All Residents of the Town of Springwater are strongly urged to take part in this workshop.

You will learn . . .

• What a Comprehensive Plan really is
• Why Springwater needs one
• Your participation, as citizens of Springwater, is important

Full information is available on the Town of Springwater website.

Come celebrate with Letchworth State Park on Sunday May 3rd from 1 to 4 pm, to honor all the park’s patrons and supporters for voting to help the park win a recent national poll as the #1 State Park in the USA.

Stop at the Glen Iris Inn under the tent for a special sweet treat, raffles for Whitewater Rafting with Adventure Calls and a raffle by Balloons over Letchworth.  Posters, bookmarks and other trinkets will be handed out by The Friends of Letchworth State Park.  Be part of a group photo at 2:30pm and enjoy a special guided hike touring the Glen Iris Grounds at 3:00pm.  Stop by the Park’s Visitor Center for a chance to win a 2 night stay at Letchworth State Park’s Conference Center and get a free bottle of water in the Visitor Center Gift shop courtesy of park concessionaire “The Basics”.

There is no entrance fee on May 3rd.  Handouts are available while supplies last.

Did you enjoy the neat hike on the Bristol Trail on July 19?  Did you notice the work that’s needed to make it into a real neat trail, friendly not only for hikers, but also for the Twisted Branch mega marathon runners on August 29, many of whom will be entering this part of the trail in the dark?

So, grab your work gloves, loppers, weed eaters, bowsaws, etc. and join us on Tuesday, August 4 or, if it’s raining, the following day.  We’re starting at 8 AM, so we can get done before it gets too hot.  We’re meeting at the picnic tables outside Bob and Ruth’s in Naples, to plan our workday.  You can get a cup of joe, or anything else you’d like, from their fine breakfast menu.  Most important, you can use their plumbing facilities, to start out with an empty storage tank.  Donna Noteware is meeting us there, to get us access to the middle of the trail, through Longsdorf Rd.  This is where those omnipresent multiflora roses are constantly encroaching on the trail

Hope to see you there.  Let’s show how nice our organization can make this trail for our hikers and runners.

Springwater Trails will be working with the Nature Conservancy to clean up trails at West Hill Preserve and the FLT Bristol Branch connection to Naples.

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Join the Nature Conservancy on a very challenging 2-mile hike as they descend from one of the highest elevations in Hemlock Lake watershed to the eastern shore of Hemlock Lake. Hikers will get a sneak peek of the Conservancy’s upcoming newest trail system, learn about the history and ecology of the Finger Lakes Region and marvel at the local fall splendor.

Please note: This will be a very challenging hike, traveling over very steep terrain, with little to no maintained trail.

Meet at Rob’s Trail Parking

Please register if you are available.

Saturday, April 23, 2016 at 10:00AM , this will be a short hike, with lots of history about the CCC Camp at Big Bend in Letchworth State Park.  The announcement, states: 3 hour, moderate walking 1/2mile, bring a lunch.  At 10:00AM, the “meet locale” is at Parade Grounds parking lot, and then there will be a carpool to the event site (the Big Bend CCC Camp).

This event  is offered thru the Letchworth State Park hike and activity series.  A very active series that holds numerous hikes and other activities year round, mostly in Letchworth State Park and on the Genesee Valley Greenway State Park (aka GVG -or- GVGSP).  These events are published in The Genesee Naturalist published quarterly.

This event is led by Historian and author Tom Cook, author of a book about the Letchworth Park CCC Camps, and author of other books as well.

Also of note, Tom Cook will be presenting the Avon Preservation and Historical Society (APHS) program about the Genesee Valley Canal (GVC) during which he will particularly highlight the challenging area of canal construction in and surrounding present day Letchworth State Park.  This APHS program is scheduled at 2:00PM on Sunday April 24th, 2016 at the Avon Opera Block second floor meeting room (handicap accessible) located at 23 Genesee St in the Village of Avon (off the west/southwest side of the traffic circle in the Village of Avon that Routes 5&20 navigate through.

Following this presentation, Springwater Trails will be holding a hike (hike meet at ~3:15PM or so) on the former GVC corridor (now the Genesee Valley Greenway State Park aka GVGSP -or- GVG).  This Springwater Trails hike will be on the GVG (spanning miles 12-17 of the GVG) in town of Caledonia which is just across the Genesee River from Avon.  Various length hike groups are planned for on this hike, the shortest of which is suitable for mobility limited hikers (inclusive of wheelchair hikers).

