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The Fishing Guide to the Presidents Don Daughenbaugh Hooks Bigwigs on Pennsylvania Streams

By Linda Roller

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Fish Food Found in Elmira and Williamsport Good Eats Off the Creek Quilts Flow Wild in the National Soaring Museum

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Volume 17 Issue 4

The Fishing Guide to the Presidents

12

Mother Earth

By Gayle Morrow

By Linda Roller

Streams meander, and so do I.

Don Daughenbaugh hooks bigwigs on Pennsylvania streams.

20

Good Eats off the Creek

By Karin Knaus

Pine Creek and West Branch food joints worth wading into.

24

A Creel-y Useful Basket

By Karey Solomon

6

Weaving your own at Finger Lakes Boating Museum in Hammondsport.

Mountain Folk Spring to Life in Morris

28

Fresh Fish in the Mountains— Thank Cod!

By Chris Espenshade Nessmuk’s Sporting Goods nets newbies and experts with festival.

By David O’Reilly

Local seafood shops Maine Harvest and Helmrich’s flex their mussels.

34

Back of the Mountain

By Ron Patt

The old man and the stream.

16 A Needle Runs Through It

By Karey Solomon Elmira Piecemakers showcase a river of quilting at the National Soaring Museum.

Cover photo:Don Daughenbaugh and Smack Water Jackson, courtesy Don Daughenbaugh. This page (top) courtesy Don Daughenbaugh; (middle) courtesy Zach Buck; (bottom) Annmarie Allaire holding Denali, by Karey Solomon.

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w w w. m o u n ta i n h o m e m ag . co m Editors & Publishers Teresa Banik Capuzzo Michael Capuzzo Associate Publishers George Bochetto, Esq., Lilace Mellin Guignard D i r e c t o r o f O pe r a t i o n s Gwen Button Managing Editor Gayle Morrow S a l e s R ep r e s e n t a t i v e Shelly Moore Circulation Director Michael Banik Accounting Amy Packard Cover Design Gwen Button Contributing Writers Maggie Barnes, Chis Espenshade, Carrie Hagen, Roger Kingsley, Don Knaus, Karin Knaus, Dave Milano, Brendan O’Meara, David O'Reilly, Linda Roller, Karey Solomon C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Helen Barrett, Paul Bozzo, Ileta Calcote, Bernadette Chiaramonte, Diane Cobourn, Michael Johnston, Jerame Reinhold, Linda Stager, Sarah Wagaman, Curt Weinhold

D i s t r i b u t i o n T eam Brian Button, Grapevine Distribution, Linda Roller T h e B ea g l e Nano Cosmo (1996-2014) • Yogi (2004-2018) ABOUT US: Mountain Home is the award-winning regional magazine of PA and NY with more than 100,000 readers. The magazine has been published monthly, since 2005, by Beagle Media, LLC, 39 Water Street, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901, and online at www.mountainhomemag.com. Copyright © 2022 Beagle Media, LLC. All rights reserved. E-mail story ideas to editorial@mountainhomemag. com, or call (570) 724-3838.

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The Fishing Guide to the Presidents Don Daughenbaugh Hooks Bigwigs on Pennsylvania Streams

By Linda Roller

W

hat do you do when the President of the United States visits the national park where you (a Pennsylvania school teacher) are working (as a seasonal park ranger) and wants fresh trout for dinner?

If you’re Don Daughenbaugh, you go fishing.

See Guide on page 8

6

7

Courtesy Don Daughenbaugh

Guide continued from page 6

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At his home in Oak Knolls, Lycoming County, Don tells the story of this encounter with President Richard Nixon, back when Don was working at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

“President Nixon and his daughters showed up in the park one August day.

The visitation was slightly different because President Nixon was not an outdoorsman. I could tell that by his beautifully shined shoes. He just came to relax and enjoy the park.” But he did have a favor to ask.

“I recall it was 4 p.m. [Chief Ranger] Frank [Betts] had a special request,” Don remembers. “‘The President would like to have fresh trout for his dinner tonight.

And there are six in his party. Could you get us twelve cutthroat trout each about a foot long?’ I knew that would not be a problem, but it was now 4:30 and dinner was set for 6:00, so I could not venture far. I lucked out, because it was August and prime time for the pale morning duns to appear on the Snake River. I knew that the cutthroats on the river would be looking up at the base of the famous Signal Mountain, [hungry for the duns]. It was a challenge, but when I arrived at one of my favorite spots the trout were indeed looking up, and I could fish dry flies.

When I arrived at the Brinkerhoff Lodge at 6:00 with my Arctic creel and a dozen twelve-inch trout for Nixon’s dinner, I knew they would be happy campers.”

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Don’s house is the home of a true outdoorsman. There are a few mounts: a bighorn sheep, and a mountain lion pelt preserved in the fashion of close to a century ago. More prominent are the National Park shield and the pictures of a life close to the land and the water.

The focal point is the view through large windows overlooking the Pennsylvania countryside and the trees banking the Loyalsock. From here it is an easy trek to a renowned trout stream.

The flyer for his just-published book, Great People, Great Rivers, says: “At 94, you might expect Don to slow down a little.”

But he’s ninety-five now, and the bright eyes and quick conversation don’t indicate a downshift.

Don has always been busy and has always preferred being busy outdoors. By

Courtesy Don Daughenbaugh Courtesy Dillon family

Famous fishermen: Don Daughenbaugh (right) guides President Jimmy Carter along Spruce Creek.

the time he was nine years old, his family had moved to a small farm along the Cocolamus Creek, near the Juniata River in the central part of the state. Don tells stories of learning to skin eel, trap, and shoot.

“My father would tell me, ‘Take my Model 12 Winchester and this shell and go get us some meat for supper, and if you miss don’t come home because we will not have anything to eat.’ I was raised with a gun in one hand and a fishing rod in the other.”

Don and his brother Charles helped to keep the family fed, and, on the family farm, learned the value of hard work. It was the farm, and the contents of the corn crib, that gave Don the money for his first year in college. With the money from the corn, Don bought 500 day-old giant white rock chicks.

By Thanksgiving, each of the birds weighed around fourteen pounds. The money from the sale of the birds launched his higher education.

