Day 187, Sun. Oct. 7, 2018--Lighthouses, Old Theatres, Apples, Lake Ontario Cliffs. (and apples!)

Yes that second 'apples' was redundant and deliberately so New York state is a national leader in apple production...
"Apples are big business in New York. It’s true – they grow more apples than any state (other than Washington) and offer more varieties than any state. According to the USDA, New York produces almost 30 million bushels annually. New York State apples are grown on about 55,000 acres, in six major production districts around the State:"

• Champlain Valley
• Eastern Hudson Valley
• Western Hudson Valley
• Central
• Lake Country (where we are!)
• Niagara Frontier
•  

Wherever we have gone from the campground we see the apple orchards. Everything is in full motion, in the orchards, in the warehouses and in the markets .

That included some pear orchards as well.

The small trees and espaliered ones are very popular now.

One of the 50,000 acres in NY

 A trip to Sodus Point borought many vistas , and though the wind was blowing off the lake something fierce at 57 F, there was much to be seen. Sodus Bay is the largest bay on Lake Ontario  being 3 miles wide and 5 miles long.

The old Sodus Bay light/site goes back to 1825.

The Cliffs on Lake Ontario south shore.

Breakwater waves roll in

The front light at Sodus Bay is on a long walkway.

Second to the last is a few photos of an American Heritage  symbol...The Erie Canal, which runs through the town of Lyons  about 5 miles from our campground. This is lock number 27 and is still used some. It is thoroughly documented and its history is valuable.

The Flint Creek  at Lyon feeds the Erie Canal. There is one more creek down stream.

Lock Number 27.

This is the lock looking downstream.

Upstream the next lock is 12 miles. Note old footpath on right bank.

Lock gates are impressive considering their age.  (Redone for sure)

Stats on the locks.

A few final photos wrapped up an overcast but pleasant day.

One of many homes in the Sodus, NY area

A good decor at autumn.

More of those woodpiles ready to go.

The historic Ohmann Theatre in Lyons NY (See below)

The Ohmann Theatre was built in 1915 by Burt Ohmann in Lyons, New York. Burt operated the theatre through the 1930's. His sons Robert and Myron took over the management of the theatre together through the following twenty years. Robert continued to run the theatre as the sole proprietor and theatre manager until the late 1980's. In 2005 his oldest son Bob brought the theatre back to the Ohmann family with a complete reconstruction.
Through its long and proud history the Ohmann Theatre has been a live theatre house, the site of vaudeville and musical entertainment, and even a venue for amateur boxing. Of course, the movie screen was always there, lighting the faces of the finest actors and the most touching cinematic moments, from the earliest silent films through the talkie era and beyond.
Now back in the Ohmann family and renovated to modern standards but still with the old-fashioned charm and character of the original house, the lights are shining brightly at the Ohmann Theatre again.
“Mary Poppins Returns” will be shown in Dec (new release). Premiere movies are shown every few weeks.

Day 186, Sat. Oct 6, 2018, From Watertown, NY to the Finger Lakes. Near Cooperstown!

Yes, Cooperstown is just up the road a bit, and we came around the SE corner of Lake Ontario to get here.  Back roads, (well state highways) small farms, miles of soy beans ready to harvest, old barns, many boats in dry dock (must be winter is coming) and preparations for the hunting season. All signs that the season is changing and these folks know what winter is like. Here are a few past years in snowfall in the cities (not small towns). Somewhat surprising that Syracuse is on top most years. We hear so much about Buffalo's heavy snows that we forget about total.

***See below.

We stayed near the lake shore and of course ran through some of the small towns that are there.  They were :  Southwick Beach State Park and two other State Parks, New Haven, Scriba, Oswego (on the lake) , Red Creek, the Lake Shore Marshes (which we hope to visit) , Alloway, Lyon and the campground here in Cheerful Valley.

This route along Hwy 3 and Hwy 104 were slow paced and peaceful  with little heavy traffic except in some of the towns. I could drive 40-45 mph and not worry about traffic backing up behind me. When t did I found a spot to pull over and wait.

Ruth and I parked for lunch in the parking lot of St Michael's Catholic Church across the street. Again , quiet and peaceful.

St Michaels' Catholic Church in Lyons NY

We ate our lunch inthe church's shadow ...almost.

We are now in a Private Park RV (Cheerful Valley)  which is full for what they are calling the "Columbus Day weekenders" here. There were games for the children, a firetruck ride, and tonight the "boom boom"of the D J band playing for the dancers.  We can hear it!

Our site was not permanent until I called wheni noticed a sewer was there,even thoughthey told me it was not. We were going to move tomorrow to another site, but now we will stay and unhook in the AM. YEA!

 We were scheduled to only have this site for one night. We would then move to a full hookup site as we were told this was only water and electricity. When I went out this evening to pour out some waste water from the hot dogs, I found that we had a sewer here at the site. So I called the office and sure enough, it was an error and we do not have to move. We had left the truck hooked up to the trailer so will change that in the AM.

There are a number of wildlife reserves and WMA's here in the area, so we should catch some migration of the Geese if nothing else. We shall see.  Happy weekend to you  that are following along. Remember to put in your guess for the number of birds Ruth  and I have seen on the trip. Win a valuable birding book to improve your birding skills., The entry deadline is the 15th of October when we should be home.

