Niagara River drift S.C.U.B.A. dive

After a few years of missing this dive, I took part in a favorite summer shore dive in Buffalo. Many Buffalo divers are familiar with this, Wednesday evening Niagara River Drift dive. I managed to make it twice this year. You get in the water at the west end of Isle View Park and drift east to the boat launches at the other end of the park

My first dive kept to the shallower waters where the grass and fish lurk. I even managed to find a fin that somebody from the dive shop had lost earlier in the week. The visibility was was above average for this dive at about 15-20 feet. This was also my first attempt at using the GoPro for diving. Unfortunately it froze up right after I went under.

 Post dive gear pile

Post dive Hotdog BBQ

The second time I did this dive we went a little deeper where the water runs faster. The rain leading up to this dive made the visibility much lower than the previous Wednesday. There was less life to see but about the same trash. The GoPro worked better this time, but the poor visibility and lack of fish made for poorer video quality that I would gotten had the camera worked the previous week.

-James

Lele Kawa

Hiking Niagara Gorge

My favorite cardio hike in Western New York, the Niagara River Gorge is a mini Grand Canyon. From Whirlpool State Park down to the rocks along the Whirlpool is a mile and a half with a 1,500 foot elevation change. The majority of that elevation change occurs in about a tenth of a mile.

Other than its cardio benefits the up close views of the Niagara River and it's Class V rapids are pretty amazing. You get a real sense of how much power the river has.

-James

Lele Kawa

Buffalo Wing Fest 2013

I was lucky enough to attend the 2013 Buffalo Wing Festival in my home town of Buffalo. It was a good opportunity to spend too much to sample a variety of wings, most of them from the local area.

We happened to be there for the Competitive Eating Championship Buffalo wing eating contest. Watched a bunch of large men get their buts kicked by some little girls. Miki Sudo destroyed everyone with 178 wings in 12 minutes.

It just so happened that she was leaving at the same time I was so she stopped for this photo.

-James

Lele Kawa

SUP Buffalo River

BFLO Harbor Kayak has made Stand Up Paddle Boards available in Buffalo's Inner Harbor. This means that without dragging my board across the country I was able to get some SUP in Buffalo over the summer.

The day I rented my SUP their was some crazy wind about 12mph, so the lake was not looking very inviting. This was fine with me because I was more interested in the river. The river had little wind and has little current so it made for easy paddling. From the rental dock under the skyway, I made my way about a mile and a half upstream just past Ohio St.

Setting off from BFLO Harbor Kayak with the Little Rock in the background

 Buffalo Skyline from the river

Turn around point

On the way back down stream I was facing the wind. Hugging the shore helped avoid the worst of it in my face but standing on the board was making a sail out of my body. Near the Naval Park the wind was strong enough to make some good size rolling waves, maybe a one to two feet. The was were just a little two small and not breaking for me to surf them upstream to the dock.

I'm not sure if it is legal but I think it would be fun to ride a SUP down the Niagara river. There is a whole lot of current and no shortage of place to get out. Maybe next time.

-James

Lele Kawa

Queen City Mayor's Cup, Buffalo Yacht Club

While I grew up sailing on Lake Erie, it has been a long time since I did any racing. This did not keep me from jumping on the opportunity to join the crew a boat racing in the Queen City Mayor's Cup. This is one of the Buffalo Yacht Clubs international races. Starting in Buffalo, NY and ending at Point Abino, ON.

The race is a two day regatta. Saturday boats race from Buffalo to Point Abino, and Sunday they race back. Saturday's race was plagued by light winds and only one of the fleets had boats finish within the 4 hour time limit. Sunday had slightly better winds. and our boat was able to take first in our fleet.

-James

Lele Kawa

Lake Erie, Buffalo Harbor Sail Boarding

-James

Lele Kawa

Finger Lakes Part 5, Watkins Glen

I spent a weekend in the Finger lakes with my family for hiking and wine tasting. I will break the trip up by park, this is part five.

Watkins Glen is the only state park I had previously visited in the finger lakes area. It is by far the most developed and the busiest. The lower parking lot is full of tour busses. Despite the development and the departure from nature it is spectacular. In a short distance there are 19 waterfalls in a steep walled narrow gorge.