World War II interrupted Don’s college years, but he returned to East Stroudsburg State Teachers College (now East Stroudsburg University) after the war.

By 1949 he had graduated with degrees in biology, health, and physical education.

That, and the later master’s degrees from Penn State and Boston University, added the formal education to the lifelong lessons learned as a farmer and naturalist living off the land. Back in Pennsylvania, at his first teaching job in Thompsontown, he met a fellow teacher and a lover of nature and the outdoors—and the love of his life—Mary Jane Fairchild. They married in 1950.

The launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957 changed Don and his family’s life.

The federal government needed to upgrade science education in schools, and Don was one of the teachers awarded a scholarship, thanks to the Academic Year Institute.

He was to spend a year and two summers in advanced studies at the University of Colorado. Suddenly, the Pennsylvania woodsman was transported close to some of the best fishing in the West, where this born naturalist learned the secrets of his new aquatic territory. By 1963, he was a seasonal ranger at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. He and his family ultimately spent twenty-five summers at Grand Teton, and an additional several summers at Big Bend.

It was here that all of Don’s talents shone. He was not only an experienced and

dedicated teacher, but had that rare ability to explain and guide people, not just instruct them. His knowledge of the park’s streams and the ways of trout, combined with a friendly and open nature, made him just the man to work with the visitors to this national park jewel.

And it was here that he met many government officials and celebrities, all looking for rest and relaxation (and often some great fishing) in the Tetons.

Fishing with Famous Folk As one of the top guides at the park, Don guided many congressmen, senators, and other rich and influential people. But there were two who became friends for a lifetime: President Jimmy Carter and his family, and Vice President Dick Cheney and his family. When Don tells his fishing tales, it isn’t long before a trip with one of these people, who also love fishing and the rivers, flows into the conversation. Cheney was the congressman from Wyoming when he met Don as a fishing guide and ranger. Over the decades, they have fished and hunted throughout the West and in the limestone streams and rivers of Pennsylvania.

See Guide on page 10 9

Guide continued from page 9

(2) Courtesy Don Daughenbagh

Whether it was cutthroat in the Yellowstone River, the South Fork of the Snake River in Idaho, or here at Pine Creek, Don reads the fish and the water. With that help, Cheney and friends like Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker improve their skills and take the big fish.

August is a great month for fishing in the mountains of the western United Sates. Don recalls one August when the Cheneys and friends met up with Don and his family to fish the Yellowstone, at the time flowing with trout so large that the first hookup broke Dick Cheney’s 5X tippet. Don noticed the caddis larva were plentiful, so he used caddis larva imitation flies.

“We knew we had the right imitation that day when we had three hookups at the same time,” he says. “Presentation of our larva [flies] was the key to our success that day.”

It was 1978 when President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn spent a whole day fishing at the 4 Lazy F Ranch on the Snake River.

Don matched the mayfly duns on the stream surface with a fly, but the president wasn’t having any luck.

“Soon I could see why he wasn’t catching trout,” Don remembers.

“He was not mending the leader and fly line to prevent the imitation fly from dragging across the water’s surface.”

All in the family: like President Carter, Don Both Carters got the help needed to make the casts and didn't go anywhere catch, but not without a few mishaps. without his wife, and “I was slightly embarrassed when I turned back a that included fishing. Top moment later and the First Lady was sitting in the stream (left to right) First Lady in water above her hip boots,” Don says. “Rosalynn Carter Rosalynn Carter, Don, was a good sport, willing to laugh at herself. She fished and President Jimmy the rest of the day soaking wet rather than interrupt Carter; bottom (left to our day.” On another day in this fishing trip, President right), Don, wife Mary Jane, and daughter Kim. Carter caught a dry fly in the face. Dr. William Lukash, the president’s physician, attempted unsuccessfully to remove it. But Don knew a better, easier way—one the guides use. He showed the doctor how to push down on the eye of the hook and then snap it out, so that the hook would come out the way it went in.

It’s a guide’s job to figure out why his people are not catching trout, and Don was a master at it. He notes that both of these good friends listened to him and used his skill.

“Good fishing guides like clients that listen,” he muses.

Although Don met these friends in western waters, he did what any real Pennsylvanian does: he brought them back to the Keystone State, to eastern waters like Spruce Creek, Pine Creek, and the Loyalsock. One June, Cheney called Don to see how the trout fishing was in northcentral Pennsylvania. “Come right now,” Don told him. There was good water at the Texas Blockhouse Club, where the Texas and Blockhouse creeks form the Little Pine.

“The first thing they needed to do for a great experience was to get down on their knees along the banks of the small trout pools,” Don says. He notes that it’s a different style of fishing from the streams out west, but the importance of blending in with the natural surroundings and mimicking what the trout are feeding on is the same.

When Don asked President Carter where he would like to fish in Pennsylvania, the answer was swift and certain: “Spruce Creek!” For Don, this was a trip back in time, as it was nearby that Don’s grandfather taught him and brother Charles how to fish limestone streams. But the first trip, sponsored by the Spruce Creek Rod and Gun Club, was shaping up to be a disappointment. Heavy rain had swollen the creek and filled it with yellow mud. Don drove into town to get some earthworms, as there would be no fly-fishing on the flood waters; “worm dunking” 10

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yielded an ice chest full of trout that day. In subsequent years, Wayne and Marjorie Harpster, who own the fly-fishing business at Evergreen Farms, made it possible for the Carters to enjoy casting over the green drake emergence cycles—no worms needed.

After many fishing trips, including some at Camp David, President Carter asked Don, “Is there anything I can do for you?”

For Don, the answer was easy. He had a good bird dog, and he wanted to shoot quail in Plains, Georgia. “Three days of hunting and shooting wild quail over great pointers on the president’s peanut farm with Georgia friends made this a special place,” he remembers. Don even won over President Carter’s mother, Miss Lillian, by pulling a fat twenty-inch rainbow trout out of her pond.

She ran down, scooped it up for the refrigerator, turned to Mary Jane and said, “I’m surely going to like that guy!”