Springwater Trails is the maintenance team for the section of the Bristol Branch of the Finger Lakes Trail between Access Point 3 on Clement Rd and Access Point 6 on NY 245 in Naples.

We need to refresh the blazes between Seman Rd (Access 4) and the blue overlook trail. We also have five or six trees across the trail, and need some general spring cleaning.

Join us at the outside tables next to Bob and Ruth’s restaurant in Naples at 8:00.  We will review our tasks and break into work crews.  Bring gloves, clippers, loppers and if available, a bow saw.

Directions:

From the north come iinto Naples on NY 21. The park is 6.2 miles south of the intersection of NY 64 and NY 21.  Turn right on My Pleasant St across from the intersection of NY 21 and NY 245.

From the west (Springwater and Wayland): Follow NY 21 North from Wayland, through N. Cohocton.  Starting at the NY 21 and NY 15 intersection in Wayland, follow NY 21N for 6.8 miles to N Cohocton.  Turn left to follow NY 21 for 4.5 miles into Naples.  Turn left onto Main St to continue on NY 21 for 1.4 miles. The park is on the left.

It’s spring time and a good time to help clean up our hiking trails before the summer season. This Sunday, Springwater Trails will be cleaning up the Wheaton Hill Trails.There are two loops on each side of the road. We will split into four groups, with each group taking one of the loops.  We will hike the loop, clearing any branches on the trail, clipping anything that is interfering with with hiking the trail, and we will take notes concerning larger items that need to be done on the trail in the future.

Bring gloves to protect your hands, loppers to cut branches and if you have one, a small saw for branches that are too large for the loppers. It’s still early in the spring, so the grass doesn’t need cutting yet, so we are going to skip the weed wackers this time.

Since we expect most of you to want to get back home for additional spring cleaning, we aren’t planning a social to follow trail maintenance. Lunch at Sammy’s may be organized by attendees.

Directions: Wheaton Hill is the first right turn north of the intersection of Rt 15 and Rt 15A in Springwater (0.9 mile north of the intersection).  The trail head is 0.5 miles up Wheaton Hill just before the road turns straight east and heads up the main hill.  More details are on the directions page.

What to bring:

• Gloves and clippers – hand clippers or long handled loppers for larger branches.
• Small bow saw.
• Plastic grocery bags in case you find any litter.
• Water to keep hydrated.

ILMPD 2016 – – – I Love My Park Day, is an initiative of New York State Parks celebrated annually on the first Saturday of May which in 2016 falls on the 7th of May.  It is an effort to improve NYS Parks from a grassroots perspective.  Many NYS Parks hold an ILMPD event and activities may vary greatly from one state park to another.  – – – Checking the NYS Parks website is one way to ascertain where and what some activities will be for this May 7th 2016 event.   two web addresses are:  parks.ny.gov  -and-  www.nysparks.com     Parks and Trails New York ( ptny.org ) also is a website to check for info.

This “event post” speaks specifically to – 2016 ILMPD on the GVGSP with Friends of the Genesee Valley Greenway (FOGVG) who will be working on clearing debris at one specific extant former Genesee Valley Canal (GVC) lock situate on the GVG.  This locale is situate in the southeastern reaches of Letchworth State Park, essentially at the hamlet of Oakland.   Any hikers interested in joining in to clear the extant lock of the former GVC which has now become the GVG should feel free to join in this effort. (Of note: lock 60 is a very short walk in from Oakland Rd, so this is mostly a maintenance event and not much of a hike event.)

Plans are to start the day at 9:30am, working and providing for snacks and breaks as apropos, and work until Noon, with lunch provided to volunteers at 12:30pm in nearby Nunda.  All volunteers are welcome, and if you need to leave early you are welcome to do so, easily accomplished since the ILMPD – Oakland Locks site is very near the car parking area.

ILMPD is coincidentally the same day that one of Springwater Trails’ own, Katherine (Secretary of Springwater Trails, and hiker/hostess extraordinaire), will be honored with an award at Livingston County’s 30th Annual Seniorama 2016, in recognition of the many community volunteer activities she has been involved in throughout many years.  So, … if you wish to attend both the ILMPD event at Oakland locks and the Seniorama event honoring Katherine, you’ll need to make  the ILMPD lunch at Nunda Historical Society pavilion at 12:30pm a quick lunch stop and be on your way by ~12:40PM to make it to Seniorama for the 1:30PM start time.

