Another snowy Sunday

Yet more snow!
For those looking for trail and parking conditions: we run on shovel power around here, so right now we have one parking spot open at the Cascading Waters trailhead. We will endeavor to get more open as the day goes along. Thus far (posting this at 11 am), there has not been activity from Olean to Cataract; the Cascades trail that switchbacks up the falls has also not been active. I can't speak for the Newton trailhead (farther up Cataract), but that's an easier slope if you're going to be breaking new ground.
I've had no reports from those coming in from Boyton Park.
Please recall that the other end of the Cataract trail on Olean is closed.

2 pm update: two parking spaces now open at the trailhead. The trail has been broken in with snowshoes as far as the bridge; the trail has been broken in by hikers (and dog) up the hill, as well.

Snowy morning

The very last batch of snow we got overnight was "sticky" snow, so the woods this morning are a winter wonderland, as the snow has outlined all of the trees.

I see that at least one hiker has been through already on the Cascades Trail up from Olean. Do know that though the top is a pristine coating of white, that wet glop that fell through most of yesterday is still underneath. Be sure your footwear is up for several inches of water!

At nine am, it is 35 degrees and rising.
84% humidity and falling
The barometer is 29.26 inches of mercury and rising under clear blue skies.
Very bright and sunny. All that snow is falling off of branches this morning: watch your head!

WE ARE OPEN!

Thanks to more than one generous neighbor (you guys are great!), we now have a CLEARED parking area. You can park on the left as you turn into the driveway.
PLEASE be thoughtful in your parking so we can get as many people in as possible.

We've already had more than one hiker come through on the Cascades Trail. This is a light fluffy snow, so it is fun snowshoeing, but it takes some energy to cut a new path.

Enjoy the trails and send photos, if you would!

Happy hiking!

The snow has ended

The clean up is starting.

The end of the Cascades Trail at Olean.

Cascading Waters sign on Olean Street

Yes, the fire danger DOES remain NONE.

Here's the same shot from yesterday from Olean up the Cascades Brook to the Lodge. Now with snowpiles of about three feet at the street.

Cooks' Pond at Cascades Brook

And the trail from Olean to Cataract is broken. After that, you're on your own! We have not YET gotten the parking area open, but we are working on it! If you're within walking distance, come by. We will post as soon as the parking area is open.

Hike through the Cascades

A few photos from a walk back from West Tatnuck School yesterday...

This first is actually in Cascades West. There's a little corner of Cascades West that you cross when you go from Worcester Public Schools property (which much of that red maple swamp down the hill is) to Cascades Park.

Here's that stream you cross on rocks:


Here's the top of the Cascades

And the shot you're more used to, from Cataract Street.

Parking area CLOSED Monday

If you came by earlier today, you may have found cones up, blocking off the driveway. This afternoon, the backhoe was dropped off, and they'll be starting the work regrading the driveway tomorrow. Thus we ask that if you come by to hike tomorrow, please do not use the parking area at the Lodge: please park on Cataract, or down the street at the other end of the Cascades trail.
Many thanks! And enjoy tomorrow's fine weather!

Warmer and thus busy

It's warmer today (at (9:30, we're breaking 35 already), and thus we're seeing lots of animals out. We woke up to a flock of robins (no, they don't all go south), the squirrels have been raiding the birdfeeder, and we threw some seed out for the chickadees, nuthatches, and such.
The big excitement of the morning, though, was a spotting of the local piliated woodpecker. Big guy (about the size of a crow) over on the entrance to the Cascades trail!
Expect all this sun to soften up the snow, so it will be tough slogging on the trails.

Warm!

We hit the mid-fifties here today; we hope you got out to enjoy them!
We're just back from a tramp through the slush: up the Holden trail to the far end of the Cascades trail, up the Cascades trail to the Newton trail, and back down to Cataract Street. It's clear that there's been much traffic out on the trails: everything is slush covered, muddy, and/or downright wet. You'll want the waterproof boots, and if you're heading out tomorrow, expect that all to be crunchy!
The brook is running at 4.5 inches under ice. The Cascades are well worth a trip by; they're frozen, but running underneath.
Enjoy the warmth!

