Mountain Home, August 2024

M O U N T A I N

HOME Pennsylvania & the New York Finger Lakes

Mr. & Mrs. Main street Rick and Lori Beckwith’s Eateries Bring New Life to Wellsboro’s Charming Main Drag

By Karin Knaus

IFO Sightings in the Twin Tiers Rollin’ on the Susquehanna River Good Dogs Sit and Stay in Corning-Elmira Galleries

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August 20241

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Volume 19 Issue 8

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The Last Great Place

Mr. & Mrs. Main Street

By Teresa Banik Capuzzo The Hoosiers do it again.

By Karin Knaus

14 Perfect Pitches

Rick and Lori Beckwith’s eateries bring new life to Wellsboro’s charming main drag.

By Carolyn Straniere

The Wellsboro Men’s Chorus to sing at the Little League World Series.

22 A Rose Blooms

By Karey Solomon

Penn Yan couple bring something new to the table.

26 The Year of Living

Yummily

6 The Dog Days Are Here...

By Carolyn Straniere

Los Agaves Taqueria joins Wellsboro’s Main Street.

28 Great Food and Service

By David Higgins

Are Family Traditions

...and they’re in Corning and Elmira.

By Carolyn Straniere

The Steak House’s third generation is happy to serve Wellsboro.

30 A Rich (Port) Taste of

Adventure

By Linda Roller

Williamsport business offers empanadas with a side of kayaks.

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34 Rollin’ On a River

Identified Flying Objects

By Gayle Morrow

Nine days. 290 miles. Alan Walsh’s proud solo paddle.

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

38 Hiking a Trail of Memories

Disc golf takes off in the Twin Tiers.

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

Our staff recreationalist explores the layers at Ithaca’s Robert H. Treman state park.

42 Back of the Mountain

By Deb Young

Summertime and the livin’ is easy.

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Cover photo: Rick and Lori Beckwith,

by Wade Spencer; (top) a wall ornament in Beck’s Bistro created

by Rick, by Wade Spencer; (middle) Weimaraners, by William Wegman, courtesy Rockwell Museum; (bottom) Cory McCarty, by Lilace Mellin Guignard 3

UNDER THE

Stars

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 Editor & Publisher Lilace Mellin Guignard Associate Publisher George Bochetto, Esq.

Art Director Wade Spencer

Managing Editor Gayle Morrow

S a l e s R ep r e s e n t a t i v e Shelly Moore

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Cover Design Wade Spencer Contributing Writers David Higgins, Karin Knaus, Linda Roller, Karey Solomon, Carolyn Straniere

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C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Andrea DeSara, Linda Roller, Karey Solomon, Carolyn Straniere, Bud Voorhees, Deb Young

D U C TI O

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ON-GIB ILT

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Accounting Amy Packard

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Circulation Director Michael Banik

D i s t r i b u t i o n T eam Amy Woodbury, 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, online at mountainhomemag.com or at issuu.com/mountainhome. Copyright © 2024 Beagle Media, LLC. All rights reserved. E-mail story ideas to editorial@ mountainhomemag.com, or call (570) 724-3838.

TO ADVERTISE: E-mail info@mountainhomemag.com, or call us at (570) 724-3838.

AWARDS: Mountain Home has won over 100 international and statewide journalism awards from the International Regional Magazine Association and the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association for excellence in writing, photography, and design.

DISTRIBUTION: Mountain Home is available “Free as the Wind” at hundreds of locations in Tioga, Potter, Bradford, Lycoming, Union, and Clinton counties in PA and Steuben, Chemung, Schuyler, Yates, Seneca, Tioga, and Ontario counties in NY. SUBSCRIPTIONS: For a one-year subscription (12 issues), send $24.95, payable to Beagle Media LLC, 39 Water Street, Wellsboro, PA 16901 or visit mountainhomemag.com..

Linda Stager

Paula Piatt Lilace Mellin Guignard

Terence Lane Deb Young

Gayle Morrow

Steve McCloskey

Don Kelly

Marshall Nych

Jimmy Guignard

Wade Spencer

Maggie Barnes

The Hoosiers Do It Again

By Teresa Banik Capuzzo

M

ountain Home has been a member of IRMA, the International Regional Media Association, for over a decade. But this June was the first time I attended one of their annual conferences. In Charlotte, my MH sidekick, associate editor and publisher Lilace Mellin Guignard, and I were hanging with the big dogs, an illustrious group that includes magazines like Oklahoma Today, Arizona Highways, Texas Highways (these are particularly big-budgeted and statefunded). Magazines gorgeous to hold and behold. Heavyweights of the industry. (As opposed to our fulltime staff of four.) And you know what? I’ll take those odds. Because what we have here in Mountain Home country is passion for storytelling, and talent for writing and photography—all as timeless as the hills themselves.

And that faith was rewarded.

Maggie Barnes, who I expect to win something every time we enter her name, outdid herself, winning an IRMA gold in the column category for her Glory Hill Diaries.

The judges understood why we love her so much, one of them saying her columns were

“absolutely delightful and I found myself doing something I rarely do when reading: laughing out loud. It is a joy to read these columns that have a lyric grace and electricity all their own while delivering insights into the human spirit and soul.” That wasn’t the end of it for Maggie this year: A few weeks later, when the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association announced their awards, Maggie won a second-place Keystone for those columns, and an honorable mention for her December cover, “It’s a Wonderful Story,” about the Wyalusing man who is responsible for one of the most beloved Christmas movies ever filmed.

But the IRMAs weren’t done with us yet.

When they announced the awards for profile stories, my oh-so-talented sidekick Lilace took the silver for “Torch Singer.” Sometimes everything goes wrong for something better to fall into place, and that was what happened for the story of firefighter-turnedcrooner Chris Eckert, when the planned story fell through and Lilace stepped in to write the cover on a tight deadline. It was wildly popular, so the judges were just confirming something you all knew already. PNA also agreed, and

Lilace would go on to win a first place Keystone for the story in the personality profile category.

Lilace’s husband, Jimmy Guignard, an English professor at Commonwealth University—Mansfield, is a southerner, and was, true to his roots, a bourbon drinker. But he made peace with this part of the Appalachians by discovering that rye whiskey is also pretty darned tasty, and won an IRMA bronze for his fascinating story of the ongoing history of that beverage in these parts in “Rye Rebels.” One judge wrote: “The writer embodies all you’d hope for in a rye aficionado: dry wit, a worldlywise outlook, and writing that comes only from being comfortable in one’s wizened skin.”

But they weren’t done. Lilace then took a bronze IRMA in the travel feature category for “Winey Dogs Allowed,” of which a judge said: “Cute title, cuter idea, cutest dog.

Practical advice and a fun story—the perfect pairing (somewhat like wineries and dogs, apparently).” It should be noted that the dog referred to is also a Guignard.

So, I just started calling the award The Guignards. (Sorry, Maggie.)

See Hoosiers on page 41

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Mr. & Mrs. Main Street Rick and Lori Beckwith’s Eateries Bring New Life to Wellsboro’s Charming Main Drag

By Karin Knaus

R

ick and Lori Beckwith, empty nesters in Wellsboro, were looking for something to fill their time—and fill their stomachs. When most couples get hungry for an appetizer, dinner, or dessert, they simply order them.

Rick and Lori do it differently. They find an empty storefront, brainstorm a crazy dream, and with no prior experience, which never stops them, start a food business.

First was the appetizer. In 2015, Rick and Lori opened the Main Street Olive Oil Company at 75 Main Street, offering ninety-five oils and balsamic 6

Wade Spencer Screamin’ good ice cream: Lori and Rick Beckwith enjoy a calm moment with super scoopers Megan Newruck (left) and Ellie Largey.

vinegars to sample, with gourmet dinners on the side to get to know more folks.

Next (slightly out of order) came dessert. In 2019, they opened the Main Street Creamery at 17 Main Street, serving sixteen mouth-watering, handmade ice-cream flavors and joyfully mentoring and parenting a whole class of high schoolers to scoop 200 gallons a week, in between cooking them dinners and proudly snapping their prom photos.

Finally, it was time for dinner.

See Mr. & Mrs. on page 8

7

Wade Spencer

Courtesy Lori Beckwith

The clothes make the business: Rick and Lori Beckwith costumed for the Senior’s Creations booth at Dickens weekend (left) and in their summer shortsleeves at the Main Street Creamery.

Mr. & Mrs. continued from page 7

In May 2022, the Beckwiths opened Beck’s Bistro at 104 Main Street, offering delectable gourmet meals, a full, brickwalled bar, and live music to locals and visitors. It’s a short walk (nine doors down and across the street) from where Beck’s diners may have bought Main Street olive oil earlier in the day. Fifteen doors farther down from the olive oil store, next to the Wellsboro Diner, is the creamery where Rick and Lori’s bistro diners may be headed to the couple’s Main Street ice cream shop for dessert.

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Main Street, Wellsboro The odds are good that if you’re strolling on the town’s historic main boulevard, a gaslit gem that enabled Wellsboro to beat out Montpelier, Vermont, Lambertville, New Jersey, and Gettysburg in a USA Today poll of the ten most enchanting small towns in the Northeast, you’re digesting something Rick and Lori made, thinking about it, or seeing your reflection in one of their storefronts.

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Mountain Home sat down with Rick and Lori at Beck’s Bistro, at an outdoor table with a view of the town green—dining alfresco is another one of their inspirations—to discuss how their love of the town, coupled with a desire to provide a continuing draw for the area’s vital tourist industry, made them a critical part of the Main Street landscape. And to learn what’s next, because with Rick and Lori, a couple burning with energy and one new brainstorm after another, there’s always a next.

The Beckwiths, who met back in 1997 through mutual friends in the most Northern Tier of ways—at a pond party while Rick was home on leave from the US Navy—take little credit for the ways they’ve transformed the Wellsboro downtown culture over the last several years.

“Our philosophy,” says Lori, “is that people want an experience.”

They come by their love of the area honestly.

Lori grew up in Wellsboro and Rick in nearby Bradford County. After raising children in the Athens area and living for a time in Virginia near Rick’s Naval assignment, the couple returned to the area to stay in 2014. Rick had recently retired after

twenty-five years in the military. He then bought a laser engraving machine to tinker with as a hobby. As any burgeoning entrepreneur might, Rick opened a booth of his wares at Dickens of a Christmas that year.

“We had a blast at Dickens! That kind of gave us the bug,” says Rick. The space they currently inhabit adjacent to Timeless Destination became available, and the couple decided to open Senior’s Creations and the Main Street Olive Oil Company.

The name Senior’s Creations reflects Rick’s rank as Senior Chief Petty Officer. During his military service, Rick had spent a sixmonth deployment in Crete and developed a real interest in olive oil there.

“I learned how it’s grown, how it’s pressed,” he says. “I was in a place where the Mediterranean diet was popular, and then we just jumped in.” This inaugural business opened doors for the first time on Dickens day 2015. As Rick says, “Nobody told us better.”

Lori worked in the store and continued her own nutrition consulting business as well. With the retail piece in full swing, the Beckwiths expanded the operation to offer their popular “Just a Taste” dinners.

Participants would schedule an evening out

DINING ALFRESCO

with friends to enjoy a six-course tapas-style meal that included education on the oils and balsamics at every course, as well as recipes to take home.

“It worked,” says Rick. “And it really grew our business.”

That was only the beginning of the team’s boundless store of brainstorms. “Rick came to me with an idea. He wanted to do Italian ice on Friday and Saturday outside the olive oil store,” says Lori. That was 2018, and they bought a cart and sold the ice all summer. They just really wanted to do it “as something different for the town,” says Rick. In truth, many of the duo’s business ideas have little to do with an eye to the profit, but, rather, what new, relevant, or necessary product or service they could bring to the town they love and the tourists who flock there.

As it turns out, one frozen treat leads to another. “At that time, there were lots of stores vacant downtown,” says Rick. The Beckwiths hated seeing it. The owner of the building housing the olive oil store also owned the vacant, historic Shattuck House next to the famous Wellsboro Diner, and he was looking to do something with it. Says Lori, “Rick had always wanted to make ice cream. So, I came home and said ‘I just rented the Shattuck building. You have six months to get it ready for Memorial Day.’” The couple, who’d formed relationships with lots of customers over the years at the olive oil store, couldn’t have predicted the instant success of the Main Street Creamery they opened in the spring of 2019. The line that first day, in fact, extended out the door and all the way around past the Diner. They quickly learned a great deal.

At that time the process of preparing and deep freezing ice cream was lengthy. “It took two days to make a tub of ice cream, and we were out,” laughs Rick of that first opening day. So he stayed up all night to make more for the next day’s demand, freezing for less time than he’d planned. “Now,” says Rick, “we can do it faster. We couldn’t do what we could do now.”

A matching dairy grant the couple obtained in 2021 allowed them to transform the basement into a streamlined, modern production facility. Now, the crew at the Creamery produces and sells eighty tubs a week, which equals about 200 gallons, and the store remains open from April through December’s Christmas on Main Street celebration. The sixteen flavors available to dip are ever evolving and revolving, using seasonal ingredients and other inspirations, and range from vanilla and toasted coconut to rhubarb honeycomb custard and chocolate chili almond.

It’s another way the Beckwiths create an experience for visitors.

For most, two booming businesses, plus a consulting business and family around the country, would be plenty to stay busy.

Lori explains, though, that when the Red Skillet, the restaurant occupying the Deane Center space before Beck’s Bistro, closed and had a sales agreement with someone, she felt a slight pang of disappointment, like maybe she’d missed an opportunity. When that sale didn’t work out, they decided to explore the opportunity themselves.

“The problem is, we don’t like to see anything empty or closed,” explains Rick. So they bought it. With a two-week turnover from closing, Rick put in new floors and created custom wooden tops for all the tables and the existing bar.

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9

(2) Wade Spencer

Mr. & Mrs. continued from page 9

That restaurant now offers lunch six days a week and dinner five, with cocktail and coffee options, daily specials, and an array of entertainment throughout the typical week.

Lori Beckwith

What’s There to Do? Where does this drive to operate so many thriving businesses come from, and how does the couple manage to remain sane while juggling so many pins in the air? Lori says it’s a simple feeling the two share.

“We both really love Wellsboro. We understand it’s a tourist town, and to keep tourism alive, there have to be things for them to do.”

Coupling that with their aforementioned phiDip, sip, and tap: Main losophy that people are looking for experiences, the Street Olive Oil Co. lets Beckwiths have built their business model around customers sample their providing people with something engaging and, acoils and vinegars so cording to Rick, “something to keep it relevant.” you pick the perfect gift (top); get a smalltown At Senior’s Creations and the Main Street Olspecialty at the Main ive Oil Company, you’ll find the idea that you can Street Creamery’s oldtake your time there, tasting your way through a fashioned soda fountain; vast selection of olive oils, balsamic vinegars, and Molly Cary and Dan spice blends, from the savory to the sweet. The staff Shipe play at Beck’s is prepared to discuss the intricacies of the products, Bistro many Wednesday like how they are produced and how they would be night happy hours. best used at home. Likewise, the store has a wide selection of Rick’s laser engraved wood products.

Down the street at the Main Street Creamery, the objective is to not only provide exceptional service, but also to make entering the historic building itself an experience. Wellsboro folk all have a history there from businesses of the past, and, as the couple says, “we manage to hire great staff.” Indeed, at the Creamery alone, each year they hire fourteen young people, which they refer to as that year’s “class.” Lori and Rick reminisce that in the earlier years of the business before opening the restaurant, they developed strong relationships with each class even outside of the Creamery.

“We used to go to their games,” says Rick. “And cook them dinner!” chimes in Lori.

During covid, they tried to stay focused on connecting to the community and providing its people with something to break up the long days at home. So, they offered a once-a-week ice cream pint pick-up behind the building all summer long.

Later, Rick wanted to add an old-fashioned soda fountain to the building. They purchased a 1950s-era Walgreen’s soda fountain out of Pittsburgh, which Rick has since refurbished. It’s open in the Creamery on weekends.

At Beck’s Bistro, the couple intend to offer hungry and thirsty patrons an experience that is more than just a great meal. The menu changes every eight to ten weeks, with many customers dropping in often in an effort to try all the tasty offerings before new ones come on.

Then there’s the live music. “We knew from the beginning we wanted to do music,” Lori says. Hence, each Wednesday, they highlight a happy hour music offering of local musicians and singers. Fall through spring, the Beck’s team fills restaurant seats by See Mr. & Mrs. on page 12

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Speakeasy and carry a long cigarette: A group of local ladies (including the scribe herself, Karin Knaus, second from left on the bottom row) pose in the photo room staged for the roaring fundraiser collaboration between the Deane Center and Beck’s Bistro.

Mr. & Mrs. continued from page 10

offering team trivia on Tuesday nights. Likewise, each night the menu is slightly different, from flatbread pizza and wings for happy hour to sit-down gourmet dinners Thursdays through Saturdays.

These experience-builders are focused on making someone’s time in Wellsboro, whether they live here or are visiting for a few days, special and memorable. “We want them to leave happy,” says Lori of their customers in all three locations.

That commitment to the customer extends to the community at large, too. In fact, there are few Wellsboro residents who don’t connect in some way with the couple. Lori is associated with the Wellsboro Area Chamber of Commerce and serves on the borough’s GROW (Growth Resources of Wellsboro) board. She also serves on the committee for Christmas on Main Street, for which Rick makes the souvenir ornaments.

Lori also highlights the importance in maintaining a good rapport with other businesses in town, noting, “We patronize other businesses, shop local, and promote others.” She says they actively try not to do entertainment on the same nights others offer it. The Beckwiths understand that when all businesses do well, everybody wins.

“Most business owners in Wellsboro understand the importance of tooting the horn of other businesses,” Lori says.

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Lori and Rick also have a heart for the Deane Center for the Performing Arts, the building in which Beck’s Bistro resides. Lori says if they know a Deane Center show isn’t sold out, they’ll talk up the event to dinner patrons. They’ve frequently catered and offered bar service for Deane Center happenings.

In late 2023, Lori approached a Deane Center board member about working together on an event she’d had in her mind for a while—to close the building down and operate a private 1920sstyle Speakeasy for one night. The idea and the collaboration took off, growing to be a successful sellout and generating appreciated and needed funds for the Deane Center. The Beckwiths weren’t concerned with making lots of money for themselves, but were concerned with helping the Deane and making people happy, while bringing something novel, fun, and exciting to the town they love.

“We’re always looking…you have to look at things they do in other places in the country,” says Rick. “How can we do that in a small town?”

While Lori and Rick have worked hard to develop ways to excite and enhance the community they love, they take little credit for that. Rick thinks, in fact, one of the greatest ways they foster community is in the training they give to the young people that See Mr. & Mrs. on page 40

It’s a festive weekend filled with shopping, activities, and history that will warm your heart and fill you with Christmas Spirit!

HIGHLIGHTED ACTIVITIES:

Extended Shopping Hours • Santa Brunch Live Theatre • Dollar Christmas Movie • Live Reindeer Christmas Concerts & Caroling • Live Nativity Holiday-Themed Game Night • Historic Tours Historic Ornament Display • Swing Dancing Horse-Drawn Wagon Rides • Santa Parade

Vintage Ornament Displays will be on exhibit December 10 through 15!

WellsboroChristmasOnMainStreet.com for event schedule updates

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Bud Voorhees

Saloon crooners: When not singing on local stages or at the Williamsport Little League Championships, the Wellsboro Men’s Chorus can be found singing for their cuppa at the Penn Wells Lounge on Main Street in Wellsboro.

Perfect Pitches

The Wellsboro Men’s Chorus to Sing at the Little League World Series

By Carolyn Straniere

B

aseball. America’s pastime. A bat, a ball, a leather glove, and a field of dreams. Dreams that include playing in the big leagues someday. Those aspirations start when players are young, often in Minor League (kids aged five to twelve), in Little League. The next step is Major League, for those nine to twelve, with hopes of their team advancing all the way to a state championship, and a chance to play in the Little League World Series. This international event, held in South Williamsport each August, consists of twenty teams from around the world.

Started in 1947, it was originally called the National Little League Tournament with teams only from the United States; it was later renamed the World Series after the Major League Baseball World Series.

This year, Wellsboro’s own Men’s Chorus will have the honor of singing the National Anthem at one of the night games.

How is a group chosen for this detail? Erick Coolidge, a fifty-three-year member of the chorus, explains.

“A conversation a couple of years ago with Bob Metarko, a Vietnam veteran, resulted in my singing the National Anthem at the Little League World Series in 2022,” Erick says. “I was approached by an organizer

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of the LLWS earlier this year to see if the Men’s Chorus would be interested in singing the National Anthem, and I told them I would ask them. That was on a Tuesday. We met that Thursday and it was unanimous.

They all wanted to participate, so I called back on Friday and told the organizer ‘yes.’”

The Wellsboro Men’s Chorus, with approximately thirty members, has been in existence since just after WWII (various records indicate 1946 and 1947) when a group of men got together and formed a quartet, sharing a love of song around a piano. They sang barbershop songs as well as hymns at community events and churches.

Soon another quartet was formed, and, with more men interested in singing, it evolved into a chorus.

Patricia Davis has been the accompanist since 1972. Christina Simonis stepped up as music director when their previous director left in 2017.

“Many of the men socialize outside of men’s chorus. They’re friends as well as members,” Christina says. Bud Voorhees, a member since 1980, adds, “We sing a mix of songs from religious to pop to older numbers, and of course patriotic songs. And we’re always looking for new members, espe-

cially younger ones. They’re the future of the group.” (You’ve got to be sixteen to join— there’s no upper age limit.) The guys practice at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts on Thursdays. The first Thursday of the month they head to the Penn Wells Lounge after practice for libations and, sometimes, impromptu vocals.

The Wellsboro Men’s Chorus will board a bus from Benedict’s Bus Service on August 17, 2024, and make the trek to the Howard J. Lamade Stadium where they will open Game 16 with the National Anthem at 7:00 p.m.

“You don’t sing the Anthem, you present it,” says Erick. “It’s a feeling like no other.”

The 2024 series runs August 14 through August 25. Admission is free. Visit littleleague.org or visitlycomingcounty.com/littleleague for more information.

Born in the Bronx, Carolyn Straniere grew up in northern New Jersey, and has called Wellsboro home for over twenty-four years, where she enjoys spending time with her grandkids and traveling. Carolyn lives with her four-legged wild child, Jersey, and daydreams of living on the beach in her old age.

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Courtesy the Rockwell Museum Dogs’ best friend: Usually William Wegman, posing here with two of his Weimaraners, is behind the camera.

The Dog Days Are Here... ...and They’re in Corning and Elmira

By David Higgins

I

f you’ve ever dressed up a kitten or a puppy in doll clothes—which means all of us—you understand the appeal of seeing animals as humans; it’s elemental to every culture. To give us a glimpse of our canine friends as us, the Rockwell Museum in Corning and the Arnot Art Museum in Elmira have teamed up for a joint exhibit of photographs of Weimaraner dogs by renowned artist William Wegman. Called Experimentation & Representation: The Photography of William Wegman, it runs through September 3 at the Rockwell and August 20 at the Arnot.

Each venue features a different facet of William’s iconic work. The Rockwell has the Experimentation part, and is showing more abstract photographs, exploratory collaborations in which the dogs become the work of art. The Arnot, with Representation, shows whimsical portraiture, with the Weimaraners posing in all manner of wigs, costumes, accessories, and occasional human limbs. All photos are from the artist’s personal collection.

William Wegman (no relation to the grocers), now eighty, is one of the best-

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known of all living artists. He was a highly regarded photographer and conceptual artist by the 1970s when he adopted a Weimaraner he named Man Ray after a pioneering surrealist artist. The inquisitive pup had a knack for photo-bombing whatever project William was working on, so it was natural that he would eventually turn the lens on his photogenic pal. The pictures were an instant success, and the ensuing series is known worldwide. In an art realm that is sometimes snooty and self-important, William is the rare visionary who bridges the high and low; the pictures are endlessly rewarding for every viewer. “I really don’t have to wonder what people are thinking when they see my work, because they usually will smile or laugh, and that makes me very happy,” he said during a spring visit to the Rockwell (you can find his talk on YouTube).

Within very narrow parameters—just dogs with props—William is wondrously inventive. The experimental works at the Rockwell are an entertaining disquisition in the textbook elements of design: emphasis, balance, contrast, repetition, proportion,

movement, and color. “Wegman’s art is serious art, but it’s also a lot of fun,” says Rockwell’s curator, Dr. Amanda Lett, adding “These are not just dog photos! Line, composition, color, and form take center stage in the photographs.” The dogs are slinky and elegant; in Cursive Display, for instance, one pirouettes gracefully with, of all things, a ribbon of toilet paper. William sees the dogs not just as models, but as collaborators; he chooses the props and presses the shutter, but the dogs themselves, through gesture and expression, do the emoting.

“So much of this work is spontaneous,” William said. “Rather than think-anddo, it’s do-and-think.”

“I’ve had eleven [Weimaraners]… every one has brought something different and special to the work,” William told a panel host in February at the University of Albany. “One dog, Bobbin, had no sense of humor at all, and had a serious face, like Macbeth. His father, Chip, looked like a teddy bear. They all had their little looks.”

He does not use treats to manipulate them “because they drool and lurch otherwise.

Although I did smear cheese on a book

GAFFER

DISTRICT

where I had to have it like the dog was reading the book!”

The portraits at the Arnot offer lessons galore about our human condition: the subjects are young and old, sly and innocent, naughty and nice. The cleverly posed dogs, in almost life-sized prints, are an intermediary for us to plug in our own memories and assumptions. Whisper, a dog in a Hawaiian shirt with a thousandyard stare, became my Uncle Bernie, a Marine combat veteran and prison guard who was decent and kind despite a crippling case of PTSD. Qey is an aspiring rapper, bedecked with bling and the sullen stare of a too-cool-for-you teenager. He is so relatable that it almost comes as a shock when you see two gray paws peeking out from the hem of his jacket. Farm Boy, in his dungarees with a feed sack, hearkens back to the crusty old coot with a pitchfork in Grant Wood’s American Gothic.

These images resonate. The pictures (Polaroids, mostly) are incredibly sharp and the large prints draw the viewer into the frame.

The dogs exude an aura of uncanny intelligence, while the props enhance their individuality—they are always droll, often poignant, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. They have graced Sesame Street, Saturday Night Live, a Honda commercial during the Super Bowl, and many books and museums, and even as mosaics in a subway station. William, who has a home near Albany, visited both the Rockwell and the Arnot in late May, accompanied by the adorable thirteen-year-old Flo, one in a long line of canine collaborators. The museum staff characterized him as friendly, laid-back, and definitely not a diva (he plays ice hockey!).

Why that particular breed? “[Weimaraners] have canine features, but human affectations, like mythological creatures,” William told the Manchester, UK, Guardian. “If they were Dalmatians or Labradors, it would be, ‘Oh, it’s a Lab dressed up!’ But Weimaraners are more spooky and shadowy.” They were originally bred as hunting dogs, and were trained to freeze when they spotted game, so “they are good at sitting and staying,” William says.

President Eisenhower and actress Grace Kelly were fans. They are intelligent and good with children but, like all working dogs, need space to romp and roam. Puppies start at about $600 (of course, I looked).

Every person is welcome to see these shows (and, by all means, bring the kids!). Even if you haven’t been to an art museum in years—or never, like my Uncle Bernie—no worries; the staffers at both museums are friendly and welcoming, and there is much to see besides the Experimentation & Representation: The Photography of William Wegman, exhibits. There are interactive activities throughout, and there’s even an art hunt which, when completed at both venues, might earn you a fuzzy prize. You’ll leave these museums with your tail waggin’!

Find the Rockwell Museum at 111 Cedar Street, Corning.

Summer hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. The Kids Rockwell Art Lab is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (607) 937-5386 or visit rockwellmuseumorg. The Arnot Art Museum is at 235 Lake Street, Elmira. Summer hours are Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Call (607) 734-3697 or visit arnotartmuseum.org.

David Higgins is from the small town of Deposit, New York. He retired in 2021 from Corning Community College, where he taught art for thirty years.

17

Lilace Mellin Guignard

Straight on till the basket: Cory McCarty, owner of Queen City Discs in Elmira, uses a putter to hole out (score) at Corning’s Denison Park disc golf course.

Identified Flying Objects Disc Golf Takes Off in the Twin Tiers

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

R

egardless of what they were made of, thin, flatish, circular items such as trays and pie tins have often tempted people to see how far they could make them soar. A plastic version was created in 1948 to be sold at county fairs, and Walter Morrison called it the Flying Saucer, then the Pluto Platter, capitalizing on the hype after the 1947 UFO sightings at Roswell, New Mexico. The founders of Wham-O (later bought by Mattel) bought the rights to the toy and named it Frisbee, misspelling the name of the famous Frisbie Baking Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the throwing of whose pie plates was a popular pastime for nearby college students.

Though many know Frisbees as summer toys tossed around at outdoor gatherings—my older brothers used to let me toss one around the yard with them—these identified flying objects have spawned many games based off ball sports. Ultimate Frisbee combines the passing

18

game of football with the endurance aspects of soccer. Disc golf states up front what game it’s based on, and is much easier on the knees and lungs than running games. But it’s not played with Frisbees. These discs are smaller, thinner, and—like golf clubs—there are different ones for different situations. Unlike golf, it is possible to play with just one disc, and most courses don’t charge use fees.

The first disc golf club was formed in Rochester in 1975, and, while not as popular as pickleball (yet), there are more disc golf courses than Dunkin’ Donuts in the US. There was an upturn during covid—you could play solo or at a safe distance with others. The goals are metal baskets on a center pole with chains running from a rim above to the basket. Most are in public parks or on college/university campuses.

The smallest category is wineries and breweries, which prompted me to give my disc golf-loving brother a future birthday experience—a day at

Fulkerson’s Winery for a tasting and a game on the Back Forty (not necessarily in that order).

Redeemable this summer.

There are websites and apps (UDisc being the main one) that provide information on what clubs, leagues, and courses are nearby.

It’s a friendly community, and easy to find a regular gathering to join if you want company or pointers. Ordering lunch at the counter of Turtle Leaf Café in Elmira, I noticed a wall full of discs for sale. The young man taking my order happened to be Cory McCarty, who owns Queen City Discs. He agreed to show me the ropes—or chains. He suggested we meet at Denison Park in Corning.

I showed up with my one disc. Cory had a bag of twenty. He assured me my pink Shark mid-range disc was a good all-round choice for a beginner, explaining there are also putters, for close throws, and drivers, for long distances.

See Objects on page 20

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Objects continued from page 18

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Within those categories, there are variations for distance, speed, glide (float), color, and other factors. Bright pink is a popular color because it’s easier to find in the foliage.

Cory recommended the UDisc app to keep track of scores, and its map is helpful if you’re on a new course. It’s not always obvious where to go because disc golf courses often double back on themselves, and you may see several baskets from where you are. Cory pointed to the first tee—a concrete slab five feet wide by at least eight feet long. A small sign near the tee gave the hole number, par three (the number of throws), and showed where the second tee was in relation to the first hole. I was surprised at how long the pad was until Cory walked to the back of it, wound up, and got a running start before releasing his disc—a respectable throw that didn’t bounce off any trees and got near enough to the basket that he’d no doubt make it in par.

“Just start standing at the edge for now,” he suggested. “Concentrate on form. You want to keep it level and in line.”

“In line with what?” I asked. His wife, Kayla, helped him out by telling me that, as I brought the disc alongside my chest, to go nipple to nipple.

My first shot kicked off a tree but toward the middle rather than out of bounds. It took me three throws to get near where Cory had with one. The away player—the person whose disc is furthest away from the hole—goes next and until they catch up. Cory was reassuring, saying “if you get a double bogey or better, that’s great for a beginner” and “forward is good!” Anything that goes out of bounds must be set inside at the exit point, and a stroke added to that player’s score.

My biggest fear was hitting people or, on the third hole, sending my only disc over the fence and onto Denison Parkway. Hole four was my best—a true bogey—but usually I needed four or more throws than Cory. I’d like to tell you a story of my great beginners’ luck throw that impressed him, but there was none.

Still, it was fun. Cory’s friends introduced him to the game about eight years ago. “I hated it. I was awful. Half my throws went behind me.” Then someone, who’d gotten the wrong impression, bought him a starter pack of three discs, and he felt obligated to use them. Once his competitive spirit kicked in and skill improved, he started enjoying this way of hanging out with friends in nature. Liked it enough to start Queen City Discs in early 2023. “I have a heart for Elmira and its growth,” he says. “I was trying to find a way that I could add something to the area.” While discs can be purchased online, having a local place to see and handle the different discs is nice.