Below (between the triple arrowheads) is the info copied from the FOGVG website relevant to ILMPD – GVGSP at Oakland Locks.

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2016 I Love My Park Day – Saturday, May 7, 2016 

I Love My Park Day (ILMPD) is an exciting statewide event to celebrate and enhance New York’s state parks and historic sites and bring visibility to the entire state park system and its needs. Volunteers from across the state will participate in cleanup, improvement, and beautification events at New York State parks and historic sites.   
This year the Friends of the Genesee Valley Greenway (FOGVG) have selected one work site rather than three for the Genesee Valley Greenway State Park.  Volunteers will clear the last lock (#60) in the flight of Genesee Valley Canal locks that begin at Oakland Road in Oakland.  We will gather at the work site at 9:30 am.  Parking is available at the parking lot on Oakland Road and along Rt. 436 or Oakland Road.

Volunteers should bring water, gloves, pruning shears or brush cutters, insect repellant, and wear heavy shoes and protective clothing to guard against heavy brush, poison ivy, and ticks.  Snacks will be available and lunch will be provided at about 12:30 pm at the nearby Nunda Historical Society pavilion.  Volunteers will receive ILMPD T-shirts.  If questions: email fogvg@frontiernet.net or call 585-476-2354.

Volunteers are encouraged to register at the PTNY website at http://www.ptny.org/ilovemypark/ or by calling 585-476-2354.  Registering in advance on the website is strongly recommended since it avoids the need to complete Volunteer Service and Photo Release Forms on May 7th.

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hyperlink –  http://nysparks.com/parks/189/details.aspx

The flight of Oakland Locks where lock # 60 is situate is accessed via Oakland Road just north off NYS Rt 436, in the hamlet of Oakland in the Town of Portageville (just a bit west of the Village of Nunda, NY).

Of note: On the 4/24/2016 Springwater Trails hike on the GVG, hikers learned about the former Genesee Valley Canal (GVC) and also learned some about the GVG too, at the AP&HS program presented by Tom S Cook on the GVC at the Avon Opera Block on April 24th, 2016 and then following the presentation we furthered some knowledge on the S/T hike in the Town of Caledonia on the GVG .  In fact in traveling to start points all hikers paused at and one group of hikers started their hike on the GVG at NYS Rt 5 trailhead, which was the same locale used for the 1840 party celebrating the opening of the first section of the Genesee Valley Canal.

Additionally, the following paragraph is copied from The Genesee Naturalist, a quarterly periodical about Letchworth State Park, the Genesee Region and surrounding area.  This ILMPD info is about the broader Letchworth State Park effort for ILMPD, as delineated from the Oakland locks of the GVGSP at the southeastern reaches of Letchworth SP.

“Saturday, May 7th, 2016 at 8:00am  I LOVE MY PARK DAY.  A variety of volunteer projects are offered throughout the day: tree planting, invasive species removal, landscaping, leaf raking an canal locks beautification.  Lunch and programming with Friends of Letchworth.  Trailside Lodge.  Volunteers may preregister at www.ptny.org  (4-6 hours) (led by park staff and others)”

Below (between the triple arrowheads) is the info copied for Letchworth SP – ILMPD (copied from the NYS Parks website).

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Saturday, May 7, 2016 09:00 AM – 02:00 PM
Letchworth State Park

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hyperlink – http://nysparks.com/events/event-results.aspx?pk=79

If perhaps you are interested in ILMPD efforts for another park location – you can start at www.nysparks.com and select the park and then select upcoming events.

Also of note, here are three upcoming hikes on the GVG.  All three are led by NYS Park staff.

* on Saturday April 30th, 2016

Nature Hike from Fowlerville Road to York Landing
Saturday, April 30, 2016 10:00 AM
Genesee Valley Greenway State Park

** on Saturday May 14th, 2016:

Quaker Road to Lehigh Valley Trail (Wegmans Hike Number 4)
Saturday, May 14, 2016 10:00 AM
Genesee Valley Greenway State Park

This hike is located in Monroe County just south of the Village of Scottsville. Take River Road South from the Village, or north from Route 20. Turn east onto Quaker Road (Rt. 251). The trailhead is approximately ¼ mile ahead. Meet at the trailhead. (3.1 miles)

*** on Saturday June 11th, 2016: