Double Rainbow

A shot taken on Monday evening (16 Jun 08).

The rainbow in the upper right corner is quite bright, and the fainter double rainbow can be located by following the cottage's roofline to the south-easternmost peak.

Kudos to Aunt Dut for calling in the Double Rainbow-spotting from her vantage at Sodus Point.

Tanner Scales Lake Bluff

Tanner and I headed out for a quick jaunt under the Waxing Gibbous Moon tonight around 2315. We walked from here along the drying dirt road to its end and then cut eastward across the top of the Bluff. The descent through a few cottage yards onto the Back Beach Rd. went quickly, Tanner putting in about twice as much mileage as he swerved here and there as a Bumbly would.

Tan Boy was hesitant about dropping from the plateau clearing down to the Lake, so I led. The water of Lake Ontario is right up against the clay bank, allowing only a tip-toe path for those in desire of dry feet. We traversed the angled path from East-to-West, my first snowless pass of the Bluff front this year. Tanner did well on the wet clay and large rocks--a plus in my book for a future mountain-climbing dog.

We ascended the Bluff as far West as we could, with a zero-beach opportunity to complete our pass at the bottom. With just the slight assistance of a ledge-clearing push, Tanner's newfound LARGENESS enabled him to climb most all the way himself. Notably along our journey of the night, there is definitely vegetation taking hold at the bottom of the Bluff fill as well as expanding west across the slope. Good news for our children's children's children.

Upon our return to civilization around 2345, Tanner greedily burst into the cottage to the drinking water and lapped up that cool, crisp Huron spring water. His was the look of a satisfied beast.

Spring Peepers

I noticed the sound of Peepers for the first time tonight. They overpowered the sound of the audiobook I was listening to as I rolled along the bottom of Teeple's orchard coming home from my RIT night class, at approx. 2030 hrs.

Fish Story

This evening Tanner and I walked from the cottage to Fowler's Marina and back. We left at around 2220 and returned exactly one hour later.

Crossing the pedestrian walkway over Leroy Island Bridge, we were both startled by a large THWACK just below us. Looking over the railing, I saw a splash and heard a nearby THA-WHAMP. I made out an object just breaking the bay's surface, and pressed the button on my headlamp for illumination.

There--a few yards north of the bridge--were two gargantuan fish, just barely finding room to squeeze in between the shallow bottom and the 23 degree air above. They were distanced nearly thirty feet from each other, however both were easily visible in a sweeping glance. The fish closest to me was probably 3 1/2 feet long. Conservatively I'll say that it was--without a doubt--a minimum of 3 feet long, given the normal magnification effect of a fish under water. And in this case the primordial creature was literally touching the surface, so forget about it.

The 3-plus footer and its fish-friend were too big for Walleye; I'm sure they were both Northern Pike.

Our quick tour of the grounds at Fowler's betrayed the day's ice fishermen, tracks visible from their weighed-down sleds which led from the road all the way to the boat ramp and out onto the ice between Leroy and Eagle Islands.

Lousy Lake Bluff Winter

The weather report for tonight consists of freezing rain transitioning into sleet. It has been a meager Winter here at Lake Bluff, never accumulating more than 4-5 inches of snow depth before the air warms up to melt it all away.

There is slightly more build up of the icy, granular, sleety stuff off the Bluff and away from the wind--Tanner and I noticed this in our nightly walk down the Back Beach Road, to the Logging Trail, briefly south through Teeple's Orchard, down Oak Lane, and back up toward the Bluff.

There is ice frozen on branches and brambles on the State land, the ground layer thin but such a consistency that I actually could have skied on it had I started out with that in mind. Perhaps tomorrow night.

After Hours

Tanner and I made the short drive over to the new Chimney Bluffs State Park tonight, a breath after 2000. I had been there before--on a hot day for a picnic on Jess' birthday a few years ago--but never to hike on the trails. That day, chocolate-covered strawberries had been a tasty idea but an altogether messy situation.

I briefly studied the trail map posted on the park kiosk by headlamp and then drifted toward the "Bluff Trail" without really having decided on it. Normally that trail is 1.25 miles long, terminating at the staircase to Chimney Bluffs. Tonight, however, Tanner and I followed the Bluff Trail for a shorter distance, finding ourselves stranded on a short bluff at the trail's newest terminus. It appears that Lake Ontario's reach has already eroded some of the park's northernmost trail since the development of the West Entrance in 1999.

Traveling the Bluff Trail did require climbing over and under recent blow-down, and in the dark it was difficult to tell if the trail has been maintained at all.

MLK Day Ski at Fair Haven

There were great cross-country skiing conditions on Martin Luther King Day at Fair Haven Beach State Park. The trail we skied is part of the NYS snowmobile trail system.

From the Post-Herald:


From the Wayne County Star: