1533 SUNDANCE TRAIL LAKEVIEW, NY 14085 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED FOOTHILLS TRAIL CLUB TALES MARCH 2018 Visit and us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FoothillsTrailClub Officers and Board Members President, Donna Flood Program Chair, Weekend Hikes, Kathy Foote Yahoo! 5010 Salt Road, Clarence, NY 14031 349 Wimbledon Court, West Seneca 14224 759-6442 675-3989 [email protected] [email protected] Join the Foothills Yahoo Group Email List to learn of hiking and trail Vice President, Claudia Lawler Publicity Chair, Ellen Banks work opportunities. This is an email 105 Nadine Drive, Cheektowaga 14225 144 Cottonwood Drive, Williamsville 14221 group restricted to Foothills 572-8497 435-5105 members and the only emails you [email protected] [email protected] will receive will be from members of Treasurer, Jim Beardsley TALES Editor, Carol Kobrin the Foothills Yahoo Group. If you are 83 Bryant Street, Apt 9D, Buffalo 14209 6506 Amy Lane, Lockport 14094 a member of Foothills but not of the [email protected] 912-0370 Yahoo Group, it is very easy to join. [email protected] Secretary, Wendy Edson 209 Maple Avenue, Hamburg 14075 Trail Steward Coordinator, Don Bergman Send an email to foothillstrailclub- 512-0124 5383 Tonawanda Creek Road, NT 14120 [email protected]. You [email protected] 625-8746 will receive an email back with [email protected] instructions. If you have any difficulties, please call Sally Archivist, Kirk Doyle Trails Administrator, Mike Schlicht 5205 Glendale Avenue, Hamburg 14074 30 Temple Drive, Buffalo, 14225 Hardenburg at 716-392-3019 or 627-4199 316-4388 Jeanne Moog at 716-652-6190. [email protected] [email protected] Circulation Manager, Barbara Morrisey Three-Year Director, Sharon Kelly 1533 Sundance Trail, Lakeview 14085 2905 Four Rod Road, East Aurora 14052 627-3878 655-5248 Disclaimers [email protected] [email protected] As a courtesy to our members, End-To-End Coordinator, Shari Senefelder Three-Year Director, Dee McCarthy w e f r e q u e n t l y p r o v i d e 27 Patricia Drive, Tonawanda 14150 [email protected] information about events 694-4346 s p o n s o r e d b y o t h e r Three-Year Director, Marty Ruszaj Membership Chair, Roy Tocha 82 Misty Lane, East Amherst 14051 organizations. Unless published 11 N. Eaglecrest Drive, Hamburg 14074 689-4177 in the Foothills Trail Club [email protected] [email protected] schedule, these events are not FTC outings. They are merely Program Chair, Tuesday Saunters, Gayle Syty One-Year Director, Lori Chiarilli items of interest and anyone 70 Pheasant Run Road, Amherst 14228 [email protected] wanting more information should 691-6750 c o n t a c t t h e a p p r o p r i a t e One-Year Director, Sally Hardenburg organization. Program Chair, Wed Mini Hikes, David Wittmann 123 Ranch Trail West, Williamsville 14221 109 Nason Parkway, Lackwanna 14218 392-3019 823-8156 [email protected] TALES is a bi-monthly newsletter devoted to informing club members about club business, activities and hikes, as well as about environmental issues related to trails and hiking, and other items of interest to hikers. If you have an article of interest, please send it to the TALES editor. Please keep your submissions to a reasonable length and write or type clearly. If an article cannot be included in an issue, every effort will be made to put it in the next issue. Submitted articles may be edited if necessary. Please remember to include your name and contact information with your submitted material. Deadline for the May issue is April 1st. TALES MARCH 2018 NEWS FROM THE FOOTHILLS COUNCIL The FTC Board of Directors met on January 29th. Meeting highlights include: • Nominations are being accepted for open positions. President Donna Flood announced that she will step down at the end of her term. • Marty Ruszaj will present a program at the Annual Banquet on local outdoor Meetup groups and how Foothills can increase membership, hike participation, and other benefits by coordinating with Meetups. • Trail Work ahead….there is much trail work to be done in Spring 2018. Check out the March/April hike schedule for trail work days, and watch for mail in Yahoo Groups for specific information. Its Time to Renew Your Membership Remember to Respect Landowner Rights Hello Foothills, March 31st is approaching. Another membership year has nearly passed and the renewal form Stay on the trail, don’t take shortcuts, don’t is included in this TALES (page 5). If your renewal is due, walk on crops, don’t build fires or camp on please renew using the renewal form or via Paypal. Some private land, NEVER EVER enter of you have an automatic renewal with Paypal, so you do landowner buildings…..and don’t park too