The natural beauty is a dream for any photographer. The steep walls help to create dramatic light on the falling water. By this point I had gotten my slow shutter speed waterfall photos down, I just wish I had a tripod.

 View from the bottom

 View from the first bridge

Working up from the bottom, you quickly come to a falls that allows you to pass behind, before heading into a cave up a spiral stair case. 

 Behind the falls

 Looking back out of the cave

One of my favorite falls isn't even part of the main creek. It was these trickles of water running down into the gorge. The path runs under a ledge where the water was dripping off the above ledge. The only bad part was walking under the ledge got you wet so where was a bottle neck on both sides as nobody wanted to get wet. Using long exposure gave you these beautiful long narrow fingers of water, that people could stand behind.

-James

Lele Kawa

Finger Lakes Part 4, Wine tasting

I spent a weekend in the Finger lakes with my family for hiking and wine tasting. I will break the trip up by park, this is part four.

After our hiking around Robert Treman park, we got to the good stuff, the wine tasting along the Cayuga Wine trail. We plotted a course north along the east side of the lake to hit a few wineries.

The first stop was Six Mile Creek Winery. This might have been the best stop. 6 tastings for $2. They offered about 6 whites, 6 reds, and 3 sweets. Because the finger lakes is big on Rieslings and May is Riesling month, I was happy to see the reds. I have always preferred red wine to white.

Stop number two was Kings Ferry Vineyards. I did not appreciate this winery as much. They didn't offer many reds and their tasting was pretty confusing. The only notable thing was they had two late harvest wines available for tasting for an additional dollar each. As an added bonus 13 tastings was enough to start to get that warm feeling.

Stop number three was Bet The Farm. It was a cute little place. They didn't have as many wines as the other spots we made, so you tried all their wines. In addition to wine it was a gourmet food shop. They had a variety of cheeses and other gourmet snacks. Also it was nice because this place was right on the lake. It shares a parking lot with a town park that has some tables and benches right at the waters edge, that just inviting you to come down and taste the treats you just bought.

Stop four, and the final winery we visited was Long Point Winery. This winery was another one with a good variety of whites and reds. They also had my favorite wine of the day a 2007 Syrah, which has always been among my favorite grapes. They also had a little deli but unfortunately we arrived too late.

Of course we couldn't head back without hitting a falls. We stopped at Ludlowville Park in a little residential neighborhood. The falls looked pretty cool. Big and flat on top and a big cave under one half and rocks on the other side. Naturally I jumped the fence so I could go stand at the ledge. The logical next step was to go into the cave. It couldn't be done without getting my feet wet, but there was a knee deep ledge going around the cave. I managed to make it without dunking my phone in the water and get these photos in the precess.

-James

Lele Kawa

Finger Lakes Part 3, Robert Treman

I spent a weekend in the Finger lakes with my family for hiking and wine tasting. I will break the trip up by park, this is part three.

Robert Treman park was the third of our waterfall hikes, and our only morning hike.

We started the hike from the bottom as we did with the Buttermilk Falls. We started by heading to the lower falls where in warmer days they flood an area to make a pool, to include a diving board right in front of the falls. This was not the case while we were there.

 Here you can see where they would damn it

 Lower falls and sand bar

 I'm standing where the diving board would be

From there we headed up the rim trail. I was a bit disappointed that the trail didn't keep to the creek bed. Most of the trail ran about half way up the gorge, with only occasional views of the creek and its falls. Below is a photo of one of those gems. It was still a pleasant hike through the forest, just a shame that you are so near a creek that you can't see.

After about half way up you walk across a narrow ridge line then down some stairs into a flat area of high grasses. From here to Lucifer Falls the the gorge trail does follow the creek bed, but the water is pretty calm and free of falls. Then just below Lucifer Falls you reach a bridge that divides the Lower gorge and upper gorge trails and connects across the creek to the rim trail. Sadly the upper gorge trail that takes you right along the falls was closed.

