Reading (For Dummies)

Breaking the Law

So I'm no longer sick, and no longer in New Jersey, so that can mean only one thing for the, "what is Reid up to?" question. On Saturday a group of five of us went caving in Chittenango, on some variety of private state land preserve. There were a series of small caves off of Route 13, right above a nice little river. I got stuck once, being the biggest member of a group including Jonas, Keebs, Arielle, and Kevin. Aside from hibernating bats, there were some pretty neat rock structures belowground in these caves that aren't touched by anyone but SUOC. In fact, our group brought the total number of cavers to the area to 12. Kind of neat.

On the downside of it being quasi-State-Restricted-Whatever land, when we got back to the actual ridge we had to scramble to get up, there was a Department of Environmental Conservation dude waiting in his jeep next to our parked car. He was occassionally doing circles around the area, probably looking for us on the top of the ridge. We decided not to risk tickets, and hiked way south, then scrambled down and out the road. By the time we got there, our law enforcement type friend was gone. We packed the car with our muddy caving clothes and made a mad dash for Freedom (and the American Way). Apparently, we were successful...

Not satisfied with my near run-in with the law on Saturday, I returned to Chittenango on Sunday to see the Chittenango Falls (which were slightly up the road on Route 13 from the caves). I took an old SUOC member, Sharon (previously seen caving). Their website reports that the falls are open year-round, but we arrived to a "Danger: Icy: Gorge Trail Closed Until Further Notice". Neither of us were very happy with this (and neither was a young photography lass who was there to get some pictures of ice flows and whatnot at the bottom), so we climed over the snow fence and hiked the Gorge Trail anyway. Chittenango is worth the view. The fact that it is home to a totally unique species of snail, known as the Chittenango Ovate Amber Snail. We weren't going to break the law and jump that protective fence...I'd hate to be responsible for the destruction of an entire species.

Everything was fine and good until the Chittenango County Sherriff passed us from the road. It was pretty clear that he spotted us, the question was whether he knew what we were doing was technically illegal (though, hell, we're both New York residents, we pay taxes here, so this land is ours anyway. We didn't want to take any chances, so we worked our way under a bridge at the top of the Falls, and hiked upstream a ways. Then we crossed back over the road and wandered through the woods for a few hours, up and down some trails made by the Indian Youth Corps. It was a nice area with more left to explore. Something to take a look at again later, even if it is sandwhiched between Route 13 and Route 173. So all in all, another fun weekend, although with a bit more law enforcement than usual...