![Hauling rocks on Stissing Mountain: Volunteers build new trail from Thompson Pond to the fire tower](https://millertonnews.com/media-library/from-left-hem-hanaburgh-viviann-berlinghoff-joe-schmidt-and-brian-sikora-hauling-a-rock-into-place-on-the-thompson-to-tower.jpg?id=48216963&width=980&quality=90)
From left: Hem Hanaburgh, Viviann Berlinghoff, Joe Schmidt, and Brian Sikora hauling a rock into place on the Thompson to Tower trail in Pine Plains.
Photo by Elias Sorich
PINE PLAINS — If you find yourself in the woods of Stissing Mountain, chances are high that you’ll find Pine Plains residents Brian Sikora, Joe Schmidt and Viviann Berlinghoff hauling rocks and shifting soil as they build the newly named Thompson to Tower trail. Spanning 1 mile and over 900 feet of elevation gain, the trail is contiguous with the paths of Thompson Pond, and will take hikers from the trailhead at Lake Road up to the Stissing Fire Tower.
The trail is being constructed as a collaboration among three organizations: the Friends of Stissing Landmarks (FOSL), Dutchess Land Conservancy (DLC) and the Nature Conservancy (TNC). Berlinghoff is the chairperson of FOSL, a nonprofit that formed in the 1990s with the objective of preserving the fire tower, and Sikora and Schmidt are both members. The trail falls on a combination of DLC and TNC conserved land, and according to DLC outreach and engagement manager Brian Straniti, getting the collaboration in motion began with witnessing Sikora’s passionate work.
After meeting at a DLC volunteer event, Sikora invited Straniti to go and see the work he’d already undertaken on FOSL land with the hopes of getting DLC approval for further trail building. When Straniti saw the work already completed, he knew that empowering Sikora and FOSL to build the trail they wanted to build would result in something great: “I instantly went back and called my contact [at TNC] and said, ‘Hey, these guys are just itching to go on doing trail work and the stonework they’re doing is unbelievable. It’s like next-level stuff. Lightning is striking, let’s do this.’”
From there, the partnership fell easily into place, and Straniti began hosting DLC volunteer trail work days in coordination with FOSL. Pairing passionate and invested locals with community-oriented conservation projects is a hallmark of the sort of work Straniti hopes to do in his role, a part of the DLC’s recently developed outreach program.
Now, almost a year in, over 800 combined volunteer hours have been poured into the trail, with Sikora individually putting in over 540 hours of that work. Accordingly, Berlinghoff credited Sikora as a driving energy behind the effort: “He’s the reason that this trail is happening. It’s his total brainchild. He gets us out there, he designs it. His work ethic is amazing.”
On the Aug. 3 volunteer trail work day, the FOSL trio was joined by Straniti, recent Stissing Mountain High School graduate Hem Hanaburgh, and current Stissing Mountain High School student Cat Stoner for some invigorating work about three-quarters of the way up the mountain. As we zoomed to our work spot, the FOSL trio pointed out segments of the trail that were particularly tricky or that they were particularly proud of or that needed more work. It was a vigorous, lush, and well engineered hike: a credit to the many months of work done by Sikora, Schmidt, Berlinghoff, and the volunteers.
For the next three hours, we hauled rocks, smashed rocks, gathered rocks and placed rocks. Interspersed throughout the day’s labors were sprinkles of ecological information from Straniti, who spoke to the particular geography of Stissing Mountain.
While for other trail building efforts, the tasks might vary a bit more, Stissing Mountain is essentially a heap of stones with a relatively thin layer of dirt over it, so trail work means rocks work. It was dirty and it was fun.
For Sikora, there’s nothing he’d rather be doing. An avid hiking enthusiast who has traversed trails up and down the Northeast, the opportunity to imagine and sculpt a trail to be used widely by the public has been a dream come true: “Once you get up here, you don’t want to leave. I love being in nature and doing the work. But it’s also about wanting to leave something for the community that will last beyond me.”
Sikora and crew estimate that the Thompson to Tower trail is about 70% completed, but the trail is essentially usable and is already being enjoyed by local hikers. On Saturday, Sept. 23, all three involved organizations will host a grand opening of the trail, and there will be food, opportunities to learn about local flora and fauna, and the chance to enjoy the fruits of a community effort that a number of dedicated residents have devoted themselves to wholeheartedly.
Before the opening, however, DLC and FOSL will host two more volunteer trail work days. Hours are drop-in, and the next date is Thursday, Aug. 31, from 3 to 6 p.m. Make sure to bring water and good shoes. More details available at: www.dutchessland.org/get-involved/events-and-programs
Maxon Mills in Wassaic hosted a majority of the events of the local Upstate Art Weekend events in the community.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene during the Garden Tour in Amenia.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else. I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and
Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.