A Family Affair with Fish and Frogs When heading to Camp David for the first time, President Carter told Don that they (meaning the Carter entourage) didn’t go anywhere without their wives. Don had a similar motto and was never alone on his outdoor adventures. In the Grand Teton Park, and later in Big Bend, at Camp David, and even in Plains, Don traveled with Mary Jane and their daughter Kim. Kim spent every summer in the national parks and in the wilderness from age five until she was a sophomore in college. As a child, the family stayed the summer in a cabin on Jenny Lake in Colter Bay, Wyoming.

“It was a cabin at the base of the mountain, and we did have plumbing and a pot-bellied stove with a tank that heated water for a shower,” says Kim. Many times, though, the bathing was done in a small tub put on the porch, and the toilet was in a small enclosure also on the back porch. “At night, if I had to go, I could look out and see the eyes of the animals.” The animals were always close, with buffalo walking by at she fished in the creek.

Kim went on her first three-day backpacking trip, complete with forty-pound backpack, with her dad when she was twelve.

“My dad would climb all over the Rocky Mountains on his days off, mostly to fish,” she says.

But the animals weren’t just out west in the parks in the summer.

“Dad was a biology teacher [in South Williamsport], and he was always bringing wildlife in for the class to see, and dead animals to dissect,” Kim remembers. “One time, he brought frogs into the house for class, and they got loose all over. You never knew what he would bring home.” Kim also tells of the time her father put a boa constrictor on her arm, where it did what constrictors do—squeeze.

Her mother came out and “told him to get it off me.”

“It was like living with Crocodile Dundee,” she says. Kim pursued a musical career, and says that “today, I don’t like hunting, but I fish.” She also likes to trap shoot, a sport in which Don won several awards.

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It’s All about the Flies Reading the water, matching the hatch. These are terms used by expert fly fishermen, the ones who can tie flies to create imitations of the insects that hatch on the water, flies that look so delicious to trout. Don, who tied his first in 1949, has perfected this skill, and taught thousands of others how to tie flies in uncountable workshops. This skill has taken him around the world.

See Guide on page 32 11

JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, edited by Gwen Button

Mother Earth

Streams Meander, and So Do I

By Gayle Morrow

“Water, water idioms everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.” ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

H

ave you ever wondered about the large number of idiomatic expressions that reference water?

Of course you haven’t. But you probably won’t be surprised to know that I have. Just recently, however—it hasn’t been a lifelong exploration into the linguistics of liquidity.

Let me explain.

The April issue of Mountain Home has come to be known as the Fishue— it’s the start of trout season, so we feature stories about fish, fishing, and, by extension (that’s my rationale, anyway), water, without which we’d have no fish, or us, for that matter. Since this year is the fiftieth anniversary of the Clean Water Act, my

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stream of consciousness meandered in that direction.

Then it hit a gravel bar.

I’d been thinking about water, with the oft-quoted “…water, water everywhere…” phrase popping in and out of my head just like a bobber on a pond’s surface. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a morality tale about a sailor on a voyage who kills a helpful albatross on a whim, thereby bringing bad luck to everyone on board. So as I was casting about in this watery world, rereading the poem, pondering the meaning of it all, I found myself hooked, lined, and sinkered into perusing various lists of idiomatic expressions that include water. What fun, and what a topic-appropriate digression!

Any old port in the deadline-avoidance storm, right?

Anyhow, here are just a few, in no particular order—most of their meanings are self-evident, especially if you are a native speaker (these are English idioms—other languages, of course, have their own, and I do believe becoming fluent in idioms is one of the hardest things to master when learning a language that is not your own).

Tall glass of water (remember that line from the movie Tombstone, when Dana Delaney’s character first sees Kurt Russell’s?), you can lead a horse to water, in hot water, drink like a fish, a fish out of water, dead in the water, head above water, water under the bridge, water over the dam, tread water, come hell or high water, dip your toes in the water, turn water into wine, blood is thicker than water, like water off a duck’s back, like a duck to water, (something) doesn’t hold water, test the waters, watering See Mother on page 14

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Mother continued from page 12

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hole, muddy the waters, dull as dishwater, still waters run deep, blow (something) out of the water, cast your bread upon the water (sunfish like bread, BTW), walk on water, throw the baby out with the bathwater, and, in the immortal words of Johnny Cash, “How high’s the water, Mama?” (“Five feet high and risin’,” in case you wondered.)

Water, water everywhere …

As for the Clean Water Act, it is a dizzying array of everchanging definitions, authorizations, standards, requirements, exemptions, and acronyms—talk about muddying the waters. It came about after seventy-five years or so of various rather ineffectual pieces of water-based legislation. But with society in flux during the 1960s, Ohio’s Cayuhoga River catching on fire (and not for the first time), the Great Lakes not so great, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, the environment began getting some positive attention. Legislators proposed a series of amendments to the existing Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the Senate passed the amended version on November 2, 1971, the House passed it on March 29 of 1972, and President Richard Nixon vetoed it on October 17. The Senate overrode his veto on the same day, the House followed suit the next day, and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 became law on October 18 of that year.

Waters protected under the CWA are those surface waters, not ground waters, defined (sort of ) as having a “significant nexus” to “navigable waters.” “Significant nexus” has, shall we say, a fluid definition, which, according to Wikipedia, remains “open to judicial interpretation.”

While surface water qualities have generally improved, some of the specific goals established fifty years ago with the passage of the CWA have not been realized, those being: “to make all U.S. waters fishable and swimmable by 1983; to have zero water pollution discharge by 1985; to prohibit toxic amounts of toxic pollutants.” National organizations such as Trout Unlimited and Ducks Unlimited have stepped in with resources to help keep fishing streams and waterfowl habitat healthy; locally, the Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group, the Babb Creek Watershed Association, and the Tioga County Concerned Citizens Committee have made clean streams, and cleaning up streams, their business.

Water is essential to life as we know it, a fact that, in itself, likely accounts for the plentiful platitudes referencing that vital hydrogen/oxygen combo. To date we’ve found no substitute for it.

Oh, sure, we can recycle wastewater (that polite euphemism for, well, you know). But, unless you’re Matt Damon’s character stuck on Mars, who wants to go that route? You can lead me to it, but I don’t want to drink it.

It’s up to each human on this big blue ball to ensure that “fish out of water” remains an idiom, with no basis in fact. Some of the last few lines of Coleridge’s cautionary tale, told by the man with the “glittering eye,” serve as simple but powerful instructions: love all creatures, wet or dry, “For the dear God who loveth us, / He made and loveth all.”