It took some time to talk my family up the stairs to the Lucifer Falls over look on the rim trail. They were ready to head back down. I had to promise them that they could continue up the trail .5 miles to the upper parking, while I ran down to retrieve the car at the lower parking.

 Lucifer Falls from the bottom

Lucifer Falls from the overlook on the Rim trail

I feel like I made pretty good time on my trail run down the rim trail. Even with getting a little lost near the bottom as the trail entered the camping area. I managed to get to the upper parking pretty shortly after my family reached it.

-James

Lele Kawa

I'm West Seneca's Unknown Marine

I'm famous, for nobody knowing who I am anymore. I guess there was a photo of me from boot camp hanging in my high school with no name attached. So I made front page of the West Seneca Bee, in an attempt to be found.

http://www.westsenecabee.com/news/2012-05-24a/Front_Page/Identification_sought_for_unknown_soldier.html

Amazing they could forget somebody that had their own fan club in school.

-James

Lele Kawa

Finger Lakes Part 2, Buttermilk Falls

I spent a weekend in the Finger lakes with my family for hiking and wine tasting. I will break the trip up by park, this is part two.

A few years ago I read an article in Backpacker Magazine that was just my style "Top 3 Trailhead Pub Hikes." Number three on the list is Buttermilk Falls State Park. Since we arrive in Ithaca a little early to check in we attacked the park.

For this park we started at the bottom. The first of the 11 falls is a large sliding falls with a large pool at the bottom. In the warmer months they add a damn to make the pool bigger for swimming. We followed Backpacking Magazines suggestions and headed up the valley trail. This trail made you earn it, steep in parts and slippery as it makes its way up the stream bed.

 Looking up at the falls from the trail head

 Looking down into the pool and life guard stand

About half way up the trail the streams gorge gets narrower and you walk along the top of it. In this section it looks similar to Walkins Glen.

 Layered Slate wall along the trail

After the few falls in the narrow gorge it opens up again and you pass this tower. If it wasn't made of loose slate, I doubt I could have resisted climbing it. Since climbing it would have torn it apart I just admired it form the bottom.

At the top we crossed the bridge skipped the upper part of the park and headed down along the rim trail. For reasons unknown, my GPS stopped tracking on the way down. The view from the rim trail wasn't as good. There were only a few places that overlooked the creek.

Sadly we didn't take the advice of Backpacker and hit up Ithaca Beer Company, since it was time to check in to the hotel. We made up for it by hitting Bandwagon Brew Pub downtown for dinner.

-James

Lele Kawa

Finger lakes Part 1, Taughannock Falls

I spent a weekend in the Finger lakes with my family for hiking and wine tasting. I will break the trip up by park, this is part one.

Down at the southern end of the finger lakes their are many parks and waterfalls. There is one falls that is about half way up Cayuga Lake. It is Taughannock Falls. I had no idea this place even existed until we stopped at the Falls Restaurant and Tavern on our way down NYS Route 96. The restaurant had a bunch of photos of the falls and it looked great in photos. Even their sign was a wood carving of the falls.

I would guess this is one of the biggest free falling falls in the Finger Lakes at 215 feet. Most of the other falls of the area are sliding falls.

Since we were coming from NYS Route 96, we started at the top (North West) end of the park. This meant the first area we reached was overlook near the top of the falls. The view is impressive. The falls spill into its large pool from its big V shaped canyon.

 Once at the bottom of the park we "hiked" up the valley. I was a little disappointed by how huge the trail was. You didn't have to earn it, one could easily drive I semi truck to the falls down the trail, which was pretty flat. This easily approachable falls I guess serves a purpose, as an introduction to the outdoors for those of us that are less adventurous.

From the bottom, the falls looked even better than from the top. Maybe it had something to do with being hit by the spray that floated down the valley.

At the head of the trail on the way back to the parking lot I spotted a little cave. Naturally, I couldn't resist climbing in. It was only about 10 feet deep, but still made this nice photo.

Across the road was the rest of the park. which included some picnic areas, play grounds, marina and a beach.

 Bridge over Marina's entrance

View of the beach

-James

Lele Kawa