***Snow totals
 Season

	Albany	Binghamton	Buffalo	Rochester	Syracuse	City With Most Snow
2000-01	77.1	112.6	158.7	133.0	191.9	Syracuse
2001-02	47.4	63.5	132.4	58.1	59.4	Buffalo
2002-03	105.4	117.6	111.3	135.2	153.2	Syracuse
2003-04	65.1	106.4	100.9	125.6	181.3	Syracuse
2004-05	75.9	106.5	109.1	113.6	136.2	Syracuse
2005-06	30.2	74.9	78.2	73.9	124.6	Syracuse
2006-07	45.9	78.6	88.9	107.2	140.2	Syracuse
2007-08	61.1	70.7	103.8	106.0	109.1	Syracuse
2008-09	52.6	73.3	100.2	103.7	149.6	Syracuse
2009-10	45.4	81.4	74.1	90.1	106.1	Syracuse

Day 185, Friday Oct. 5, 2018, From Lake Champlain, along the St.Lawrence River, to Lake Ontario.

That's some very powerful waterways in one day.  It all began with  a Ferry ride from S.Hero (Grand Island VT) across the Lake Champlain to the New York state side at Plattsburgh.  The ferry ride had us against the bulkhead and behind a Fed Ex truck so we could not even get out to take a photo so this one will have to do of the loading.

Through the windshield does  not take the best photo. The Ferry loading.

Homes on the New York side from the Ferry (Lake Champlain)

The plan was to follow the routes as close to the St Lawrence River as possible so we could see the activities and scenery along the way. We did that and at one point missed a route that would have taken us inland, so it worked out  that we saw MORE of the St. Lawrence River than planned.  We did see the St. Lawrence and at this point it is not as wide as it is when we were up in Quebec near Riviere du Loup.

Even though it seems strange, The St Lawrence River has bays that jut into the land. Here is one.

Taking photos at 55 mph it is hard to know where the "openings" are. Here Ruth did get a good pic of the River  between some homes.

 As we moved inland, the colors and small farms between the towns and "corners" were constant.  They pump your gas for you in NY state and I had not experienced that since Oregon which does the same.  There were some colors and the roads were excellent.

Some color on Hwy 11 Northern  New York

From the speeding truck.

And a true red here.

And again , the width of the St. Lawrence River is shown easily.

We did see some birds today and the total was 17,  ALL from the truck while it was moving.  We are getting better at that and at times we cannot tell  the ID so we just cross it off the list. Significant ones seen on the road (at 55 mph) were: Two KESTRELS, RED TAILED HAWK, RED WING BLACKBIRD -5,(long time no see) , RUSTY BLACKBIRD,  (new species) and  many of the same ones we have been seeing.

We did splurge and stopped for lunch at a Burger King on the edge of Massena. Massena is an old town on the St. Lawrence but not founded until 1805. (Some towns on Lake Erie were founded well  before that.) It was originally a farmers community with cheese and butter the main products, and as they needed blacksmiths, woodworkers and haberdasheries, all came along soon after. A power plant was built early on the Grass River and still provides power for the town.  ALCOA aluminum plant is the OLDEST OPERATING  Aluminum plant in the world.  It hired some 800 workers until the auto industry crashed in 2000's and has employed half of that since then. Its present population is 17,000. That is the exact size of Colchester VT.

One of the unique features of Hwy 11 are the long stone fences .This one was about 1 mile long .

Some high spots have wind generators on the down slopes of the Adirondacks which we "skirted".

 Electric Grid Mix in New York
Natural Gas: 37.77%
Nuclear: 32.97%
Hydro: 22.40%
Wind: 3.08%
Biomass: 1.78%
Other Fossil: 0.71%
Coal: 0.60%
Oil: 0.51%
Solar: 0.17%

So you can see that NY state has a very good start on green energy. Check some other states to see the differences. California and Arizona (sunny states) are interesting to see the solar that is used. ( I had some stats on the blog from SW AZ. Late May?)

Good roads in "Upstate" New York.

Early in the day on Hwy 11 westbound. (The shadows tell)

Just before I put my chip back into my camera, this showed up out the window. It was an ordinary sunset, but it changed in a hurry.

Day 184, THurs. Oct 4, 2018-- Wrap up in Vermont...Birds, Cider and a Rainbow.

The weather prediction was rain in the afternoon (it didn't happen) so we moved out in the morning, covering some of the same ground we did in previous days, but with a twist.

We had not been into Colchester or Essex, another nearby town , so this was a good time to do that. Both towns are small, quite typical of small town Vermont, with the city's main building (city hall, historical society, police, etc) all situated in the same block in town.  These older towns have grown but started in a concentrated area.  Colchester is a town of 17,000, but there are so many trees in the neighborhoods you would never see the homes. Named for the Earl of Colchester, it is the second most populous TOWN in the state of Vermont.   Pre-Columbian natives lived here 2,000 years ago. The suburb of Winooski Village seceded from it ,causing it to lose about 1/2 of its base.
(** If you wish to see a very confusing election for merger , look up' Essex VT' and see how they merged and then "unmerged" all in the same year. )

A short drive to Sand Bar beach again brought few birds but the wind was now blowing at 30 mph across the Lake (Champlain) and the birds are not dumb.  We continued on to seek some doughnuts at Hackett's Orchard and some cider to take along on the rest of the trip. The owner was taking a load of school children on a hay ride in a wagon.

