Help CATS Create Trail Signs

CATS trail marker seen on the Grand Hike (Credit: virtualdavis) — One Type of CATS Trail Sign (Credit: virtualdavis)

Sign making! Many of our trails need direction signs with arrows showing you where to go. You can be a trail-sign painter who stencils and then paints words onto little wooden boards. This is a great project for anyone wanting some indoor “trail” work, for those with flexible schedules, and if you’d rather simply do trail projects at home.

If interested, please email a reply to info@champlainareatrails.com or call (518-962-2287) if you want to be a trail-sign painter. Think of all the people who will be happy when they won’t get lost because of the signs you make!

Upcoming Events

We’re taking a break on trail projects this week so stay tuned for the following:

Thursday, Sept. 25 – Thursday on the Trail Project 9:00 a.m. – pencil in the date and time—we’ll let you know next week what the project will be.
Saturday, Sept. 27 – The first project to create trails at Thrall Dam Park in Lewis 8:00 a.m. – noon. We are partnering with the Town of Lewis and Essex County to develop multi-use trails at Thrall Dam Park. This county-owned park on NYS Route 9 was once a lively recreation area for fishing, swimming, picnicking, and skating. Built in the 1920’s, as a pond for a type of winter horse-racing called, “ice sulky racing,” it fell into disrepair until the 1960s when the local community rebuilt the spillway. Since then, the pond has slowly silted up making swimming less desirable and the spillway eventually disintegrated. So now we are joining with the town and Essex County’s Creating Healthy Places Program to make trails on the property that may eventually link Lewis to Elizabethtown and other communities.
Fri. & Sat. Oct. 10 & 11 – “Bark! Get to Know Your Trees” presented by Michael Wojtech, naturalist and author of Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast. Hosted by Elizabeth Lee and co-sponsored by Northeast Wilderness Trust. Friday evening presentation at the Whallonsburg Grange and Saturday field trip. Visit Elizabeth Lee’s website for details.

One final word—the mushroom foraging workshop on Sunday, September 14 was fabulous. So many mushrooms—so little time. One take-away rule is “Do not eat any white mushrooms.” The other is that tasty mushrooms can be easy to identify—get to know a few and you’ll be happy.

Chris Maron
CATS Executive Director

CATS Trail Project & Mushroom Foraging (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Mushroom Identification Forays in Essex (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
CATS Tales from the Trails (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Let CATS Speak at Your Events (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)

About Champlain Area Trails (CATS)

Champlain Area Trails (CATS) is a non-profit organization, begun in 2009, which creates and maintains hiking and cross-country ski trails in the Champlain Valley that link communities, connect people with nature, and promote economic vitality. In its short history, CATS has developed 35 miles of trails that when added to existing trails, gets it half-way toward the long-envisioned goal of a 30-mile trail loop between Westport and Essex. CATS will extend its trails to neighboring towns and eventually connect them to trails in the Adirondack Mountains, Vermont, and Quebec. Learn more on the CATS website.