Genesee Trailwalker, Part 3

I’d like to introduce you to Walt. He writes a lovely blog about fishing and the outdoors of northern Pennsylvania and a bit of upstate New York. Then he throws in a bit of Yeats and some birding and I’m in heaven. I don’t know that he was, but I like to think he was named after Walt Whitman, who also knew the joy of just being wherever you are.

I’ve never really learned to fish very well, but I used to backpack and hike quite a bit in the northern tier of Penn’s Woods and his posts always take me to places that feel like home. It’s a reminder that such landscapes, internal and external are really not far away.

 

Rivertop Rambles

All three parts of this series were written and published on Rivertop Rambles around the 20th of January each of three consecutive years. I don’t know what this proves, other than the fact that I’m another creature of habit. I should probably be careful with that. Predictability can be lethal, especially if you’re hunted like a deer or a fox.

I hit the Genesee River WAG Trail (former Wellsville-Addison-Galeton railroad bed) late in the morning of a cold winter day, with fresh snow on the ground and the air temp registering 14 or 15 degrees F.. It felt a bit odd to walk northwesterly out of Shongo, NY, heading downstream on this rare northward flowing river. And it felt a little odd to walk this familiar river without a fly rod in hand– with only a camera for a check on the animal tracks and other quiet signs of January…

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