According to Cory, Denison isn’t really a beginner course, especially holes thirteen through eighteen which are by water (we only played ten holes). To start, he recommends Eldridge Park’s nine-hole course in Elmira and the full South Shore course along Cowanesque Lake just over the line in Pennsylvania. Closer to me is a new nine-hole course at Hammond Lake at Ives Run. A quick search brings up more.

The Corning 20%ers, the local disc golf club, manages the course at Denison and have set times on Thursdays and Sundays when anyone can show up and play with them. They’ll probably loan you a disc, or you can stop by Turtle Leaf Café and buy a mid-range one. Cory says, “I’ll happily meet up with anyone and bring some discs they’re interested in!”

Find more information at udisc.com, queencitydiscs.com, or look up the Corning 20%ers on Facebook.

21

Karey Solomon

A jug of wine, a couple of restaurants, and thou: Rose Curry and Chet Thompson are life partners as well as business partners in these two eateries where the food is complemented by sophisticated beverages.

A Rose Blooms

Penn Yan Couple Bring Something New to the Table

By Karey Solomon

T

he ingredients were all there, ready to be recognized and combined by a pair of dedicated restaurant professionals. Chet Thompson, a classicallytrained chef from the East Coast, and his life partner, Californian sommelier and restaurant professional Rose Curry, found themselves in Penn Yan, courtesy of a Valentine’s Day snowstorm in 2020, where they saw delicious opportunity.

The pair—owners of the Burnt Rose Wine Bar and Restaurant at 13 Main Street and the 18th Amendment Kitchen and Cocktail Bar a few steps away at 7 Main Street—created two similar yet distinct eateries where nearly everything is cooked inhouse and sourced, in season, from neighboring farms. Last spring, restaurant patrons were awed by Chet’s grilled asparagus, and many begged for the secret behind its incredible flavor. Rose explains they rushed to the farmstand as soon as the earliest asparagus was picked. And then, “We like to let the ingredients speak for themselves,” Chet says seriously.

22

“We call it ‘field to table’ rather than ‘farm to table,’” Rose says. “Farm to table sometimes includes mass farming. We buy from small farms, and there are some that grow produce specifically for us.”

Their menu, mostly based on the availability of seasonal produce, is a mix of ethnic specialties and tasteful classic favorites, with an eye toward pleasing a variety of palates from the adventurous to those limited by preference or sensitivities. At this writing, at the Burnt Rose, their butter chicken is a runaway success, as is their lobster and mascarpone. Rose describes the varied food at the Burnt Rose as a more casual grazing menu. Diners are encouraged to share in order to experience a broader variety of tastes. The menu changes at least four times a year. In its third year of operation, diners have learned to anticipate the first sweet corn harvests, which also bring esquites, or Mexican street corn salad, something Rose and her son both loved in Los Angeles. It’s different, perhaps even a little edgy, for a village which abounds in offerings of tra-

ditional comfort foods, but customers have learned to trust what they’ll taste here is good. And pairing meals with complementary wines is, for many, a continuation of good times spent considering the area’s bestknown agricultural product.

Always, the wine takes center stage.

At the Burnt Rose, a mix of varietals and vintages are hand-selected from thirty-one Finger Lakes vineyards, mostly chosen from those on Keuka and Seneca Lakes. “As of this year, we’re 100 percent local,” Rose says.

The 18th Amendment, until 2022 owned by Barrington Distillers, is named for the constitutional amendment ratified in 1919 prohibiting the production of alcohol in the United States—at least, until it was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933. In the years of Prohibition, this was an area of industrious and well-planned bootlegging, Rose learned. Her research turned up special shoes worn by clever bootleggers, with deer hooves strapped to the soles to disguise a smuggler’s footprints.

See Rose on page 24

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The 18th Amendment offers wines selected from vineyards across the country, mixed drinks, and a heartier, slightly more formal dinner menu that generally includes filet mignon and NY strip steak as well as ethnic cuisine. Thai peanut chicken is a current customer favorite, as is pollo con papas, an Argentinian-style halfchicken smoked over cherrywood in-house. “Chet is brilliant,” Rose says, with admiration at his deep dive into inspirational cuisine from afar. She jokes that their food experimentation at home in their downtime might be one of the world’s more exhausting and expensive hobbies.

Both eateries can seat just under fifty people; on a busy night, with table turnarounds, they might serve sixty or so. Chet, who’s been honing his culinary arts since the age of fifteen, works in two small and efficient kitchens, one at each location. He says the pandemic influenced kitchen administration, shrinking many to leaner staffing. This means he necessarily must be hands-on, from creating the menu to cooking and plating the food. Sometimes he’ll get some pre-meal prep help from Rose. “If people come to experience my food, you expect me to make it,” he says. “It’s the only way I’d do it!”

Rose grows some of their ingredients—the tomatoes, basil, thyme, lemongrass, tomatillos, and jalapeños finding their way to a plate likely originated in the couple’s garden. “We try to minimize waste and our carbon footprint,” they say. This translates to daily shopping, no use of frozen foods, even a careful return of their egg cartons to the farmers they buy eggs from.

Scratch cooking extends to the ingredients in cocktails and the growing trend toward “mock-tails”—non-alcoholic mixed drinks, often including less-usual fruit juices, that can be as sophisticated as their punchier alcoholic counterparts.

Tourists from metro areas are not surprised by the menu, Chet says. Rose adds they’re often very thankful to have found the Burnt Rose and 18th Amendment, appreciating their cosmopolitan approach to food. Décor at both is industrial chic, with subtle touches like the facing on the wine bar that appears to have been woven from recycled barrel staves and the rose motif burned onto coasters and some of the tables by Dan Mitchell, a.k.a. the Staving Artist. Take a closer look and you’ll see the Finger Lakes shaping the rose’s petals. “It’s meant to feel warm and inviting,” Rose says.

“We may not be for everyone, but if you’re willing to try it, you’re welcome!”

Attention to detail even prevails outside the Burnt Rose on the “dog patio” where tables, chairs, and a large bowl of water welcome customers whose four-footed family members accompany them. Appropriately, the concrete sidewalk outside was “engraved” by a wandering dog before it hardened, something Rose noticed when they were first looking for a place for their restaurant.

For hours of operation and to make reservations—highly recommended though walk-ins are accommodated whenever possible—check burntrosewinebar.com, 18thamendmentkitchencocktailbar.com, or call (315) 924-3000.

Karey Solomon is the author of a poetry chapbook, Voices Like the Sound of Water, a book on frugal living (now out of print), and more than thirty-six needlework books. Her work has also appeared in several fiction and nonfiction anthologies.

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25

Carolyn Straniere

Wellsboro delicioso: Emmanuel and Valeria Gutierrez show off their restaurant, sons, and the mural Tim Crane drew in charcoal and pencil of the town square in Jalisco, Mexico, where they are from.

The Year of Living Yummily Los Agaves Taqueria Joins Wellsboro’s Main Street

By Carolyn Straniere

T

he much-anticipated Mexican restaurant Los Agaves Taqueria opened in Wellsboro at 63 Main Street at the end of July 2023, and since then owners Emmanuel Gutierrez and his wife, Valeria, have been sharing a bit of their home country with everyone.

‘Home’ for the transplanted couple is Jalisco, a city of about 50,000 people, in west-central Mexico. And while they both grew up there, Emmanuel and Valeria didn’t meet until later, at a mutual friend’s wedding.

A move to Texas and then a journey north for work brought the couple to Wellsboro in May 2019. “Valeria fell in love with the town and decided it would be a great place to raise a family,” Emmanuel says. (They have two boys.)

Sharing their love of food with others became the motivation for Los Agaves Taqueria, and when a space became available downtown the Gutierrezes jumped at the chance.

Valeria, a soft-spoken woman, oversaw the décor. “I didn’t want the bright colors you see in the Mexican chain restaurants, because that isn’t us,” she says. Instead, the walls are the color of the blue agave plant. “Tequila

26

comes from the agave plant, and Jalisco is a big producer of tequila,” Emmanuel continues. “It’s a bit of home for us.”

There’s also a mural on the wall depicting a town square from Jalisco, done in charcoal and pencil, by local artist Tim Crane.

A few bumps along the way delayed the opening. “I ordered the kitchen appliances, and the guy took off with the money. I never heard from him again. So, I had to order more,” explains Emmanuel, with a shrug and a smile. His positive attitude and perseverance paid off. For the last year, they and their friendly staff have spread that positivity through authentic Mexican food.