I think that means if we don’t want to be dead in the water, with an albatross around our collective neck, we need to remember everything is connected, come hell or high water.

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By Chris Espenshade

A

s area residents finally stow their snow shovels, dust off their fishing rods, and search for those turkey decoys—and as camp owners return to the fresh air of Tioga County—they all find April is a great time to mark the arrival of spring with a celebration of and in the great outdoors. On April 16, Nessmuk’s Sporting Goods and Blak Forge Armoury, LLC, will sponsor the second annual Nessmuk’s Spring Festival at 1803 Route 287 in Morris (half a mile south on Route 287 from the Routes 414/287 intersection). Neatly sandwiched between the trout opener on April 2 and the spring turkey opener on April 30, the free event will offer a variety of outdoor-themed activities for the entire family. Running from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., the festival includes a free hot dog roast featuring local, grass-fed beef from nearby DeCoursey Farms.

The best guestimate from last year’s organizers and attendees is that 300 people attended the first event—this at a time 16

when covid fears were extreme. Organizer Zack Buck hopes to see substantial growth for the second Spring Festival. He says it serves several functions. The gathering celebrates a successful year in business for Nessmuk’s. It is an opportunity to thank loyal customers and spread awareness to others. The festival also highlights the many outdoor opportunities of our area, as well as the diverse people and organizations linked to outdoor recreation in the region.

Among the vendors and organizations scheduled for this year’s celebration is the Morris Rod & Gun Club. Members will be offering kids the opportunity to build their own woodcraft fishing rod. The children will then use the rods to do a little trout fishing, with club members teaching participants how to clean the fish, followed by cooking and eating the fresh trout.

Mark Losinger, a member of the Pennsylvania Foragers Club, will be demonstrating how to identify and forage

for some of the Keystone State’s many edible wild foods. The club’s motto is “Pennsylvania is full of wild food and medicinals. Let’s help each other have a more plentiful harvest.”

There will be a living history, mountain man encampment, and a modern hammock camp. There will be demonstrations of Dutch oven cooking over a wood fire.

Tom McGuinn, of Tom’s Rods and Flies in Mansfield, will demonstrate fly-tying and rod repair. Tom started his business in 2018, providing “custom rods and flies for advanced and everyday fly-fishing.”

Rose Moore, owner of Moore’s Sporting Goods in Wellsboro, and fresh from her stint on season eight of the TV show Alone, will be participating for This is My Quest, a nonprofit focused on outdoor education. Rose, the president of This is My Quest, says “our focus is on providing opportunities in the outdoors See Nessmuk on page 18

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Nessmuk continued from page 16

for traditionally underrepresented youth and adults.” She’ll be providing instruction on trapping and fire starting.

Spring Festival will also host various outdoor-themed artists.

There will be smoked cheese from Smokey Bottom Specialties, and outdoor and wildlife art by Bill Fidler. Hunting and fishing guides and outfitters will have informational booths, and there will be door prize drawings throughout the day.

The event takes place on the green behind the 1870s-era building occupied by Nessmuk’s Sporting Goods and Blak Forge Armoury. Blak Forge Armoury has been here for fourteen years.

The business features gunsmiths Zack and Bill Bennett, and they do a combination of repairs, heirloom restoration, and full custom builds.

Zack sought out instruction in blacksmithing and gunsmithing as an offshoot of his historic reenacting and his desire for an affordable flintlock musket reproduction. A Mansfield University graduate, he transformed his former hobby into a career as a means of maintaining a strong link to the outdoors and hunting, thereby avoiding an office job in a city. A life-time resident of Tioga County, Zack has deep roots in the region, and was pleased to locate this business in Morris, among the trout streams, state game lands, and hiking trails.

Nessmuk’s Sporting Goods joined Blak Forge in Morris last April. Covid hindered the shop’s rollout, but it has since quickly developed a strong customer base. The store offers hunting, fishing, and hiking supplies, as well as local expertise.

The store is named for Nessmuk, the pen name of outdoor writer and poet George Washington Sears (1821-1890). A resident of Wellsboro, Nessmuk was an expert in woodcraft, a pioneer in minimalist camping, and a driving force behind the development of ultra-light pack canoes. Naturally, Nessmuk’s Sporting Goods has several of Nessmuk’s publications for sale.

The building itself has its own story to tell. Constructed in the 1870s, it originally served as a hall of the Knights of the Maccabees. The Knights was formed in the 1870s as both a fraternal organization and as a way to provide affordable insurance to its members. The overall organization was known as the Supreme Tent, and local chapters were designated Camps. Zak and Bill worked to maintain the materials, design, and feel of the original building as they shaped it for their own use.

If you are looking for an opportunity to learn about the many outdoor-related organizations and pursuits available locally—whether it be trapping, slinging your hammock from a tree, or Dutch oven cooking over a fire you make yourself— Nessmuk's Spring Festival will satisfy. Its consistent message is one of welcome to everybody, to friends and customers old and new, and especially welcome to those seeking fresh engagement with the outdoors.

Many of the activities and vendors will be under tents, but the organizers are hoping for a sunny day. People who love the outdoors know there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear.

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Chris Espenshade is a professional archaeologist, an outdoor columnist, and a resident of Wellsboro. He is working to add wildlife photographer to his resume.

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Mighty meals: At Hotel Manor you can enjoy a meal while watching eagles and herons hunt for theirs.

Good Eats off the Creek

Pine Creek and West Branch Food Joints Worth Wading Into

By Karin Knaus

W

hen you live near the Mighty Pine, a potential adventure is just around every scenic bend.

Early spring mornings find some rising before dawn to throw a line in at first light to catch a limit of brookies. In autumn, cyclists of all kinds are putting in some miles under the colorful canopy on the Pine Creek Rail Trail. In winter, families hit the snowmobile trails to experience the Pennsylvania Wilds as only a few hearty souls do, and—as I can attest to personally—any season is the right time

to spend a Sunday Funday stopping in to experience the culinary delights and refreshing libations of the gems along the West Branch.

