By Linda Roller
By Jim Pfiffer
Don Knaus
Kevin McJunkin
Linda Stager
Nessmuk Returns
By Lilace Mellin Guignard
Don Kelly
By Karey Solomon
Cover photo by Wade Spencer. This page (top) Zack Buck courtesy Zack Buck; (middle) Fish habitats from Tioga Lake courtesy Don Kelly; (bottom) Beth Landin by Kate Buzzell.
mountainhomemag.com
E ditors & P ublish E rs
Teresa Banik Capuzzo
Michael Capuzzo
A ssoci A t E E ditor & P ublish E r
Lilace Mellin Guignard
A ssoci A t E P ublish E r
George Bochetto, Esq.
A rt d ir E ctor
Wade Spencer
M A n A ging E ditor
Gayle Morrow
s A l E s r EP r E s E nt A tiv E
Shelly Moore
c ircul A tion d ir E ctor
Michael Banik
A ccounting
Amy Packard
c ov E r d E sign
Wade Spencer
c ontributing W rit E rs
Don Kelly, Don Knaus, Jim Pfifer, Kevin McJunkin, Linda Roller, Karey Solomon
c ontributing P hotogr AP h E rs
Kate Buzzell, Ann Cady, Michael Cady, Kevin McJunkin, Linda Roller, Linda Stager
d istribution t EAM
Dawn Litzelman, Grapevine Distribution, Linda Roller
t h E b EA gl E Nano Cosmo (1996-2014) • Yogi (2004-2018)
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Nessmuk Returns
Zack Buck Brings the spirit of WellsBoro’s favorite outdoorsman to main street
By Lilace Mellin Guignard
On Target
Chris Niemczyk shows Zack Buck and friends a pistol from Nessmuk’s firearms station, while Blake watches the door to greet the next customer.
Last fall, more than just the leaves on Wellsboro’s tree-lined Main Street were changing. The second largest storefront (Dunham’s is the largest), longtime downtown clothier, Garrisons, had gone out of business when Al Garrison retired in December 2023. If anyone was worried about a new business changing the town’s historic feel, they soon relaxed when word spread that Zack Buck was opening another location of his Morris store, Nessmuk’s Sporting Goods. Nessmuk is a name with roots Pine Creek Gorge-deep in these parts. And the unique mix of what Zack has to offer is very Wellsboro indeed. As the window decals state, he sells what the outdoor enthusiast might need for Trekking, Camping, Foraging, Hunting, Trapping, and Fishing.
Nessmuk continued from page 7
A mounted bear might be one of the first things a customer notices, but another black critter with a bandana will wander over as a greeter. Blake, the calmest Labrador ever, acts as welcome committee. Camp Ration Coffee is brewing, and a faint woodsy smell comes from balsam fir incense. Where customers head first depends on their interests. Camping and bushcraft? The knife and axe nook is a good place to start. If maps, field guides, and how-to’s are the pull, those shelves are to the right. T-shirts, stickers, and bandannas satisfy the souvenir shopper. Pottery by several artists make great gifts. A hut in the front holds trapper supplies. Fishing and hunting gear are toward the back, everything from dapper and practical wool vests and jackets to waxed canvas rucksacks to basic tackle to firearms—some that Zack makes.
There’s always someone eager to chat about outdoor opportunities or history. Currently, Zack’s main help is Chris Niemczyk, a friend he met in the National Guard, who watches the store four days a week with Blake. Chris is also the one who scours the internet for artifacts.
Fun Is Bruin
From a bear mount to creative displays of camping gear and woodcraft (like below at the Morris store), Nessmuk’s encourages visitors to imagine their best adventure.
“People come in wondering if we’re a museum or store,” says Zack. The two large shop windows do give a glimpse of something a little wild. “I don’t think there’s anything in here I killed,” he says. Lots of the antlers were his grandfather’s. Most of the taxidermy came from generous folks at the Morris Rod & Gun Club. The bear was shot outside Morris by Terry House, who told Zack, “Hey, we’ve got this in our garage!” Zack smiles, “A couple things guys’ wives thought would look better here. Like Ricky the raccoon.” The ’73 Radisson canoe packed with camping gear was Zack’s grandfather’s.
Zack says it really should have occurred to him sooner that this was the space he’d been waiting for—he’d been scouting Wellsboro storefronts for years—but he’d seen the “For Lease” sign at 91 Main Street and assumed it was too large. When he finally dared imagine it, he had his mom call the number and inquire, afraid to hope it’d be possible. Al says, “I was aware of Nessmuk’s in Morris. I said, ‘Hey, Wellsboro is doing well.’”
