Saddlebred Capital of the World

Today, another beautiful day in Kentucky, so we drove south about 20 miles to Shelbyville.

The Saddlebred Capital of the World.

I find it amazing what we find in the center of these small cities.  

Here - a photo of the grandstand for the County Fair.  Across the street from it is ....

 This statue and plaque.  A letterbox was supposed to be located between the two but I couldn't find it.

 After visiting the county fair we located the Elementary School to search for another box.  After reading and rereading the clues, I finally figured out it was THIS many trunked tree I needed to find.

A gallon sized letterbox sack just waiting for me to put a hitch hiker in it. 

 Painted Stone Elementary School.  no comment!!! you just have to know me. 

Our next stop was Lake Shelby Campground - very nice but nothing like I've seen in NY. 

the letterbox Forest Perfumers aka Eau de Forest

Just my kind of house. 

 and my love of outhouse continues.  

This one is part of the clue. 

 

 The Riparian thought he would find Chickens in here for sure. 

And now we are off - down Squire Boone Trail looking for - the Forest Perfumers. 

And here is one not so happy boxer - WHY? because the last box we looked for was a

drive by and he wanted to get out with me.  Sorry Riparian, next time.  It would have
taken me longer to locate the shoes and socks that it did to grab the box, stamp in and replace it.

Boxing in Kentucky

Yes, it has been a while since I last went boxing.  Not sure why but probably a bit of laziness on my part and also partly because - alas I am a fair weather boxer.

But boxing we went on Christmas Day to a small town along the Ohio River in Carrollton.  

We ventured to a Park - General Butler State Park to be exact.  

A beautiful State Park located right in the middle of the town.  Now - how cool is that.

 
General William O. Butler was a member of the famous 'Peace Conference' as an attempt to prevent the Civil War as well as serving as a Kentucky Congressman. A graduate of Transylvania University in Lexington, KY he went on to serve the country in various battles during The War of 1812. One of those battles was The Battle of Frenchtown and The Battle of the River Raisin where he was taken prisoner while fighting the British for control of Michigan and the lower Great Lakes. The failures at this battle led to the phrase "Remember the Raisin" being used as a rallying cry during The War of 1812.

Our search, which was a very round about but nice hike,  

lead us to the observation deck at the park.

 Constructed in the 30's by the CCC and I think it is quite impressive.

The CCC was a  public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. Through out the US we can see what was accomplished during the run of this program.  While social programs aren't always the answer, I do believe during this time frame it was a needed and well run necessity.  Now we have the relief given to those who are job less but there isn't any "work" attached to it.  Just think if those we receive assistance were put to work maintaining our cities and parks --- wow...  we might see some more beautiful stone work, stairs, observation decks and a lot less litter.  

ok off my soap box. :-)

 You can barely make out the Ohio River in the back ground.  

It is also here that the Kentucky River meets the Ohio.

  Love these old Postcards.

 I always find it cool to locate benchmarks - this marks the highest elevation in Carroll County. 

In my years of boxing we have stumble across many including geocaches that we weren't looking for.

 As seen from the trail. After 80 years it is still intact and minus any graffiti. 

One of the reason for the name - Fossil Trail.
Brachiopod fossils galore AND 
the Kentucky State Fossil.

Get this - 24 cottages are available, with some having a private balcony or patio. One, two, three-bedroom cottages with one bath and two or three executive cottages with two baths are available. Tableware, cooking utensils, and linens are provided with fresh linens available daily.  plus The campground offers 111 campsites with utility hookups and grills. Showers and rest rooms are available at two central service buildings and one laundry facility is available.  

You could camp all summer long and still make it to work on time.  

Another Day in Boxing Heaven

I have been trying to visit Pixley Falls (north of Rome, NY) for years, 5 to be exact, but never seem to time it right.  too busy, too cold, rainy.. But today it fit right in to my schedule so I convince my driver to take me north.  He was all to happy to oblige.  Actually, I don't think he likes me roaming the woods alone.  I really don't know why but I welcome his presence any way and I can put him to work.

Today's box was located under this rock - really under.  In fact 

my driver missed it on the first time around the boulder.

Today, we learned the difference between a wooden bridge (it has handrails) 

and a wooden walk way.  This particular one went from three planks wide to two to one.

We were searching for - a "UFO" and an alien - as you can see from the photo.

And this is a bridge -

All in all it was a beautiful day.  With all the rain we have
had the streams were running fast.  We had hopes to make
it to the falls but threat of yet one more rain storm cut our
trip short.

The drive up to the falls was quite a pleasant one.  Even
though the leaves have all fallen and all that was left were the bronze leaves of the beech trees it was still a very nice day for
site seeing.  Made me wish I could have continued up the gorge and over to the Tug Hill Plateau. That will just have to wait for another day.

Black River Canal Wanderings

Autumn is my favorite time of the year.  My husband just can't understand why. 

It is warmth and comfort.  It is quiet, it is harvest time.  Perhaps it is because I 

remember all the wonderful times I had with my mom canning tomatoes, 

peaches, pickles and freezing and putting by foods for winter. 

The water here was gently flowing past and was so serene and peaceful

 as it carried fallen leaves to the Black River Canal. 