The many offerings include Agave Tacos (soft corn tortilla), Gringo Tacos (soft flour tortilla), enchiladas with their own enchilada sauce, Agave Burritos (wrapped in a flour tortilla), chimichangas (a fried burrito), and quesadillas. “There are nine different meats to choose from,” he explains. “We have fried ice cream and flan for dessert, as well as bunuelos, which is a fried flour tortilla tossed in cinnamon sugar.” Recently they’ve added mahi mahi tacos, and specials are posted regularly on their Facebook page. Watch for

tamale Saturdays so you can pre-order.

For Cinco de Mayo Fiesta last May, customers were greeted by an inflatable rodeo ring with a (not inflatable) kid-friendly mechanical bull. The space is large enough for birthday parties and other events, and you can order ahead in bulk for parties at home.

By eating in, folks can enjoy the endless salsa bar and watch people go by on Main Street. And while they do not sell alcohol, Los Agaves Taqueria is a BYOB restaurant.

Ordering at the counter is easy, and staff will then deliver food to the customer’s table.

Emmanuel and his crew welcome patrons every day from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. for indoor dining and take-out. Call (570) 404-7061 and also find them on Facebook.

Born in the Bronx, Carolyn Straniere grew up in northern New Jersey, and has called Wellsboro home for over twenty-four years, where she enjoys spending time with her grandkids and traveling. Carolyn lives with her four-legged wild child, Jersey, and daydreams of living on the beach in her old age.

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Carolyn Straniere A high bar: Chris and Geoff Coffee continue the high standards set generations before at the Steak House restaurant and bar.

Great Food and Service Are Family Traditions The Steak House’s Third Generation Is Happy to Serve Wellsboro

By Carolyn Straniere

F

red and Annie “Jo” Howey probably had no idea when they started their restaurant that it would still be going strong sixty-seven years later, or that a third generation would own it. The Steak House, located at 29 Main Street, has been a mainstay in town since 1957. The current proprietors are Geoff Coffee and his wife, Christina, granddaughter of the original owners.

“We took over the reins from my parents, Dave and Barb Howey, in 2005,” Chris says. “They had bought the restaurant from Dave’s parents in 1979, and they were ready to move on to other ventures. It just seemed natural that we would be the next owners.”

She adds, “We were living in Northern Virginia, where Geoff is from, spinning our wheels, working two and three jobs, never seeing each other. We had two small children and knew we couldn’t keep this pace. So, we moved to Wellsboro, where I was raised.”

“We took what Barb and Dave had done

28

and just built upon that,” Geoff says. “So many times with a new owner, they come in and make a lot of changes. We didn’t want to do that. We didn’t have to. They had a great foundation for us to continue.”

The original footprint consisted of the two front dining rooms. That changed when Barb and Dave—he grew up in the small apartment above—bought it. They converted the garage and parking spaces in the back into a third dining room. “We call it the ‘Tea Room,’” Chris explains, which pays homage to the Orange Tea Room that previously occupied this location.

Now, four outdoor tables allow folks to enjoy Main Street while dining.

Their menu offers a wide variety from which to choose. Besides steak and chicken, one can find some of the best seafood around, including lobster tails and scallops. On weekends, crab cakes, made by Geoff, and slowroasted prime rib make the special feature list. The pies are from Chris’s grandmother’s

recipes and may include English walnut and toasted coconut.

“It’s nice to be able to continue the family tradition in a small town like Wellsboro,” says Geoff. The Steak House is truly a family affair. Their son, Aidan, works both front and back of the house, as did their daughter, Jordyn, before moving out of state.

Hours are Monday through Saturday from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Call the Steak House at (570) 724-9092 to make a reservation or follow them on Facebook.

Born in the Bronx, Carolyn Straniere grew up in northern New Jersey, and has called Wellsboro home for over twenty-four years, where she enjoys spending time with her grandkids and traveling. Carolyn lives with her four-legged wild child, Jersey, and daydreams of living on the beach in her old age.

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Courtesy Rich Port Adventure Company Linda Roller

Shack ‘n ‘yak: Culinary and river adventures abound by way of two family businesses. Christian Hoch (right) is one of the main staff serving at the Empanada Shack and running shuttles and deliveries for Rich Port Adventures—and sometimes floating, like this day on the Loyalsock Creek.

A Rich (Port) Taste of Adventure Williamsport Business Offers Empanadas with a Side of Kayaks

By Linda Roller

A

sighting of the silver Empanada Shack food truck at a Lycoming County brewery, market, or store gets many mouths watering for some crispy half-moon goodness. At the window, a soft-spoken man with big plans takes orders while his wife prepares the food. Those plans involve empanadas, rivers, and family.

Orlando and Jessica Rodriquez own the Empanada Shack and Rich Port Adventures, a water sport rental and shuttle service. Rich Port is the literal English translation of Puerto Rico. Both are from Puerto Rico, though Orlando lived there only a short time before his parents left for the continental United States. By the time he was ten years old, he was a young man growing up in Idaho, discovering joy in the natural world, and learning about “outfitters” who made that world accessible to people.

When visiting family on the island,

30

Orlando noticed that there were no outfitters. “By 2017, I could do my job in the States anywhere, so why not Puerto Rico?”

The plan was to design and rent paddle boards—the Rich Port Board Company.

Three months after arriving and beginning the business, Hurricane Maria devastated the island. “Our place was demolished,” he says.

Maigrette Polanco and Eddie Rodriquez, Orlando’s parents, moved from Idaho to Montoursville for family reasons.

And because family is the filling in the empanada of life, Orlando and Jessica relocated to the farms and forests of north central Pennsylvania, where they married.

The Rich Port dream came with them, too. By 2019, Rich Port Boards became Rich Port Adventure as a small start-up to supplement the job of selling trailers. But the paddle boards needed in beachy Puerto Rico were not what people in this area

wanted most. So, again, they adjusted. “We started with two kayaks, and at the end of the first year we had eight,” Orlando says.

“Now we have about fifteen to twenty at any one time.” It might have been a side business for longer, but covid, a hurricane of sorts, disrupted work and life. Orlando needed to make the business full-time just as people in search of fun, outdoor activities discovered the area’s lakes and rivers.

Kayaks are rented from May to October, but a growing family (they just welcomed their third child) needs work that happens all year round. They set up a tent to test some of Jessica’s family empanada recipes, and the response was overwhelming. They quickly realized they’d need a trailer of their own to house this business, thus the Empanada Shack was born.

The fillings are all made by Jessica and Maigrette. The dough is then rolled in the See Adventure on page 32

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Adventure continued from page 30

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truck, the empanadas filled with either a traditional beef or chicken filling, or one of their specialty fillings (the buffalo chicken gets rave reviews). Since they’re baked to order, the smell around the trailer is incredible. Orlando says, “This week, a woman came from two hours away just for empanadas!” Big lines form at the shack in Williamsport on First Fridays, and at many other locations, like New Trail Brewery. The ever-changing schedule for the Empanada Shack is on their Facebook page.

The couple had a restaurant for about a year. In 2022, Muncy offered the use of a building that had been a restaurant with a commercial kitchen. It became a place for the rental business and to bake empanadas, expanding the menu to other Puerto Rican dishes. “It was nice for the kayaks, and we had a team of over twenty people in 2023. But the help was seasonal.” By 2024, when they would need to sign a lease, circumstances had changed. Their workforce had shrunk, and they were expecting another baby. In any case, a traveling food truck performed better than a restaurant.

Orlando and Jessica let go of the storefront to focus on the kayak rentals and the food, which was now the mouth-watering center of their business.

Two enterprises intertwined makes for a more secure income, but a more difficult balancing act. Orlando often rents kayaks and arranges for delivery or a shuttle while he is working at the Empanada Shack. “Balance is hard,” Jessica says. “We stress out, then keep it cool and organized.”

Orlando chimes in, “It’s caffeine and Jesus.” This business dance includes the family, as they raise three young children. “I want my kids to have the summer jobs that I always wanted,” he says. “And then, who knows?”

This year, Orlando has secured an agreement with Robert Porter Natural Area in South Williamsport for a permanent seasonal location, right on the river a little below the Williamsport dam. Work is continuing on that area, with plans to open at that location in August. It is from there that Rich Port is hosting the Third Annual Youth Kayak Clinic on September 7. For children ages six to twelve, this three-hour clinic will teach beginning kayaking and kayak safety.

