and click on Posts->All Posts. If you “Publish” then it becomes available to the public on the website, although you can still come back and edit it.  
    • We rarely change the date that a post is published. If you want to do that, the publish date is on the Document tab.
  • The editor uses blocks. Generally, when you press the Enter key at the end of a Paragraph, the editor will create a new block for you.  The idea is you then can easily move your blocks around, without concern about what is inside them.  Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to move blocks except by switching to the Code Editor and cutting and pasting the block.

More info later, as I learn.

Hike Day Guidelines

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Springwater Trails Organization

Revised 10/19/2018

Attendance Check In

All hikers are expected to check in prior to each hike.  An attendance sheet will be provided where hikers can

  • All hikers should sign their name and provide their phone #, if they have their cell phone with them, on the attendance sheet.
  • The phone number will be used if the hiker needs to be contacted during the hike.
  • The signature acknowledges an understanding of these guidelines including that the hiker is participating at their own risk. Continue reading →