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Section: Feature
Walking Became My Life
By Sue Freeman
Like many people, I was a workaholic, trapped in a sterile office cubicle. I earned a good salary and enjoyed many of the things people relate with success—a fine car, a beautiful home, exotic vacations. But there were many days when I never saw the sun, heading to work before sun–up and driving home well after sunset. And, my company had been going through 10 years of layoffs. I’d lay off good employees and then wonder if my job was next. A sense of dissatisfaction grew within me.
Then a friend recommended reading Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. It opened my eyes and made me think about trade-offs. It helped me realize that my career had drifted over the years so I was no longer enjoying what I was doing. I needed to get back to doing what brought me joy and if that meant living on less, so be it. Income level was not the only measure of success.
So in 1996, I left my job to walk for 6 months from Georgia to Maine on the Appalachian Trail and found new purpose to my life. Upon completion of the hike, I wanted to share the pleasure of walking, but realized that others didn’t have the option, let alone the desire to walk for half a year. So, I concentrated on the trails around Rochester and wrote my first Take A Hike guidebook.
Today, the author of 10 guidebooks, I am blessed to be able to spend my time in the outdoors and share it with others. I live on less but am wealthy beyond belief because my destiny is in my own hands and I can spend time as I choose—enjoying hiking, bicycling, skiing, snowshoeing, and exploring waterfalls.
At book signings people exclaim how my guidebooks have helped them begin a healthy lifestyle of outdoor exercise. It’s the best job performance review I’ve ever received. One lady even asked me to sign the scrapbook she and friends compiled to document their self-created walking club using my guidebooks. That was my bonus for the year.
Sue & Rich Freeman, pictured on our cover, are the authors of 10 outdoor recreation guidebooks to Central and Western NY including Take A Hike! Family Walks in the Finger Lakes & Genesee Valley Region. Check bookstores, call 1-800-431-1579, or visit www.footprintpress.com to order.
Delight Your Senses with a Waterfall Excursion
It’s no secret that western New York is loaded with waterfalls. Pick up any tourist publication and you’ll see a picture of one. Waterfalls are one of the many reasons tourists come to the area. But as residents, have you visited the waterfalls in your own neighborhood? There’s something in human nature that pushes us to seek adventure outside our home turf and put less value on the possibilities just outside our door. This year, consider going on a waterfall quest.
It’s impossible to remain stressed as you sit by a waterfall. In these days of busy schedules and hectic lives, it’s important to take time out to enjoy the soothing effects that a waterfall can provide. And, walking to a waterfall is good exercise. Who among us doesn’t need more exercise? Or, for less strenuous outings, plan a local driving tour and visit the many waterfalls waiting to offer their magical sounds and mesmerizing sights to anyone willing to sit for a moment.
A shallow sea once covered central and western New York. Shelled animals and corals accumulated on the sea floor creating banks of limestone that formed three hard ridges across our landscape. These are the Portage, Onondaga and Niagara Escarpments. Then, as glaciers headed south scraping the land, they uncovered part of these ledges and left deep north/south trenches that created the Finger Lakes. This combination of geologic events left us with many waterfalls.
Some are well known such as Niagara Falls and the falls at state parks such as Taughannock, Buttermilk, and Watkins Glen. But, hundreds of others are tucked into out-of-the-way or little-known places, just waiting to be discovered.
Try these adventures on your waterfall quest:
• Walk behind a wall of water at Tinkers Falls in Cortland County.
• Hike a mile and cross an 80-foot suspension bridge to reach Royalton Falls where women’s history was made in Niagara County.
• Watch small flames dance behind a waterfall from natural gas leaks at Eternal Flame Falls in Erie County.
• Try to locate all 28 waterfalls in Letchworth State Park in Livingston and Wyoming Counties.
• Creekwalk up Chautauqua Creek to sit naked in the spray of Skinny Dip Falls in Chautauqua County.
• Bicycle the Keuka Lake Outlet Trail to enjoy Seneca Mill and Cascade Mill Falls in Yates County.
• Strap on instep crampons and walk up frozen waterfalls in Conklin Gully in Ontario County.
• Load the wee ones into the stroller and follow an easy 0.7-mile trail to see Taughannock Falls plummet 215 feet from a high rock notch in Tompkins County.
• Follow a new 0.4-mile paved path in Rochester (Monroe County) to stand at the crest of Lower Falls and at the base of Middle Falls of the Genesee River.
• Splash up Grimes Glen to enjoy two 60-feet high waterfalls in Ontario County.
• Or, go on a driving tour to visit 28 waterfalls that you can see without ever leaving your car.
Over 200 publicly accessible waterfalls are detailed in the guidebook 200 Waterfalls in Central and Western New York –A Finders’ Guide (Footprint Press, www.footprintpress.com, 1-800-431-1579). Packed with maps, driving directions, helpful hints, and historical tidbits, this book should be a staple in your car glove box. Explore the waterfalls in our own neighborhood for their aesthetic beauty and their therapeutic effects. You’ll be glad you did.
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