Regardless of your own adventure style, when hunger begins to gnaw at your belly, and you’re ready to stop somewhere to refuel, the options are pleasurable and plentiful in the Pine Creek Valley.

We encourage you to sample the flavors, both local and culinary, of these establishments on your next Pine Creek adventure. (Business hours are expanding

as the weather warms. Be sure to call or check Facebook before heading out.)

Hotel Manor (392 Slate Run Road, Slate Run): For any lower Pine traveler, visiting the Hotel Manor at least once is an absolute requirement. The food hits the spot—offerings include sandwiches and shareables—but perhaps the most iconic feature is the stunning panoramic view. Try to score a spot on the deck and watch Pine Creek flow, and when early evening comes, enjoy the scene of flySee Eats on page 22

20

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Let The Music

Eats continued from page 20

fishers casting their lines. Stick around to watch the magic of the moon rising from behind the mountain. (570) 753-8414, hotel-manor.com.

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Sunday, May 1, 2022 4:00 PM Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY

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Ukrainian-American violinist

SOLOMIYA IVAKHIV Violin Concerto Beethoven

Twin Cities from “The River” Duke Ellington

Symphony No. 8 Dvořák

Tickets: (607) 936-2873 or osfl.org This concert is sponsored in part by The Estate of Brent & Martha Olmstead.

The OSFL will comply with the COVID safety protocols as set by the Corning Museum of Glass.

OSFL programs are made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

22

Mountain Top and Provisions (17333 Coudersport Pike, Lock Haven): Purchased and revamped in 2019, not only has the interior of this Hyner Mountain institution been almost entirely redone with modern touches like galvanized steel and subway tile, in warmer months, you can enjoy outdoor deck and pavilion seating or sit by the fire pit, where the signature smokehouse meals just make sense. Popular dishes include the smokehouse platter, which offers a choice of brisket, pork, homemade sausage, or smoked wings and sides, and the I Can’t Decide Duo Sandwich, for those who are waffling between brisket and pork. On this sandwich, you get both, plus a sweet pepper slaw. The hub salad is another favorite with veggies, pickled eggs, marinated peppers, French fries, and your choice of meat. Add a signature cocktail or milkshake, and you’ll leave satisfied for sure. (570) 769-6238.

Pat Reeder’s Tavern (23370 Route 44, Lock Haven): If you’re looking for local color and history, Pat Reeder’s has it in spades. If you’re lucky enough to sit at the bar and chat with Margaret, who, with husband “Malm” Riggle, operates this 100-year-old regional staple, you’ll get a colorful and warm history of the tavern and its people. Pat Reeder opened the place in 1922, covertly selling liquor provided by Lycoming County’s legendary Prince Farrington. Today, you can drink your cocktails and beer right out in the open, either inside or in the heated outdoor seating area. Pat Reeder’s offers sandwiches, pizza, salads, homemade chili, and lots of fun things from the fryer, but Margaret says their most popular menu items are the burgers and wings. (570) 769-6637.

Waterville Tavern (10783 North Route 44 Highway, Waterville): Situated along the rail trail in the heart of Waterville, you’ll see the charming outdoor tables and striking upstairs porch from the bike saddle. Inside, friendly faces will treat you to a great meal or delicious cocktail, with their martini menu featuring more than thirty flavors—try the caramel apple and peanut butter cup. The menu has appetizers to share, sandwiches, and entrees. Bartender Al says the liver and onions is always popular and that the current menu is a collection of all the most popular items from the last few years. Also highly recommended is the Pine Creek Canoe, a homestyle dish with golden fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and cheese.

Save room for dessert, as there are tasty treats inside and an ice cream stand outside during fair weather. (570) 753-5970, watervilletavern.com.

Santino’s Pine Creek Inn (5645 North Route 44 Highway, Jersey Shore): When you’re thinking about where to grab some great Italian food, chances are you think more Palermo than Pine Creek. Santino’s Pine Creek Inn might just change your mindset about that. Santino’s offers an impressive array of Italian goodies ranging from hand-cut steaks and pasta favorites to hoagies, sandwiches, and incredible brick oven pizza. Claiming the whole menu was too good for favorites, our server cited See Eats on page 31

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Courtesy Barbara Betrus

Casting creations: Barb Betrus (right) leads class participants in creel making at Finger Lakes Boating Museum.

A Creel-y Useful Basket Weaving Your Own at Finger Lakes Boating Museum in Hammondsport

By Karey Solomon

T

hey’re seen in illustrations at least as far back as the Middle Ages, and they’re still being used today. They’re sometimes collected as objects of beauty, but are so functional you can’t help but fill them up and carry them around. They’re creels, originally lidded baskets worn on a shoulder strap by fishermen, intended to keep the catch fresh in watery confinement while the fishing proceeds. They’re also useful as a place to stow fishing flies, leaders, and small tools. Their bulbous organic shape is pleasing to the eye. The back is usually slightly curved inward to fit against the body, which may be partly why some women carry them as purses. Traditionally the lid has a slot, allowing the insertion of fish without having to open the latch.

24

Creels are now made of durable fabric, leather, and plastics but they were, in days past, woven of willow, wood splint, or reed.

Those days are back. On April 30 and May 1, basket weaver Barbara Betrus is teaching a “Make a Fishing Creel” class at the Finger Lakes Boating Museum. While the class of six might begin knowing little of basketmaking, they will emerge at the end of the class, finished creel in hand, ready for many seasons of fishing or simply admiring the results of a new skill.

Nancy Wightman, at the FLBM, thinks the creel class is a good fit.

“We celebrate boating history and boat building,” she says. “The iconic boats of the Finger Lakes were the rowboats and fishing boats, also called trout boats.” The Finger

Lakes, of course, are prime territory for lake fishing, particularly for those in search of trout, bass, and landlocked salmon.

Many years ago, Barbara was invited to take a basketmaking class with her sister.

She recalls loving the time with her sister, although not the class itself. But later, while teaching in a wide-ranging series of public school settings in the Adirondacks, Barbara found an inspiring mentor in Bill Smith.

She was intrigued enough to try it again.

Bill is a renowned storyteller and musician whose narratives of resilience and survival are part of his dedication to preserving traditional arts. Hailing from Colton, New York, Bill learned basketmaking from his mother, who in turn had learned from Native Americans who were frequent guests

in their home. From Bill, Barbara learned to weave baskets out of ash splints, but the predations of the invasive emerald ash borer have forced many basket makers, Barbara included, to turn to reed.