The post-covid shopping surge was still happening, and Al’s business had been better than ever. Many people were interested in leasing half the store, but Al didn’t want to add back a wall that his father had removed when he’d bought the building in the late ’60s. Garrisons had been in the side toward the Green since 1955. Before the expansion, Davis Sporting Goods, a gun shop, was in the other side. “It’s a unique property,” Al says. He told Zack he’d be glad of the 3,200 square feet of selling space. “You’re going to need two doors on Dickens,” said Al. “And that’s not the only day of the year you need two doors.”
Re-Wilding Wellsboro
(2) Wade Spencer
Zack is still adding inventory but has put the space to good use. In the back, a glass case is devoted to Nessmuk, the pen name of George Washington Sears (who was born in 1821 and died in 1890) whose book, Woodcraft and Camping, shared opinions and tips about how to set up camp and make a fire that’d burn all night, what gear was and wasn’t necessary, his favorite knife and double-bladed hand axe, and who eventually, out of necessity, pioneered the ultra-light
canoe. Far from the stereotypical brawny, rugged outdoorsman type, Sears was short, 110 pounds, and for many years struggled with recurring illnesses. He used a confident, jocular tone to persuade working folks that they didn’t need to spend a fortune hiring guides and buying the latest thing in order to enjoy the wilds. They just needed the right thing—a philosophy Zack embraces.
Sears took the name Nessmuk to honor the member of the Nipmuc tribe who’d mentored him in outdoor skills when he was a little boy in Massachusetts. He wrote, “I think he exerted a stronger influence on my future than any other man.” Zack chose the name for the store because of the history and values Nessmuk stood for, especially how he’d seen the beginning of the destruction of Pine Creek with over-logging and the tanneries, and spoke out about it. “There was an emotional connection for [local] people,” Zack says.
But he first considered naming the store after a man who exerted a strong influence on his future: Charles Chamberlain, his grandfather and mentor in the outdoor arts.
A Self-Made Woodsman
Zack grew up in Tioga, near his grandfather. He spent as much time with him as possible. “Being homeschooled, I could just walk across town and bug him,” he says. Retired from Corning Glass Works and the National Guard, his grandfather had lots of hobbies and skills young Zack was eager to learn. “He did reloading, and worked on guns in a gun room in the house, and had a workshop in the garage for woodworking. It didn’t matter what he was doing, I liked following him around.”
He took Zack squirrel hunting for the first time when he was eight. When they left the house that day, Zack didn’t know his grandfather was carrying a Marlin youth single shot .22.
“There was a large hickory with lots of squirrels on it. A big one stopped, and he said, ‘See that?’ And he handed me the rifle,” Zack remembers. “It wasn’t exactly legal back then, but it wasn’t uncommon.” He got a squirrel that day, but, because “I shot more than once,” he’s not sure it was that one. And he was hooked. “Pretty much every day I’d get my schoolwork done, then go ask if we could go hunting.”
Zack hunted with his grandfather until his teens, adding turkey and deer hunting at age eleven. The next year, his grandfather gave
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Nessmuk continued from page 9
Following the Trail
Charles Chamberlain (left), Zack’s grandfather, got him hooked on all things outdoors, a love which Zack’s daughter Gwen (right) shares. Zack made Gwen this iron-sighted Marlin, which is reminiscent of the rifle his grandfather gave him.
him a Marlin lever-action .30-30. They’d hang out at Coopers Sporting Goods in Mansfield back when Chuck Cooper owned it and Thursday mornings were a coffee klatch. “That was the first sporting goods store I knew—in my mind’s eye that’s still my model.”
An avid reader, he found a copy of Nessmuk’s Woodcraft on his parents’ bookshelf. “I was enamored,” Zack says, but he was eight and had no idea of the local connection. “When I re-read it at thirteen, I started recognizing the places he was talking about.” His family moved to thirty acres outside Lawrenceville when he was eleven, where he could hunt out his back door. But like Nessmuk, who wrote in the introduction to his book of verse that the “ardent lover of nature” makes a deeper connection with forest life than hunters who have a “brutal love of slaughter for the mere pleasure of killing something just because it is alive,” Zack’s love of the outdoors went far beyond hunting. He loved learning the old ways of self-sufficiency and working with his hands.
His first job at eleven was at Glenfiddich Farm, in Millerton, helping Robby England with his sheep. Kathleen England, owner of Glenfiddich Wool, taught him to spin and weave. He never took to knitting,
but loved spinning. “I made a lot of yarn and never did anything with it,” he grins.