Rich Port Adventure rents kayaks (and some other equipment) and provides logistics for adventure-seeking folks. If someone wants to kayak and doesn’t know the area, they are a valuable resource for the best places to enter the river or tips on how to best navigate the Susquehanna. They do not guide trips, though they sometimes provide the equipment for a guided adventure that someone else is doing. But no matter what the need, Rich Port Adventure will tailor the equipment and logistics to make their customers’ trips safer and more enjoyable.

The cost for kayaks from Rich Port is currently $25 for a half day and $40 for a full day. A delivery or pickup of a personal (not rented) kayak is $30 each way. A shuttle service is a flat rate of $60 and can shuttle up to fourteen people. Find both the Empanada Shack and Rich Port Adventure Company on Facebook. To contact either business, call or text (570) 692-2537.

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

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Courtesy Alan Walsh Standing stone, paddling person: Alan Walsh rests and admires the gray sandstone monolith six miles southeast of Towanda on the North Branch of the Susquehanna that was first described in English by an officer in Sullivan’s 1779 expedition to eradicate the Iroquois.

Rollin’ On a River

Nine Days. 290 Miles. Alan Walsh’s Proud Solo Paddle.

By Gayle Morrow

L

ooking for a summer water-based adventure? You could model yours on Alan Walsh’s 2021 Susquehanna River kayak excursion of 290 miles from Sayre to Havre de Grace. If you want to squeeze it in before it gets cold, you might want to start paddling now.

“I started training probably in April [of that year],” recalls Alan, who was seventyone when he made the trip that July. “I got to where I paddled six hours a day.” He’d go to Rose Valley Lake, near Trout Run, and paddle up one side, back down the other, and then up the middle.

How, what, and why? Alan explains.

He and his then-wife, Kathy, former Troy area residents, had been living in Maryland for fifteen years. There was an old stone grist mill near their home, with a mill race you had to drive over to get to their house.

It was Deer Creek—Alan notes the Deer Creek headwaters are up in York County—

34

and it had enough water in it to kayak to the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna.

There were a lot of people in the area who kayaked, and they decided to try it for themselves.

“We hadn’t kayaked before, so we bought cheap ones and started,” he says.

After they moved back to Bradford County, they continued paddling, and then Alan decided he wanted to make the North Branch trek. He used a nine-and-a-half-foot kayak, got himself some detailed maps showing mileage and boat launch locations (those spots sometimes had gazebos, which made for good camping sites), packed his gear (close to 200 pounds in the kayak, including himself ), and put in the water on July 5. A paddling pal, Carl Osgood, started the trip with him, but only planned to be on the river one day, so after that Alan was on his own. Really alone sometimes. He says there were days he never saw another boat

on the river.

Alan didn’t take a lot of pictures on this trek. Rather, he says, “I wanted to make miles.” And he did—typically thirty to thirty-two miles a day. He did keep a journal, though, and it shows that the first day was a foggy start. But he and Carl saw eagles, and stopped in Towanda for lunch. Most other meals were MREs—aka Meal, Readyto-Eat, typically used by the military. He bought a package of fourteen (that’s how they come), and says he would eat the main part of it at night and save the dessert portion for breakfast. They contain a chemical that heats them so you don’t need a fire.

And, “they have lots of calories in them, which is what you need.”

The second day, he was up at 6:30 and back on the water by 7. It was hot and sunny, with thunderstorms and rain later in the day, “so I got wet.” He camped that night See Rollin’ on page 36

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Rollin’ continued from page 34

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at a place called Schaffer’s Riverside Campground. Some nights, he says, he had a “nice grass mattress.” Others it was “a night on concrete again.” But, “most nights my Hilton was a yoga mat and a tarp.”

Day three, he missed his stop at the end of the day, but found a place to get out at Kingston, across from Wilkes-Barre. The fourth day he ended up at the Berwick Test Track Boat Launch, where a kind stranger helped him get resupplied with water. He carried some water, but also used a LifeStraw, which enabled him to drink right out of the river. Day five it rained, and at about 1:30 it got black with an incoming thunder and lightning storm. He got off to the side, covered up with a tarp, and “must have dozed off.”

He woke up, the sun was shining, and he was back on the water about 5:30.

Lightning when you’re on the water and paddling can be a problem, since, as Alan points out, “here you are with a lightning rod in your hands.”

On day six he had two dams to deal with, the Fibri Dam and the Power Plant Dam. He notes in his journal that neither were well-marked. “You come on them really quick. I could have gone over both.” He carried a little two-wheeled cart for portaging, so as not to wear out the bottom of his kayak, but neither of those dams have a portage trail, so he asked the power plant people to take him around the dams, and they did.

On day seven, he was in Harrisburg and stayed with some friends there. “I got to sleep on an air mattress and thought I’d died and went to heaven,” he writes in his journal.

On the eighth day, he tried calling personnel at York Haven, another dam, for a portage, but couldn’t get through to a live person. “I got around,” he says, “but it wasn’t pretty.”

On day nine he made it to the Safe Harbor Dam, where he had to deal with a debri-filled portage route, wrong directions, and an excess of wind and waves, but he “figured things out.” He notes that he wore a life jacket all the while.

“That’s one thing everybody should do. Once you’re in the water, you can’t put a life jacket on.”

The tenth day, July 14, he arrived at the Glow Cove Marina around 11:45 a.m., and a family member got him around the Conowingo Dam. Then Kathy and a boatload of friends escorted him the last couple of miles to Havre de Grace.

At the end of it all, Alan says. “I was glad, and I knew I had accomplished something I set out to do, and I did it myself.” He says there was nothing particularly worrisome about the trip. One night he saw something black and white and thought it might be a skunk, but it turned out to be a cat.

So what’s next? He’d like to get a bunch of people together to do the whole 440 miles—from the Susquehanna’s headwaters in Cooperstown to Havre de Grace.

“Well,” he says. “I have a new kayak, but it doesn’t have the space the old one did.”

He’ll figure it out.

For help figuring out routes and stops on the Pennsylvania sections of the North Branch of the Susquehanna, check out the Endless Mountain Heritage Region online maps and guides for purchase at emheritage.org.

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(3) Courtesy Lillace Mellin Guignard

Rocks of ages: Lucifer Falls’ 115 feet draws visitors of all ages to hike Robert H. Treman State Park (left); the writer in 2011, the first time she brought her kids to this gorge.

Hiking a Trail of Memories

Our Staff Recreationalist Explores the Layers at Ithaca’s Robert H. Treman State Park

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

As the crickets’ soft autumn hum is to us so are we to the trees as are they to the rocks and the hills. ~ Gary Snyder

R

elaxing on my porch in Wellsboro, a memory of my kids and me hiking the gorge at Robert H. Treman State Park surprised me in the way that the hummingbirds do when they suddenly grace my hanging pots with their buzz and blur. I was feeling nostalgic. My oldest had gotten married in our backyard the previous weekend. My youngest has one more year in high school. I pulled up images, trying to connect them. How old were they when Jimmy and I took them hiking? We went more than once, right? And swam beside the waterfall—Gabe even jumped off the high dive. Bruce and Judith came that

38

time, too. So that must’ve been before…oh, Bruce.

I couldn’t sort my mental images into specific days, and started doubting if all of them were from hikes in that gorge. So, I headed to the source to see what memories crystalized. After all, I’m hiking memory trails, exploring the folds of my brain as much as the narrow canyon, Enfield Glen, comprises the glacier-carved geology there.

While I’m not sure which trail we’d taken, I clearly remember two entrances to separate parts of the park. The lower park comes quickly after I turn from NYS Route 13 onto NYS Route 327. It’s three miles to the upper entrance, where I pay my ninedollar day use fee and park near the old mill.

I know we started and ended our hike here. The map shows a few ways to connect the Gorge, Rim, and Red Pine trails to make a loop possible. After reading the signs—one warns of the “many ups and

downs” and that “use of strollers is practically impossible”—I start on the Rim Trail.

Surely, I’d have begun by going up while the kids were fresher. Today, the day after the Fourth of July, it isn’t very crowded.