She went on to take more classes, including a creel class with a pattern developed by Lisa Nortz, daughter of wellknown silversmiths Butch and Pat Bramhall.

“Lisa and Bill were amazing instructors and, from them, I learned I could do it,” Barbara says. It’s Lisa’s pattern Barbara is teaching at FLBM this spring.

“I originally started making it because I’d seen people using them,” says Lisa, who’s from the Adirondacks. “A lot of creels were patterned after the Adirondack pack basket from a long time ago. It’s so indigenous to this region of New York.” Traditional Adirondack pack baskets are pot-bellied rather than straight-sided. Lisa weaves miniature pack basket necklaces out of sterling and fine silver. They may be seen at silverbenchjewelry.com.

Lisa says she’s pleased Barbara is teaching her pattern. “She does beautiful work and she’s taught others the pleasure of weaving baskets. And that’s wonderful,” Lisa says.

The two-day basket weaving class—

six hours each day—begins with reeds thoroughly soaked in warm water to make them pliable. The weaving starts flat, then is shaped into a vessel as it progresses.

“Whenever you make any sort of basket, you have to let it sit overnight and dry. Then you re-wet it the next day so you can pack it down,” Barbara explains. The woven-together stakes used in the flat part of the weaving have to be “upset”—or turned upright to shape the sides of the basket. This is a tricky step, and can be frustrating for beginners, as Barbara discovered during her first foray into basketmaking.

What she ultimately took away from that first class was that a good instructor helps students deal with any discouragement. “You’ll definitely hit some bumps in the road,” but adds there is “always a way to go over it.” For this and other fine points of basketmaking, there’s no substitute for a real-time instructor who can help with troubleshooting, tools, techniques, and maybe a quiet “be kind” mantra when the beginning weaver wants to throw things.

When the basket is finished, students will turn them upside down and trace the top opening. Then the museum’s woodworkers will shape a wooden top

specific to each basket.

“Everybody’s basket is not the same, so you can’t have the wooden top made ahead of time.” Barbara says. “It’s very individual.”

The creels are finished with leather straps and a latch. The top—with or without a fish slot, as the maker prefers—is attached and the creel is done. You can line your creation with moss to receive a fish, display it if you’re a catch-and-release kind of fisherperson, or perhaps let it be useful as a container for something else. Whatever purpose they find for their creel, Barbara wants her students to enjoy the project.

She also hopes some will continue making baskets.

“I don’t want the art of weaving to be lost,” she says, adding, “I’m hoping to be the teacher like the good ones I’ve had, to pass the knowledge along.”

Find more information or register for the class at flbm.org, call (607) 569-2222, or visit the museum at 8231 Pleasant Valley Road in Hammondsport.

Karey Solomon is a freelance writer and needlework designer who teaches internationally.

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Karey Solomon

Over the river: (from left) Connie Monaco, Mary Kohan, Betty Maxwell, and Lorna Folmar hold their submissions for the River Runs Through It contest.

A Needle Runs Through It

Elmira Piecemakers Showcase a River of Quilting at the National Soaring Museum

By Karey Solomon

I

s it form over function or the other way around? When the artwork is quilts, it can be both, as members of Elmira Piecemakers well know. After seeing the results of collaborative projects in another group, Piecemakers quilt historian and current program chair Cathleen “Cathie” Wiggs offered members a challenge.

Everyone who accepted received an eightinch wide piece of bright blue, waterypatterned batik to use in a two by three foot panel. The blue, intended to depict a river, became a feature set into each quilter’s depiction of a landscape whose other elements—animals, birds, sky, clouds, trees, greenery, fish and people— are added with fabric, beads, found objects, and stitches. The design of each

26

quilt was left entirely to its designer— with one proviso. The blue “river” fabric, however it meanders through the panel, must start and end at least two to three inches above the bottom on two opposite sides.

Celebrating their fortieth anniversary this year, the Piecemakers thus began creation of a fabric river, the culmination of which is expected to be a highlight of their biennial quilt show, set this year for Friday through Sunday, April 22, 23, and 24 at the National Soaring Museum, 51 Soaring Hill Drive, Harris Hill, Elmira.

Nearly half of the approximately 130 members from across New York’s Southern Tier and Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier gather monthly to create and sew together.

The quilters inspire each other to stretch outside the comfort zone of the oftenformidable skills most already possess. The results are not just quilts—they are fabric art. When the thirty or so entries resulting from Cathie’s challenge are hung at the upcoming show, the individual segments of river will flow together in a continuous ribbon of color, relating very individual interpretations with a common thread.

Many quilters associate their hypothetical river with wilderness relaxation, populating their scenery with fishermen, boaters, and the occasional bear. Some see it as a pristine, primeval environment.

Some waters are local, such as Mary Kohan’s quilted depiction of Taughannock Falls as the source of her river.

See Gillett on page 30

Annmarie Allaire went further north for her inspiration.

She was reminded of an Alaskan vacation and how awestruck she was by the scenery around Denali. She used photographs taken by her husband to reproduce her favorite view in fabric.

The design phase took about a month of sketching and planning, she says. After three months of stitching, quilting, and finishing, a time that included re-dyeing some of her fabric, her quilt panel was ready.

“I’ve been sewing since 1955,” she says. “This really was a challenge. But I had fun doing it. And it gave me the courage to try something different.”

Pat Wainwright, who brought her work-in-progress to the group’s meeting bristling with pinned-down details, says she’s confident she’ll have her panel done in time for it to be hung with the others. She stitched busily during an explanation of the details that go into making the quilt show run smoothly.

It takes a small army of volunteers to organize, hang, and administer the exhibit of nearly 300 quilted works. Some plan the displays, some catalog and hang the entries, and others demonstrate techniques. Then there are the white-gloved quilt guardians who will carefully flip back a corner of a quilt for closer examination so viewers can take a nearer, albeit hands-off, look.