Zack learned from his father how to make knives on a bench grinder, and helped him build a barn. At fourteen he went to a nearby reenactment and spent the whole time watching the blacksmith. That was in May. In December he got his first forge. “I’m probably the only kid that was happy to get coal for Christmas,” he jokes. That winter, in below-zero temps, Zack was in the garage trying to get the forge going. His dad, a woodworker, had put together a table frame for it, and Zack used a chunk of railroad tie for an anvil. This was far from efficient, but he made and sold squirrel forks and tent stakes, saved the money, and, the following spring, found an anvil at an estate auction. “I probably spent too much on it,” he says, “but the lady I was bidding against wanted to put it in her garden. I took that personally.”
A thing of use is a thing of beauty. And Zack used that anvil, starting Blak Forge.
Stalking His Dream
Zack went to Mansfield University, where he lived on campus, studied sociology and anthropology, and continued to date Tracy Jack, his girlfriend since he was
sixteen. They’d met at a historical reenactors rendezvous and had friends and interests in common. They married in July 2007, he graduated in December 2007, and she graduated with a degree in mathematics in May 2008. Zack realized that using his degree would take him away from the area, and, long before he’d graduated, he’d decided he wanted to open a sporting goods and gunsmith shop. Now they were on the hunt for a location. Zack and a buddy got a map and put pins every place there was a gun store. Then they circled areas without one that had a crossroads. Morris was one such place.
It was Zack’s mom who showed Zack and Tracy the advertisement in the paper for an old storefront just past the Morris Fire Company and ball fields. The location was great. Babb Creek ran behind, and it was close to one of the winter camps Nessmuk wrote about. But it was in bad shape, and would need a lot of work before it was habitable. The floor was rotten in places and the foundation unsafe. They had to jack it up and replace everything. Zach added walls upstairs to make rooms, and put in a kitchen.
For a while, the couple lived in a house Tracy’s father owned. Tracy worked at a map company in Wellsboro to pay bills. Zack,
Courtesy Zack Buck
Lilace Mellin Guignard
Canyon Country Fabrics
By Noah Haidle
EARTH DAY
Saturday, May 3, 10am-4pm 3036 Mill Creek Rd., Mansfield, PA millcoveinc.org
This event is an interactive environmental outdoor recreational experience. Earth Day at Mill Cove features the same format as past events with a full day of new and returning activities! Free Admission! Vendors 10am-2pm Music 2pm-4pm
Interested in becoming a vendor for this event? Vendor forms are available online at: millcoveinc.org/news
Fishing rods, kayaks, and archery equipment along with safety gear will be provided For more information call (570) 418-3593 or email millcovepa@gmail.com
with no money for inventory, started Blak Forge Armoury, named after his forge as a kid. “At first it was half barter,” he says. “If you’d buy me the tool I needed to do the job, I’d do your gun for free.” Soon Bill Bennett partnered with Zack, and they had a workshop downstairs. Zack mostly made guns, but also built knives, did some leatherwork, and made some powder horns. He got one bedroom mostly finished and started work on the library.
Then came the babies. First was Gwenevere, then Evelyn, two years later. Three years later, Charles, named for Zack’s grandfather, came along. The girls shared a bedroom. When it came time for Charlie to have his own room separate from his parents, they thought it’d be easier to keep him in the same room and move their bed into the library. While Evie, now thirteen, has moved into the attic, Zack and Tracy still sleep in the library, surrounded by packed shelves and their Madonna icon collection (the Catholic one, not the material girl).
In 2017, they started looking for a storefront in Wellsboro. Nothing available was ideal. But Zack received some advice from the Scranton Small Business Development Center: opening in the space he already had would provide “proof of concept.” The gunsmith workshop had to move, and inventory had to be acquired bit by bit. A main distributor they’d based their business plan on went out of business, and Zack had to start over with suppliers. So, they decided to source directly from small businesses and crafters. The pandemic shutdown seemed like a sign to finally redo the downstairs into a store. “We bought supplies immediately,” Zack says. Small businesses welcomed orders during that time, and the Bucks were able to build inventory for their April 2021 grand opening.
The 650 square feet of store space in Morris still has a rustic shelter in one corner showing off wool blanket rolls, pack baskets, and canvas rucksacks. There’s fishing gear—more than the Wells-
Nessmuk continued from page 10 Wade Spencer
Raising Wild
The Buck family enjoying an early spring day in the Pennsylvania Wilds: (l to r) Tracy, Evie, Gwen, Zack, and (in front) Charlie.
boro store carries.
