Cool Morning, Fiery Afternoon (Hiking Chautauqua Creek)

Sunrise, 6:15

Sunset from the Viking Club

Westfield Water Station off of Mt. Baldy Road

217 Steps Down to Chautauqua Creek

Working on Slides for Fish

A Rocky Hike

Interesting rock

Ron at One of the Falls

A Table of Losers, Gambling Again, at the Viking Club

Up early, at 5:30, after a restless night.  The sky off to the east is cloudy, the sun peaking occasionally through it's edges, and it's a comfortable 58 degrees though it may get as high as 90 later in the day, a 30 degrees difference.  Very Un Chautauqua like!

Yesterday,  Ron Mc Clure and  hiked the next section of Chautauqua Creek, from Westfield south another couple of miles.  The problem for our hikes is finding easy access to the creek at two or three miles intervals, so we don't have too long of a hike.  Fortunately, Ron did some exploring early in the week and happened upon the Westfield Water Station off of Mt. Baldy Road, about two plus miles from the center of Westfield. Thus, we headed to Westfield around 9:00, parked Ron's car in Westfield, then drove my car to the Westfield Water Station., parked it, and walked up the driveway, behind the building, down a wooded path, to an amazingly steep stairway, two hundred and seventeen steps to be precise, to get down to the Gorge.  We were smart enough to start at the south end and walk north.  If we hadn't, we would have had to climb up the steps.  When we got to the bottom, we heard the sound of machinery off to to the south and a huge machine was scooping rocks or so we thought out of the creek.  It's hard to believe they could get a shovel that big down the Gorge.  We began our hike north, towards Westfield, with a slightly overcast sky and found most of the way to be rocky, not the sandy stretches that we found closer towards Lake Erie.  We picked our way slowly along, stepping from one large rock to another, crossing the water when necessary.  We often passed bald but steep cliffs, thus the name, I suppose of the road where we parked.  At least twice, roads were cut across the creek, connecting one side with the other.  We did see a couple of huge dump trucks trundle through and stopped one, to ask what was going.  The driver explained they were making slides on the creek, so the fish could move farther upstream. I thought some developer was tearing apart a section of the Gorge.  Instead, the Fish and Game Department were working on the migration of the trout.

We found ourselves paying so much attention to where we walked that we often forgot to enjoy the 'going', the views as we walked.  We stopped a couple of times, for food and water, and to enjoy the view.  We eventually crossed under the Gale Road bridge, then walked by where the Chautauqua Creek branches off to the Little Chautauqua Creek, a creek we will explore at another time.  We did pass two or three small water falls, perhaps three of feet high, nothing too dramatic.  The water, most of the way, was quite low, slow moving and muddy, though as we got close to Westfield, it became more clear.  It took us just over two hours, and we were back on the road, heading home by noon.  Another great day on Chautauqua Creek.

I spend the afternoon reading, watching the semifinals of the Spain/Portugal soccer match.  Evie cut the lawn, read on the dock, and did some shopping earlier in the morning.  At 6:00, Ron and Linda came over for a beer and then we went across the bridge to Maple Springs, to have dinner at the Viking Club.  It was a beautiful night to sit at the Viking Club window, watching the sun set off to the west, having a Labatt's and dipping chicken wings in to blue cheese dressing.  The Viking was fairly crowded, not as much as the Rod and Gun, but a good crowd.  And it's a much older crowd, mostly people in their sixties or seventies, with very few younger people.  It was good to be back at the Viking, as we had not been there in quite awhile because they are open only on weekends during the winter and spring, unlike the Rod and Gun which is open all year, seven days a week.  We walked outside to watch the sun finally disappear on the horizon and went home to read, watch some Stephen Colbert, Lebron and company on The View, then off to bed.  A busy day.