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Youth jumpers rested before launching from the 20-meter hill on Saturday morning.
Riley Klein
Youth jumpers rested before launching from the 20-meter hill on Saturday morning.
Salisbury Winter Sports Association’s (SWSA) 98th annual Jumpfest was a resounding success.
The three-day winter tradition went off without a hitch.
Friday’s opening night under the lights began with high expectation in the air as cars slowly filled the parking field next to Indian Cave Road. Car headlights guided everyone to a ticket booth, but from there on the way to Satre Hill was a footlighted walk through the dark.
Muffled voices could be overheard talking excitedly about what was to come, and parents kept track of children who wanted to run ahead.
The scene at Jumpfest was like a stage-lit happening. There were EMS trucks at the ready flanked by food and beverage setups. Twin bonfires lighted the scene and provided warmth. A booming voice over the loudspeaker keep everybody on schedule as the evening events unfolded, beginning with Target jumping at 7 p.m. for a couple of dozen contenders.
“On the hill,” was the cry from the observation post near the bottom of the jump, signaling that a jumper was on the way down.
Cowbells added to the mix and even triggered some happy revelers to yell out “More cowbell,” in a reference to the “Saturday Night Live” comedy sketch with Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken.
The Target Jump, viewed as a warm-up run to the main event on Sunday, was won by Cooper Dodds of Lebanon, New Hampshire, who hit the paint at 65 meters. Dodds won $500 in prize money donated by the Churchill family.
After some time assembling their getups and sledding rigs, several teams competed in the Human Dog Sled Race, a 200-yard round-trip course that typically results in some wipeouts at the turn.
Hooting and hollering and bent-over laughing punctuated the sidelines as onlookers watched, hoisting a brewski or hot toddy for their favorite team.
By 10 p.m., the voice on the loudspeaker called it a night and thanked the hundreds who came on opening night.
Saturday’s full menu of events was met with blue skies and crisp winter air. Youth jumping began on the 20-meter hill with contestants ranging in age from 5 to 17.
More cowbell rattling filled the air as each jumper prepared for launch. Cheers and applause erupted as the young athletes soared.
The cook shack crew and Low-N-Slow food truck served up fresh meals to attendees and hungry athletes as the first round of competition wrapped up.
Jumpers climbed the 30-meter tower next for the final Jumpfest from that particular launch. A capital campaign to replace the wood jump with a steel tower is underway and a new K30 ramp will be built in the coming year.
The Salisbury Invitational followed for an afternoon of high-flying competition on the Big Hill. Crowds grew larger for the premiere contest of the day and surrounded the landing zone beneath the 65-meter jump.
Pallet-fueled bonfires kept spectators warm as the sun slipped beneath the tree line and shade set in at Satre Hill. Beer, wine and hot toddies helped fight the cold, too.
Once the jumping was complete, Saturday’s festivities ended with the Snow Ball at the Grove in Lakeville.
Sunday afternoon was sunny and pleasant without much wind. Spectators who opted for muck boots were vindicated, as the ground by the various food and merchandise stands was thoroughly muddy.
Joe Geraghty and Vanessa O’Connor were doing good business selling SWSA merchandise. Geraghty said he would consider it a successful day if he came in with five bins of goods and left with one, and was on track for that result.
Anna Pattison at the cook shack confirmed what a reporter suspected — the SWSA bratwurst, with or without fried onions or sauerkraut, was the big seller.
A pickup truck on loan from the town crew stood ready to take ski jumpers back up the hill. One by one, an endless series of youngsters, sleek in their jumping clothing, piled in the pickup bed with their skis until it seemed impossible to get any more in.
But it wasn’t. “Somebody carry this kid in their lap,” said a man, hoisting a diminutive skier up and in.
Before the trial jumps began, the call went out on the loudspeaker for measurers. Mat Kiefer stood facing a circle of volunteers, advising those new to the experience to buddy up with veterans.
Outside the immediate Satre Hill area, the parking lot was completely jammed and people were parking wherever they could, including Railroad Street.
Jumpfest 2024 was well attended with roughly 600 guests on Friday, 1,400 guests on Saturday, and 1,350 guests on Sunday. Additionally, an estimated 1,000 children under age 12 took part in the weekend fun at Satre Hill.
Abstract art display in Wassaic for Upstate Art Weekend, July 18-21.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene from the Amenia garden tour.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else.
I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.