“You don’t normally see books in a gunshop,” Zack says, but tomes by Nessmuk and others on the outdoor arts remain good sellers. There’s a shelf near the back for Gwen’s Goodies, their oldest daughter’s business, with smoked maple syrup (she learned from her grandfather) and jams and jellies. Following her father’s example—but making her own footprints—at nine Gwen saved money from sales to buy her first gun, a 20-gauge Ithaca 37. At her request, she’d started shooting at age six, and Zack took her squirrel hunting at the same age his grandfather had taken him. “Mostly we got cold and rained on,” he recalls. A couple years ago Zack made her an iron-sighted Marlin, a nod to the rifle his grandfather gave him, and took her deer hunting. None came close enough to take an ethical shot, so the next year he made her a scoped rifle. She’s gotten two does with that. At fifteen, she’s the most outdoorsy of their kids, but all have had a chance to help Zack at the gunsmith’s bench or on the property. He wants to give them lots of opportunities to do different things and let them choose. Except chores, of course. Everyone chips in there.
Since they opened in Morris, Tracy works from home, taking care of the books and staffing the store counter when Zack is hunting or gunsmithing. The kids, whom she homeschools, come and go, pounding up and down the stairs behind the store wall, and calling down through the floor grate when they need something, sometimes startling customers.
The Outer Limits
April is the fifth anniversary of Nessmuk’s Sporting Goods in Morris and of the Spring Festival held on their property by Babb
Blossburg American Legion Post 572
Private Club for Members and Guests
Adult Easter Egg Hunt April 5! with live music from “Flu Shots”
Tuesday: Limited Menu
Wednesday: Wings
Thursday: Limited Menu with Tacos Friday: Fish Fry & Delmonicos on the Grill
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Stop in and pick up a membership application!
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New Members Welcome! Call for information and pricing
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Don’t forget to pay for your 2025 memberships
We also host Private Events! Call today!
Spectacular views of the Endless Mountains and Lycoming Creek!
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Makin’ a Splash
Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission releases fish houses at Hammond Lake in order to enhance and protect the underwater locals.
Fishin’ for Habitat
Fish Need Cribs, Too
By Don Kelly
“So, what are you building?” asks a curious onlooker at the boat launch on a hot summer day at Hammond Lake. A gentleman adorned with a hard hat, safety glasses, and a bright fluorescent vest replies, “It’s a good day to build some fish houses!” Standing around a pallet of wood and stacks of cinder blocks, the group listens as Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission staff and US Army Corps of Engineers workers rattle off instructions and safety protocols.
Unknown to the casual observer, scattered beneath the lake’s unassuming surface sprawls a diverse arrangement of fish residences. An Atlantis, of sorts, that fish call home. Unlike the great lost city, though, many anglers have found these neighborhoods, and the addresses are well documented—with housing expansion strategically planned for years to come. Today’s project at Hammond is merely a continuation of many years of hard work and dedication. Here, and at most other reservoirs in this
area, the story of these subsurface cities began decades ago.
When new reservoirs were being developed and dug across the country, nearly every tree and stump was removed before the reservoirs were filled with water. Dam managers hoped to keep debris from clogging the dam breast, and little concern was placed on fish habitat. Reservoirs filled as mud-bottom bowls lacking places for fish to gather and thrive. Since those times, a better understanding of fish populations has helped biologists realize that fish need homes, too. Healthy lakes need places for fish to eat, rest, and have babies. Newborns and small fish need places to hide from hungry predators. In turn, healthy lakes offer excellent fishing opportunities and biodiversity.
According to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the first habitat improvement program started in 1972, with the first project implemented in 1979. Since that time, the program has expanded immensely, with numerous clubs and conservation
groups working together to help improve fisheries statewide. Projects in Tioga County date back to the early 1990s. Bass fishing clubs, Commonwealth University-Mansfield students, and countless volunteers have worked hand in hand with PFBC to enhance and protect local fisheries by building and placing artificial fish habitat structures.
Tioga County Bass Anglers, the local bass fishing club, has participated in projects for over twenty years, including work at Hammond, Tioga, Cowanesque, and Nessmuk lakes. In 2013, the club joined the National Fish Habitat Partnership as a Friends of Reservoirs Chapter. With this partnership, TCBA helped secure grants and funding for both large- and small-scale projects. This project at Hammond was made possible, in part, by a small project grant from the fish habitat partnership, and by club members donating their time to help.
Volunteers work in teams to build structures called porcupine cribs. Much like See Habitat on page 16
Lilace Mellin Guignard
building a log home, rough cut hemlock boards are laid on a template then stacked in perpendicular rows with each row just inside the last. Once a few layers high, eight concrete blocks are added with a layer of boards to secure them in place. The boards continue higher and higher, creating a pyramid-like shape. One worker uses a nail gun to secure every board. To finish it off, a heavy-duty strap is fed through the bottom and around the entire habitat.