Snowing...a bit

We've got a storm front moving in, so those spots that have cleared might just possibly be white by this afternoon.
The stream, which was up to 8.2 inches on Tuesday, has fallen back down again. The Cascades are running nicely, though; come by!

The trails in the higher traffic areas are slick, as the trampled snow has frozen solid. If we get some substantial snow cover, it should take care of that, but in the meantime, take care out there.

At 9:30 it is 34 degrees and rising
The barometer is at 29.18 and steady under cloudy skies
The fire danger is LOW

Sorry for the lack of posting this week: we've had stomach flu compounded by a failing water heater!

Report from the trails!

Intrepid hiker Tina Zlody (and her furry companions) have been out on the trails this afternoon, and sent in a report.
While we've seen people up and down our little section of the Cascades (blue circles) trail, they mostly have been breaking off to head up or down Cataract Street. Tina continued up the hill on Cascades, breaking the trail (go, Tina!). From there she followed the Silver Spring trail (yellow rectangles) up to where it heads up the hill in Boyton Park, then turned around and retraced back down.
She reports that the snow has covered the parts where it had gotten icy, so it's much less slippery going than it was earlier in the week.
It is possible, by the way, to pull into the lower lot right now, 'though it has not been cleared.
Thanks, Tina! And know that we always appreciate hearing from those out on the trails!

Sunny

At 9 am, it is 64.6 degrees and rising
68% humidity and steady
30.03 inches of mercury and steady
The stream is at 4.2 inches
It's weather that feels a bit more like September than July, one might say.
We've had no rain recently (next rain looks like Thursday night).
There's been a bit of traffic on the trail, some dogs, some bikes.

Trail report in today

We just had a visit from one of our intrepid summer interns who was out on the trails checking things over. Aside from a sudden trash appearance at the north end of the Cascades trail (any chance you guys down the street to get to that?) and the omnipresence of...evidence of dogs, things look pretty good. We have not yet gotten to the River Trail; we're planning a work project on that.

At 9 am, it is 56.3 degrees and steady
97% humidity and steady
30.03 inches of mercury and steady
Raining

Trail report in

A hiker stopped by yesterday to let us know that in his travels through Cascades East, Cascades West, and Cascading Waters, he'd only found trail blockage on the switchback section of the Cascades trail heading down slope to Cataract Street; all else had been cleared up.
If anyone's got new or different information, we'd love to hear it!

Still warm...

We came home from our Clark University WaterWatch meeting to find some rain here; the first we've had in quite awhile. Last night we measured 0.16 inches here at the Lodge.

Hats off to the WaterWatchers who are using their time here in Worcester to look after the Blackstone Valley's water. We very much enjoyed their meeting (especially those maps of the Tatnuck watershed, which we're coveting); thank you for inviting us!

At 9 am, it is 47 degrees and rising; it remains to be seen if we'll break 50 again today
94% humidity and steady: between the rain, and the melting, and the dripping, there's lots of water in the air!
Barometer stands at 29.06 and falling
Fire danger is LOW

We have not gotten out to the stream yet today, 'though we expect it will be up again. Last night's rain and the continued warmth means that even more of the Cascades are visible through the snow again.

A report in this mornig that the Cascades trail is passible from one end to the other.

Cascading Waters section is open

Okay, so getting all the way through is going to be the work of more than one day, but we do now have the Cascades Trail open through Cascading Waters, Olean to Cataract. We're talking to the city about the Cascades (we can't leave the trees draped like that, if only for the sake of the bridge).

Stream is back to 7 inches today; that's a whole lot of ice melting up on the hill!

When the trails turn into streams

We took a lengthy hike this morning: up the Cascades Trail next to the waterfall (which is still running fast and furious; if you haven't been by, you should!), around to the Silver Spring Trail to its end, by road to West Tatnuck School, bushwacked to the West Tatnuck spur trail, down that to Cascades, and down the Newton Trail. (That's blue circles to yellow triangles, to the road, to yellow circles, to blue circles, to red circles, for those of you who go by blazes.)

The most notable thing is how very wet it is. The ground really is saturated, and there's lots of water just sitting on the ground out there. If you're planning on taking the Silver Spring Trail in particular, wear waterproof footwear, because you are going to get your feet wet. Parts of it have become the brook that it turns into in the spring, and there's plenty of water just sitting there, too. In places it's difficult to tell that there's water due to leaf coverage.