Soon I come to the corner at the top of some stone stairs and meet a younger me. She is facing her four-year-old daughter below (Jimmy behind), holding out a hand with red gummy Swedish Fish, saying “Almost there!” So, apparently we’d hiked counterclockwise starting with the Gorge Trail. As I recall this, a woman around my age also stops at the top with her young golden retriever on leash and beckons me to go first. I tell her I hiked these steps with my kids when they were little, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been here. She looks at the steps and says with a sigh, “They haven’t changed.”

But everything changes. My knees, for instance.

Soon I get a good view of the Gorge Trail, carved in stone on the other side of the creek. After a half mile and more steps, I’m at the bridge. I cross, anticipating better views of Lucifer Falls. The trail is hardpan dry in some places, in others as slippery as memory. Instead of heading back to the mill lot, something pulls me right till I follow others in finding a rock to sit on below another of the park’s twelve falls.

In water clear enough to see the rock patterns beneath, the dark commas of tadpoles shimmy. Something tickles my memory. We had brought the kids a second time. When we hiked with Bruce and Judith, we’d had two cars. My five-year-old was easily convinced to do the hike again.

Glo adored these friends, there’d be swimming, and I promised we’d only go down.

At not quite three miles, it wasn’t a huge distance, but it took a while. After we’d passed the 115 feet of Lucifer Falls and the terrain got more predictable (trees!), Glo’s pace began to drag. Judith explained how fairies made their houses at the base of some trees and got our daughter to look for places which might be fairy houses. This worked

for a while, but then Glo, tired of Swedish Fish, turned to Jimmy and cried, “Daddy, Daddy, pick me up. I’m dying!”

Glo was more than capable of walking this distance, and we were no longer carrying perfectly able children. Bruce, who’d been behind talking with Gabe (at eight he suddenly preferred to hike with the adults), moved up, took Glo’s hand, and led off down the trail. I’m not sure if it was the novelty or if he had some brilliant means of convincing Glo to continue on, but there was no more whining. The image of my daughter and my good friend, who’d been recently diagnosed with bladder cancer and was starting chemo, holding hands all the way to the lower parking lot is precious.

And the smell of the negative ions released by moving water is the same today as then, when Judith and I commented on their healing properties.

Heading back to my car via the Gorge Trail, I’m appreciating Lucifer Falls from a new perspective. So many steps. I climb from the wide, deep base of it to the limestone lip that resists the erosion and creates a dramatic plunge. Then to the bridge over

the slot that the water squeezes through before pouring over, and then to the creek, calm as a sleeping child.

I stop at the lower park before going home. There on my left is the playground where we ate and played while Jimmy and Bruce took the car up to get our van. Then we’d gone swimming. On this hot and muggy day, the lot is full, and I’m sorry I didn’t bring my swimsuit. The shallow area is great for kids and those who only want to wade. Glo had liked that it was stone underfoot, not lake muck.

Here, all the folks I don’t know are enjoying themselves in and out of the water, joined by the young versions of my kids, as well as Jimmy and me when we had the energy of young parents who never dreamed it could go by in such a rush. There’s Gabe, climbing the ladder to the high dive. There’s Judith splashing with Glo. Though that was our last hike with Bruce, here he is, still, grinning, convincing the rest of us to enjoy every step.

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Mr. & Mrs. continued from page 13

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H i l l s i d e Rod & G un C l u b 40

work for them, particularly at the Creamery. When new employees join them in the spring, Rick says, “Some are so shy they can’t talk to anybody.” Over the course of a season, Lori and Rick hope they are able to have a positive impact on those young people’s social skills and ability to work with customers and others.

“We try to model how to be members of a community,” says Lori.

With so many irons in the fires of the Tioga County community, the question may be how the couple finds time to breathe.

The Beckwiths believe it’s by surrounding themselves with great people that they are able to stay relaxed.

“We manage to hire great kids, I have a great sister who always helps with whatever I need, and we have a great manager at the olive oil store,” says Lori.

Rick admits the couple spend most of their time together working, but that they wouldn’t change that. “This is what we have fun doing. We like being busy. We like working together.”

And that goes for their employees, too, adds Lori. “We surround ourselves with good people, and we want to work with them.”

You might think that people so busy working and running three thriving businesses without much respite would have little time to ponder what’s next. Not so. The pair are always looking at what will be the next big idea to bring something new to the community. According to Lori, “Rick is the creative idea person about everything—what we can do next, how to improve, and it never stops. He has an idea every day.” Fortunately, we have plenty of experiences to keep us busy while we wait for what comes next.

Lucky us.

Karin Knaus is an English teacher in the Northern Tier who also really loves Wellsboro. She has tremendously and decadently enjoyed all of the experiences described in this article, in addition to having the privilege of working with the Beckwiths to run the team trivia at Beck’s Bistro.

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Hoosiers continued from page 5

A few weeks later, when the PNA’s Keystone Awards were announced, Jimmy would win a second place for “Rye Rebels” in the business or consumer story category. He was beaten out for first place in that category by another Mountain Home story—“FLX Sour Culture Is Aging Well”—by…Jimmy Guignard.

Our managing editor, Gayle Morrow, has been writing the popular Mother Earth column for more than a decade, and it’s a rare year when she doesn’t bring home the gold, as she did this year when PNA gave her first place for sports/outdoor column. Taking a Keystone in second place for best sports feature story was Don Kelly, owner of the local Tackle Shack, who did a cover story on young Colegan “Gump” Stiner for our annual April fishue called “Fish, Gump, Fish!”

Paula Piatt, who joined our stable of writers in 2023, won two awards for her November cover story on “Veterans in the Wild.” Besides a second place Keystone for feature story, she won the Military & Veterans award from the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association (POWA).

Steve McCloskey, who often writes about

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www.Nessmuks.com sports for us, scored a second place Keystone for personality profile for his June cover story “Farm, Family, and Faith,” about ninety-sevenyear-old farmer and teacher Ed Heyler. Steve says, “honestly the biggest reward from that story was the positive reaction from the Heyler family.”

Terence Lane, a sommelier who works in the wine and cider industry in the Finger Lakes, writes the column Planet of the Grapes and libation-related stories for what we have dubbed the “Booze Beat,” and for which he received a second place Keystone for lifestyle/ entertainment beat.

Linda Stager captured a pheasant strutting down the middle of a road, an image so delightful it garnered her another first place Keystone for feature photo for “Walking the Line.” Getting second in that category was Deb Young, for “June Reflections,” the image of a daisy suspended in a water drop hanging from a leaf. (You can see another of Deb’s photos on page 42 as this month’s Back of the Mountain.)

Marshall Nych, who wrote “Spring’s Brief Brevity” in the April fishue won a first runnerup award for Best Action Hunting, Trapping, or Fishing Photograph Award from POWA for

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his photo accompanying the story.

It’s been just over a year since Wade Spencer joined us as art director, and he’s already got a notch in his belt, winning a second-place Keystone in graphic/photo illustration for his nostalgic December cover “It’s a Wonderful Story.”

It takes a village to write a headline, and the staff won an honorable mention Keystone for headline writing: “Flight of the Humblebee” was about Paige Griffin and her lasting legacy, the Humble Bumble Project that assists families and young cancer patients; “Delta Echo Echo Romeo”—the military spelling of deer—headlined a story about Deer Haven Park, a wildlife refuge on the former Seneca Army Depot; and “Model Horsewoman,” about—a woman who makes tack for model horses and competes in shows.

Copious congratulations to all of these homesters, and many thanks to you, our readers, who are the whole point of what we’re doing at Mountain Home. We wouldn’t be here without you!

41

B A C K O F T H E M O U N TA I N

Summertime and the Livin’ Is Easy

O

By Deb Young

n a morning walk by our pond outside of Mansfield in Richmond Township, I noticed a water lily with something extra. As I leaned in for a closer look, a baby painted turtle slipped off the lily and back into the pond. Why hadn’t I brought my camera with me? I usually take it on my morning walks. I’d never seen this before so I didn’t think the odds were good it’d be there tomorrow, but made darn sure I took my camera.

Maybe it’s the heat wave, but there it was again, basking in such a cute way the song “Summertime” came to mind. It was there only one day more. I feel very lucky to have spotted it and had the opportunity to capture its sunbathing.

42

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As a Level IV Trauma Center, Guthrie Troy Community Hospital is ready to deliver critical emergency care at a moment’s notice.

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Learn more about Guthrie Troy Community Hospital at www.Guthrie.org.