not need to do anything. If you would like to know if your close to driveways. m e m b e r s h i p i s l a p s i n g , c o n t a c t m e a t [email protected] . Your membership dues supports the Conservation Trail, Wintering Away ?? multiple hikes scheduled every week all over WNY, and the TALES which is published six times a year. The dues If you are a member or landowner who is spending the also pays for insurance and supports trail maintenance winter months elsewhere, let Barb Morrissey know supplying signs, paint, tools and publicity and promotion. and she will make sure the TALES is mailed to your Thank You and Happy Trails, Roy winter address. Contact Barb at 716-627-3878. Thank Yo, Thank Yo, Thank Yo Throughout the years, we have had donors who have consistently made donations to the FLTC with specific instructions that their donations go directly to Foothills Trail Club. We would like to take this opportunity, long overdue as it may be, to thank Quinn Wright, Mary Domanski, Sue Collier, and Anonymous for continuing to promote the FTC and Conservation Trail. Their generous contributions have amounted to more than $2300 for trail work. We are so appreciative of their support. Foothills Trail Club www.foothillstrailclub.org !2 TALES MARCH 2018 Annual Dinner Meeting Friday, April 13, 2018 Banchetti’s Banquet Facility and Grove 550 North French Road Amherst, NY 14228 Please join us for our Annual Dinner Meeting. The evening will provide a great opportunity to visit with members you’ve hiked with, meet new members and make new friends. There will be a 50/50 raffle. We are also seeking donations for door prizes. If you wish to donate a gift to be raffled off at the dinner, please feel free to being one that evening, or get it to anyone on the Board who you know is attending, or to Claudia Lawler who can bring it for you. 6:00 PM Social Hour and Cash Bar 7:00 PM Dinner 8:30 PM Meetup Group Presentation by Marty Ruszaj, followed by Meeting and Elections Chef Salad, Relish Tray, Vegetable Platter, Dinner Rolls & Butter, Chef’s Seasonal Vegetable Medley, Penne Broccoli Alfredo, Roasted Baby Red & White Potatoes, Bourbon Chicken, Stuffed Roast Pork Loin. Coffee, Tea and Ice Cream. Gluten free meals are available – please indicate if you need gluten free. The cost is $25.00 per person. Reserve now – the deadline is Wednesday, March 22, 2017 _______________________________________________________________________________________ Send this form with a check payable to: Foothills Trail Club Mail to: Claudia Lawler, 105 Nadine Drive, Cheektowaga, NY 14225 NAME: _______________________________________ # ATTENDING: __________ TELEPHONE: _________________________________ GLUTEN FREE: __________ Foothills Trail Club www.foothillstrailclub.org !3 TALES MARCH 2018 You Should Be A Member of the Finger Lakes Trail Conference The letter below was written by Gary Mallow, President of the Cayuga Trails Club. A worthwhile read. Support for the FLTC and the branch trails is vitally important. Please encourage your hiking friends who have not yet joined FTC and FLTC to do so. When I started seriously hiking in the Tompkins County work crews every summer to build bridges, lean-tos, rustic trail area, I was clueless… all right, my fans will now be snickering that I stairways, puncheons and other trail structures. The under-the-radar am STILL clueless about a lot of things. What I am specifically work is done in meetings with DEC foresters and private referring to is my lack of knowledge about trails in our area. landowners. A healthy, working relationship with the folks who own Who owned the land I was hiking on, and who cut the private land, and with our public servants who manage public land, trails? Was it some anonymous public agency that created them out is key to the future of the trail. of a sense of public service? Who kept the blazing maintained, the None of us trail maintaining and hosting clubs would have trailheads open, the brush cut back, the bridges in good repair, and anything except crude maps of our own sections without the the dead-fall cleared? Who built the huts (I would not have called extensive mapping program provided by the FLTC. And if we pay them “lean-to's,” as that was not a word in my lexicon then), and attention, our maps, both local and distant, can be up to date within kept them maintained? It never occurred to me that many of the moments! Fun things like spring and fall weekends are organized trails I hiked on were private lands that I hiked with the generous plus county hike series offer easy ways to handle the logistics of permission of landowners, but even if I did recognize it, I wouldn't transportation along the trail in counties far from home.