 I had a break in between flu clinics Wednesday and planned to visit the 

Boonville cemetery but found this "UN" public highway to explore.

About half way down the trail was a bridge that spanned a side spur. 

 And on the rail was this sign.  Apparently locals realized the danger of tampering 

with the flood gates below but shooting bb's at the sign was ok.

The water was flowing well.

I knew I wanted to hide my "box" somewhere in this place but wasn't

 quite sure where so I continued my travels. 

The reds of maples is always a nice sight.

At the end of the trail I found these posting quite interesting.  The one in the middle warns 

against trespassing.  I assumed that meant past the barricade where the nicely graveled path

 was as what else would it be referring to? So that meant that I was - horrors - trespassing.  

But then again -  why would I clean up after my pet if I was - trespassing?

And in case you might want to know what NYSCC stands for (as I did) here you go.
NYSCC - very nice web page.

And if it was not a public road - what was it.  Perhaps a public path or maybe a private road.  

WOLF TREES

Something that always excites me in the woods are the BIG trees. These trees are typically referred to as Wolf Trees.  While the tree in the photo doesn't appear to be all that large it was.  You could probably stand three people shoulder to shoulder in front of it and still see trunk on either side. 

A wolf tree is an unusually large tree which dominates the surrounding environment because of its size. Wolf trees tend to have a very large crown, and to be heavily branched. They are also usually older than the surrounding trees, although this is not always the case. Many natural forests have wolf trees, and these trees can also be spotted in settings where people are taking a relatively hands-off approach to forest management.

Classically, a wolf tree is a tree which managed to survive when an older stand of trees was damaged or significantly depleted, making it at least a generation older than the surroundingtrees. For example, a single tree might be left after clearing to create a meadow, a stand of trees might be damaged by fires or storms leaving one or two survivors, or a stand might be heavily logged, leaving only a few trees behind. In these cases, the elimination of other trees allows awolf tree to grow big and strong, because there is no competition, and younger generations grow up around it.

 Finally decided on where to put my letterbox.  On the north west side of the spur.

 This is where the fun begins.  Cause I am alone in the woods, I can see to walk down hill with my trifocals on and can't see with them off.  The side of the falls is a tad steep and of course slippery from all the rain we've had.  But I VERY carefully made my way to the bottom and started my search.  There at the bottom was a HUGE erratic that was a perfect landmark for my plant.  There would be no missing it.

 SMALL AND QUAINT CEMETERIES

Steuben Corner's Cemetery

All the necessary equipment to tend a loved ones grave site. 

On the way home I passed this small family cemetery and just had to turn around and check it out. 

 Here lives the Brooker family from the 19th century.  Amazing how well cared for this 

little out in the middle of nowhere cemetery was. 

And so ended my solo letterboxing day.  Tomorrow I have two more flu clinics in Rome .....

I think a visit to Pixley Falls might be in order. 

Columbus Day Boxing - without the rain

Seems every Columbus Day weekend we get to go letterboxing it rains - usually torrents.  

But this year we were blessed with some of the most beautiful weather I can remember in a long time. 

 I used to participate in an apple fest with my handmade soap so I remember some weekends that were so rainy (thanks to a hurricane one year) that we were inches, many inches,

 deep in mud and we were under tents.

Our first stop - a small neglected cemetery on Bingley Road. 

 Standing like sentries at the entry were two very old trees with holes in them begging for a photo.  

First find

Can't go hiking with out checking out the insect life.  

This lady was a a good 1.5 inches.  

Check out her ovipositor, we would have captured her but
The Lacustrain already had one in his collection.

Sirex Woodwasp - Sirex noctilio

,,/

The Sirex woodwasp, Sirex noctilio, a Eurasian native, was first discovered in New York in 2004, 

in the City of Fulton, Oswego County. This was the first North American discovery of this exotic, 

invasive pest that is one of the top 10 most serious forest insect pest invaders worldwide. 

This pest has caused extensive losses to (non-native) pine plantations across the

 Southern Hemisphere, in Australia, New Zealand, Chile and South Africa, and

 has no known, native natural controls.

Why we don't transport flora and fauna

Our next stop was the link trail also on Bingley Road. 

 If you ever get the chance to, these trails are a wonderful place to explore - full of history.

Not a very good photo but I think you get the idea - those are stalactites  

and they aren't underground or in a cave.

Seems I am always leading the pack.  Don't know if they are slow or I'm just in a hurry. 

One of the beautiful stone structures we found.  The trail crosses over the top of the bridge.

We ended up at a cemetery in Cazenovia.  I was surprised at how large it is. This was an 8 stamp series - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We only found 6 of the little men, as one, which was placed under a crypt, went missing soon after it was placed.  With all the dirt around the hole we are sure that Mr. Woodchuck wasted no time in transplanting that dwarf somewhere else. 

Some of the stone work we came upon as we walk around. 

Celtic Crosses on a Hill.

And off in a corner was this pond with a bridge going to an island 

- we thought just a bit odd  and out of place - 

but under the bridge was supposed to be Snow White .

The Lacustrian is quite persistent in his hunting.  

He was determined to find Miss White.  

I think she might have been hiding in the pond weeds.