If you have never been on the Silver Spring, or haven't lately, let me recommend it. I hadn't been up there in awhile, and with all the brooks running, it's really lovely. There's a number of benches out there to sit and contemplate it all; a nice antidote to running around.

It looks like a tree took out a picnic bench up at the picnic grove at Boyton Park; I'll send that into the Parks Department and see if we can get anywhere on it.
For those who have despaired of ever again seeing that huge sign that belongs in Boyton Park, we're on it! We're getting there! We've had the great problem of having to update it to include more preserved land just about every time we thought we had it done. As there's nothing in the works in that regard, we'll see about getting it back out there.

Brr....

In case you somehow missed it, it's COLD out there!
While the falls are running, we're getting some icicles along the top, and ice is gathering along the rocks here and there in the stream. We rescued a soccer ball this morning that was on its way to spending the winter frozen in.
At 10 am, it is 27 degrees and steady.
The barometer stands at 29.88 inches of mercury and steady under sunny skies
Humidity is 45% and steady
We've got a good wind going here.
The stream is 5.2 inches deep

A hike this morning up the Newton Trail and down the east end of the Cascades Trail showed some improvements by the Parks Department at the Newton Trailhead. The trails been blocked off a bit so only those on feet (and two, unmotorized wheels) can make it up the trail, plus there's a shiny new "no motorized vehicles" sign, adding to the discouragement. Nice work! No signs that it's been disturbed.
It's a tricky time of year up there. With the ground covered in (mostly oak) leaves, and everything brown, following the trail isn't the mindless activity it is the rest of the year. You need to watch for the trail markers a bit. The wind has been dramatic enough to blow nearly all of the oak leaves down (usually about half hang on for spring). Those leaves on top of frozen ground makes for slippery footing; watch it as you come down the hill!
Do get out there, though. You get a very different perspective this time of year!

High skies

Lovely day out there! We just had some rather lost hikers wander through our clothesline looking to get back to Cataract Street.

At 9 am, it is 41 degrees and rising
58% humidity and falling
The fire danger (consequently) is up to LOW
The stream stands at 4.2 inches
And the barometer is a lovely 30.27 inches and steady

Enjoy it while we've got it! The paper today was forecasting a sudden onset to winter!

Erosion survey hike

We're late posting today, as we had a hiker come to the door to report continued use of ATV's on the trails in Cascades Park. We dropped everything and went out to investigate. It's clear that the trails off of Cataract Street where it's the Holden Trail have been reopened, plus someone's been coming up the Newton Trail from Cataract Street (by the bike rack and bench).

Two things all park users should know:

1. This is NOT OKAY. Use of motorized vehicles is prohibited in all city parks by city ordainance, PLUS Cascades Park (and Cascades East) is under a conservation restriction, which means it's against state law as well. And it's just really bad for the forest in all sorts of ways.
   
2. If you see anyone on an ATV, DO NOT CONFRONT THEM. However, please get all identifying information you can, and pass it on to us (gwlt@gwlt.org will do it).

In other news, we met at least four dogs on our hike, found wintergreen leaves, and found the upper Cascades brook in good condition.

As of 9:30 this morning, it was 52 degrees and rising.
80% humidity and falling
30.42 inches of mercury and steady
Fire danger is back up to LOW

Hike report

At 8:06 am, it was 65 degrees and steady
97% humidity and steady
Barometer steady at 29.88 inches and a bit overcast

A hike this morning up the Holden Trail end of the Cascades Trail revealed that someone's been clearing it back a bit. (Junior Ranger question: "When are we cleaning up this property?" Cascades East was a private dump for years; let's just say it isn't high on anyone's list!) Japanese knotweed looking sadly healthy in its one clearing (at least it's only one!). No signs over ALB in maples we inspected (hooray!) New signs along Silver Spring, Cascades, and Newton trails are looking great. Checked out the West Tatnuck School spur trail. Took the unmarked trail off of the Newton trail to come out on Navasota. Gentleman we ran into along there reported four deer in their yesterday.

It isn't on the property, but we did find a huge quanity of turkey feathers along Olean Street between Dawson Road and the Holden/Cascades junction. Not much turkey, though.