The most active volunteers begin their marathon work session when they retrieve several truckloads of quilt display racks from storage. These racks are jointly owned with a sister group, the Athens-based Endless Mountains Quilt Guild. The two groups use them for quilt shows in alternate years. Some quilters belong to both guilds—and a few more besides. After the display quilts are delivered, fifty nimble volunteers will actually hang the show.

“The entries are all shapes and sizes,” says guild president and show chair Cindy McGuire. “From bed quilts to miniatures, some hand-quilted, some appliquéd. Some of the quilts are pretty intricate. We just hope to expose other quilters to what we’ve done and learned.”

With their five dollar admission (it helps defray the cost of using the museum), visitors can tour the exhibit, and opt to take notes on what they see. Each admission comes with a ballot and an opportunity to cast a vote for a favorite quilt. One amazing quilter will then take home the viewer’s choice award.

Attendees can also look beyond the fabric art to take in the museum’s permanent displays of vintage motorless aircraft or watch the gliders outside on Harris Hill (weather cooperating).

Cathie will be on hand in the persona and costume of “Hillbilly Lily.” She’ll be talking about the folklore enlivening the melting pot of Appalachian quilting traditions. Among the nuggets of mountain wisdom she learned while researching her presentation was a superstition forbidding a bride-to-be from putting the last stitch into her trousseau quilt—otherwise her marriage wouldn’t last. Another cautions dire consequences awaiting the overzealous who forgo a day of rest in favor of stitching on a Sunday.

Every other hour, guild members will offer quilting technique demonstrations. There will be vendors selling fabric and threads, and attendees can take a chance on winning a quilt made by founding guild member Veda Johnson. Look for more information and a schedule at the group’s website, piecemakersofelmira.com. Show hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Karey Solomon is a freelance writer and needlework designer who teaches internationally.

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(2) David O'Reilly

Native catch: J.T. Landy (left) and Bob Helmrich (right) bring fresh fish to their cities from far away Boston Harbors.

Fresh Fish in the Mountains—Thank Cod! Local Seafood Shops Maine Harvest and Helmrich’s Flex Their Mussels

By David O'Reilly

I

t’s nearly noon at Elmira’s Maine Harvest Seafood, and four customers in the last hour have approached the front counter with the same question.

“Got any salmon?”

“We’re waiting for the truck,” owner J.T. Landy explains each time. “Be here any minute.”

Some folks sigh, then turn their gaze on the abundance before them, draped over pillows of ice. Lemon sole? Ocean perch?

The cod, the scallops, the sushi-grade tuna?

Swordfish? Lobster? Haddock?

“I’ll try back in half an hour,” says one man. But another spies the filets of arctic char, whose deep orange flesh sure looks like salmon. “It’s more delicate. It’s out of the trout family,” J.T explains, “so it doesn’t have the same bite” as salmon. The man ponders this, then nods. “Gimme half a pound,” he says, and departs happy.

Still, J.T. is getting a little antsy, and frowns out the window. “Come on, Carl,” he says, invoking the trucker’s name. “He’s running kinda late.”

28

J.T. is thirty-one, bearded, wearing a purple sweatshirt from Cape Cod and a baseball cap featuring an American flag, the stripes depicted as rows of red fish. “It’s pretty much the life I live,” he says with a laugh.

He started working here in high school when his father bought the store from its founder.

“I didn’t expect I’d be running the show,” he adds.

Fresh is the name of the game in the seafood industry. So, for the region’s premier seafood stores like Maine Harvest, and the legendary Helmrich’s Seafood in Williamsport, the refrigerator trucks that rush twice a week out of Boston are their lifelines to the Atlantic and beyond—a big part of what keeps customers loyal. Speaking of loyal customers, Ludwig Carterius, eightynine, pushes through the door. J.T. lights up, greeting him with forefingers raised in a “V” for “two.” But Ludwig—he’s been buying two haddock filets at Maine Harvest every other week for thirty years—laughs, and holds up his whole palm to signify “five.”

“I got my daughter and grandsons

visiting,” he explains, and he’ll be broiling those filets for them the next day.

“They treat me very well here,” Ludwig confides. “And the haddock’s awfully good.”

Then, at 11:53 a.m., a white tractortrailer the size of Moby Dick rumbles to a stop outside. “Truck’s here!” shouts counterman Jeremy Yeakel. Moments later J.T. is outside, stopping traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue, and guiding the truck into his parking lot. Leaving the counter to Jeremy and co-worker Gary Raupers, he personally offloads the pallets and sorts them into the freezers and coolers. Then, clipboard in hand, he crouches over the newly arrived cartons, ticking off each order.

“I’ve got thirteen different vendors from as far north as Prince Edward Island,” he says, and as soon as he’s done the paperwork he hoists a whole salmon, fresh from the Faroe Islands. About sixteen pounds, it still glitters with ice as he lays it on a bench and reaches for a filet knife. In three minutes he’s cut off its tail and head, skinned it, and sliced it into See Cod on page 30

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Cod continued from page 28

two-pound “loins” which he then placed high in the center counter.

“Salmon,” he marvels at 12:18 p.m. “What everybody keeps looking for.”

Days later, and seventy-five miles south, the eponymous Bob Helmrich is scurrying around the loading dock of Helmrich’s Seafood in Williamsport, waiting for “the truck,” when a black wall phone jangles. Bob, seventy-three, doesn’t like to stand still, but he juts out an arm.

“Helmrich’s,” he says. A wholesaler is on the other end, and the pleasantries are brief. “Have you got forty-fifties deveined off?

Okay. I’ll get some of those. Yeah. Yeah. No. You don’t have sixteentwenties peeled and deveined, do you? Uh huh. What’s the price?”

He clicks a ballpoint pen.

“Thirteen and a quarter? Wow, that’s high. I can see you’re not selling much of those.” They talk lobsters and crabmeat, but these, too, are running high. “Okay, okay, let’s talk Friday,” he says, and hangs up.

“Lobster’s up five dollars a pound from a month ago,” he grumbles. A single case of covid on a workboat can idle it for days, he explains, and when supply is down, prices “go through the roof.”

His grandfather, William, started with a produce pushcart in 1895, and in 1908 opened his first store. Helmrich’s has been a fixture in Williamsport ever since—Bob’s father and uncle took over from William—and it’s been on Fifth Street for nearly a century.