Tis the season.

The children were excited for the ride in the wagon through the orchards.

From there we meandered on side roads starting to pick up some birds. We actually ended up with as many as the day before (21) and that included: BALD EAGLE (young one), GREAT EGRET , GREAT BLUE HERON,  LINCOLN SPARROW, BLACK CAPPED CHICKADEE, CHIPPING SPARROW, NORTHERN FLICKER, DOWNY WOODPECKER ( long time no see) , BLACK DUCK, MALLARD, PIED BILLED GREBE, WOOD DUCK, and hordes of  CANADIAN GEESE in the fields resting or eating . The Geese were very active , flying over in huge flocks, or resting in fields of corn. In one field the farmer had deliberately left the corn on the ground after harvesting, The Gees appreciate that both in the fall and the spring.

In the distance the Geese are resting

Better view of them resting.

Then we got serious about seeing both the apples and the barns in the area. Ruth is always looking for another barn to photograph and she spotted two today , only one was "photo class".

These are probably Ruby Mac.

A row of Ruby Macs with wonderful yield.

One of Ruth's finds. (Side view)

Front view.

Then came the surprise of the day. As we were looking for a spot along the water to eat lunch, we saw these hundreds of birdhouses on trees all painted many bright colors. There were hundreds of them. Here... let the photos tell the story.

This was the view as we approached the woods.

A view through the woods.

The reason for it in the first place.Very practical.

Part of the woods that was covered with bird houses (Swallows)

BE SURE TO READ THE "STORY" ABOVE.
That ended the day on a high note for sure. We returned to the trailer in the wind but were in the middle of supper, when the rain showers came . Just during the rains, however, the sun came out near sunset so it was very low in the sky. I ran to the door with my camera and there was  a rainbow!  Just after that the sun set so you get both of them tonight!

Sunset after the rain.

Rainbow during the rain. From the trailer door.

Tomorrow we head for NY state taking the ferry across Lake Champlain to Plattsburgh and then around by the St Lawrence River  to Watertown, NY,  area on Lake Ontario. See you then.

Day 183, Wed. Oct 3, 2018, A "loop" around the Lake Champlain Islands, and a NWR (Missisiquoi)

Actually it is not possible to take a "loop" around the Islands, but one can make a "loop" and include the Islands on the "loop". We did just that. The first target was the National Wildlife Refuge named Missisiquoi.  It is located a few miles south of the Canadian border, and a few mile east of the state of New York. 

This gives a general idea of the Refuge. We stayed on the roads  and crossed to US 2 at the middle  left road.

 Missisiquoi is a 5,000 acres of wetlands and marsh. bisected by the river of the same name. Besides the water ways, and islands  along the river there are 5 trails in the NWR that give access to the Refuge. We did stop by three of those trail heads to scope out the areas. We made a stop at the Refuge HQ where we met Lisa a 20 veteran of the Refuge. She gave us valuable information as to where we might easily access the marsh called Stephen Young, and a marsh further down the road (A WMA) called Mud Creek . The former was a fine marsh where we did see  NORTHERN HARRIER, BROWN HEADED COWBIRDS (A flock), EASTERN PHOEBE, SWAMP SPARROW, GREAT BLUE HERON and a  GREATER YELLOWLEGS.   It was a very beautiful marsh, with plenty of natural hiding places for wildlife of all kinds. the sparrows and shorebirds had a free reign of the place.
 

Ruth spotted this birdhouse in the middle of the vines.

The Stephen Young Marsh from the center .

An Osprey nest in the Young Marsh.

One of the five trails is the RR trail (ahead on the left)

In order to get to the other good possibilities of birding there we drove to Buck's Bend Rd. where there is a boat launch a mile in from the highway. On the way there were birds along the roadside. A wonderful alder row was one of the places we saw SLATE COLORED JUNCO, CHIPPING SPARROW, NORTHERN FLICKER, DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANT ( on the river) , AMERICAN ROBIN, RED BELLIED WOODPECKER (long time since seeing this one),and across the road went a  RUFFED GROUSE. The TURKEY VULTURES were active today.

Mud Creed WMA . Very quiet except for the Great Blue Heron we scared away on arriving.

The Missisiquoi River at Buck's Bend.

Explanation of the jeep trail.

Our final drive was to US 2 north of the Islands and then through the islands with stops here and there for observations along the waters edge and some stops for barns that Ruth had previously scoped out for possible photos. The sun was not out but it was lighter than the day before.
We did not pick up any birds even at the Sand Bar WMA on the way home.

Some other photos from the day.

Chalk up another barn for Ruth

Many piles of wood, some stacked, for winter.

The last photo of the drive. A Great Blue Heron by the Lake shore.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a rainy day , so we do not have a plan yet.