Like Maine Harvest, it’s both a distributor to area restaurants and a busy retail shop. Employees mostly wait on customers while Bob and his son, Robert Jr., who works part-time, handle the inventory.

But Bob alone filets and smokes all their fish.

“Been at this sixty years,” he says over his shoulder as he swings open the door of his walk-in freezer. The cartons read like a map of the world: Newfoundland, Scotland, Alaska, South Africa, the Gulf of Mexico.

“I carry two or three thousand pounds of shrimp at a time,” he says, his breath frosty. “Maybe five thousand pounds of haddock.”

Here, and in the adjacent refrigerator, are mahi-mahi, mackerel, monkfish, shark, bluefish, catfish, sole, mussels, porgies, thousands of clams, Dungeness crabs, crawfish, grouper, octopus, squid, escargot, frog legs, and, yes, alligator.

“Oh, alligator’s great,” he says, “Only you got to cook it real slow or it gets tough.”

His favorites? “Lobster. And clams. And grilled oysters on the half-shell. They’re awesome.”

He might “slow down some day,” but never retire. “That,” he says, “is when you die.”

Longtime employee Gina Trapani, who’s plucking pin bones from a Scottish salmon filet, laughs. “His theory is that an object in motion stays in motion,” she says. “When he goes, we’re going to stuff him and put him in one of those chairs over there.”

Hungry for fish now? Find Maine Harvest Seafood at 650 Pennsylvania Avenue, Elmira, on Facebook, or call (607) 7336759; find Helmrich’s at 137 Fifth Street, Williamsport, at helmrichsseafood.business.site, or call (570) 322-2454.

Award-winning journalist David O’Reilly was a writer and editor for thirty-five years at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he covered religion for two decades.

Eats continued from page 22

the chicken a la Santino, a chicken breast with eggplant, a white cream sauce, and broccoli, and the linguine Louisiana, which features scallops and shrimp in a spicy pink sauce, as her own top picks.

The modern bar features cocktail specials and a nice variety of beers, from New Trail IPAs to Miller Lite and Yuengling.

(570) 865-6630.

Up the Crick (5099 North Route 44 Highway, Jersey Shore): Up the Crick is a must-stop when your adventures take you down Route 44. Visit with owner Erika Morgan, who will welcome you like family to a host of local treasures. Find lots to feast on, from local cheese, eggs, sauerkraut, pickles, jams, jerky, eggs, and the ever popular Paula and Patty’s Party Mix (which absolutely buries any common pub mix you might have hiding in your back seat). They also do wine tastings from Freas Farm Winery and sell several varieties of wine slushy. If a cocktail is more your speed, Erika stocks several delicious mixes on her shelves.

Outside the food realm, you can pick up

some locally made soap or lotion, jewelry, antiques, and all kinds of other rare and lovely finds in this equally rare and lovely spot. (570) 865-6247, upthecrick44.com.

Venture Inn (1896 North Route 44 Highway, Jersey Shore): What could be better for the hungry outdoor adventurer than deck seating right along the rail trail and right next to a fire pit? Venture Inn offers those options. The Famous Venture Burger is the fan favorite and comes topped with bacon, onion rings, BBQ sauce, and Monterey Jack cheese.

A rotating list of soups includes lobster bisque and French onion. The rest of the menu bubbles over with something for every diner—salads, sandwiches, shareables, and even seafood—a balm if your own “catch of the day” isn’t filling your creel or belly. Stick around for dessert, as decadent pies and cake specials are available, like Nutter Butter Pie. (570) 753-5188.

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the café is open you can treat yourself to breakfast gems like creamed chipped beef and biscuits-n-gravy. Stop in at lunchtime or after your day on the trail and try a salad, a wrap, a hearty deli sandwich or hoagie, or go big with a steak or one of their many Farmhouse burgers. The popular Butcher Block Burger features a mix of beef, pork, and bacon grilled and topped with cheese and fixin’s. Most importantly, save room for dessert, as the main attraction at Waltz’s is the homemade ice cream. Friendly staff will let you sample some. Once you’ve picked your favorites, enjoy them in the comfortable, farmhouse dining area.

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Karin Knaus was born to write this article, as adventuring down the Mighty Pine, eating good food, and meeting new people are her three favorite pastimes. During the week, her great adventure is teaching high school English.

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31

Guide continued from page 11

An English lady, Jill Spells, from Botswana spent a month with Don, learning how to tie flies so she could take the knowledge back to twenty-one women there.

“The following fall, I found myself sitting in the lonely restaurant in Maun, Botswana.

I was ready to check out Jill’s twenty-one flytiers.” Of course, Botswana’s tiger fish, notably one of the world's toughest game fish, attracted Don to the area as well.

Some time after that, Dr. Paul McQuay, who was involved with Cottage Industries, a program teaching skills to people in third world countries, called Don and asked him to spend a month in the Amazon basin, again teaching women how to tie flies.

“On the plane, we carried hundreds of beautifully dyed Pennsylvania whitetail deer tails,” Don says. With those, the women learned to make flies to catch large fish, notably the peacock bass.

So, what does a man do when he has to “slow down” in his nineties? For Don, it was write a book. As a scholar and a creator of many workshops, demonstrations, and seminars, he was not unfamiliar with writing.

But a book is a different kettle of fish.

“I don’t know if I would have done it if I’d known how much work it was,” Don admits. The book took two years, and readers will recognize it as a labor of love. Don assembled a team to help with his “slow down” project. Barbara Cioffi was his editor, and Ron Wenning, fellow outdoorsman and head of Wennawoods Publishing, gave guidance and support. They found a publisher in Quebec City who could work with the book a chapter at a time. Don listened to the experts and used their advice to produce the results he wanted.

The glossy, full color book is a tribute to a life in the wilds, filled with photos of some of the most beautiful places in the world, and filled with more than a few tips and tricks in the art of fly-fishing—yet one more seminar from a master of the craft.

The book is available through Flies International, P.O. Box 215, Carlisle, PA, 17015. $34.95 plus $5.95 media mail shipping.

Payments may be made with check or money order to Flies International, or via PayPal at kfairchild2000@yahoo.com.

Mountain Home contributor Linda Roller is a bookseller, appraiser, and writer in Avis, Pennsylvania.

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