After completion, a forklift picks up each crib and loads it onto a specialized boat equipped with rollers to easily offload habitats into the lake. Volunteers who help with projects get a firsthand look at where the new fishing hot spots are. Prior to construction, PFBC managers located the plan area and set buoys to mark the drop-off spots. Once at the buoys, volunteers push the structure off the front deck. The new fish homes sink, then await new residents. Quality teamwork and years of experience help make quick work of a few dozen structures. A typical project involves building and placing twenty to thirty units.
As the last porcupine crib gets loaded onto the boat, club members joke about who will be the first to catch fish from their new habitat. The crib was the first artificial structure designed in the state and continues to be a favorite for both fish and fishermen. They provide habitat for panfish like crappie and bluegills, but don’t be surprised to see largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and more hanging around, too.
Other types of structures, like black bass nesting structures or catfish boxes, are designed to encourage spawning, while some artificial habitats provide excellent bank fishing opportunities and protect shorelines from erosion. They’re all composed of natural materials, including rough cut hemlock boards, rocks, and trees.
Each fish habitat structure acts as its own mini ecosystem. First, algae covers the wood, or rock, thus attracting small macroinvertebrates like mayfly nymphs and crayfish. Next, small fish move into the area to feed on the bugs, attracting larger predator fish looking for a meal. Little fish have places to hide and grow, while hungry larger fish have ideal hunting grounds.
For those anglers who didn’t make it to building day—don’t worry! Each structure is GPS marked, and the coordinates are listed for easy reference on free maps on the PFBC website, pa.gov/ agencies/fishandboat. Maps show the location of the habitat, the year it was completed, and the type and quantity of structure. Print the maps or keep them on a smartphone for easy reference on the water.
Vinnie Lessard, PFBC lake habitat manager, says plans for this year include more porcupine cribs at Tioga and Hammond, plus felled shoreline trees on Tioga. At Cowanesque, around 500 tons of rock rubble reefs will be placed. Find out where and when at tiogacountybassanglerspa.com or email them at tiogacountybassanglers@gmail.com. The work is part of a multi-year plan that is updated regularly. With the help of great volunteers and lasting partnerships, the future of our fisheries is in good hands for generations to come.
Don Kelly is the owner of Tackle Shack in Wellsboro and a PA Fish & Boat Commission fishing skills instructor. He can be reached by email at tackleshack@frontiernet.net.
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Email us at cbpa@epix.net or visit cbprogress.org One Elizabeth Street, Suite 3 Towanda, PA 18848 570-265-0937
Enjoy Hiking?
Lace up your boots and hit the trails with us in April and May Join us for our Small Business Support Hikes with dinner prepared by local restaurants
Mt. Pisgah: April 12-13
This two-day hike will begin on Saturday, April 12, 2025, at Mt. Pisgah County Park (2181 Wilcox Drive, Troy, PA 16947) and will lead participants from the county park to the state park on several combined trails throughout each park. Check-in for this event begins at 12 p.m. at the top of the county park (41.8101943, -76.7164631).
Mother’s Day Hike at Salt Springs State Park: May 10-11
Bring mom and join Endless Mountains Heritage Region at its second event in the Small Business Support Hike series at Salt Springs State Park! This two-day hike is Saturday, May 10, 2025, overnight into Sunday, May 11. Participants should meet at Salt Springs State Park’s main park office, also known as the historic Wheaton House (GPS coordinates: 41.9119, -75.86553), on Saturday by 11 a.m. to sign in.
*Participants are responsible for lunch/snacks while on the trails.* For more information or to register for these events or future ones, visit emheritage.org/events
These events were funded in part by the Bradford County Tourism Promotion Agency, the Susquehanna County Promotion and Tourism Agency, and the Endless Mountains Visitors Bureau and Wyoming County Room Tax Fund.
Deep Creek Sleeps
Two-hundred-yearold Waterville Hotel will continue to serve guests many more years thanks to new owners (l to r) Jason McConnell, Vanessa Brown, and Brad Wyland.
Two Centuries on the Creek Tradition Thrives in
Waterville
By Linda Roller
The road north from Lycoming County into the Pine Creek Valley is a rippled, twisting ribbon that alternates between riding close to the water and up on the mountains that frame Pine Creek, the gorge of a thousand vistas. Coming down from one overlook, the road goes into a pocket, nestled in the woods. Rounding a curve into that pocket, there’s the Waterville Hotel. It’s at the intersection of Route 44 and Little Pine Creek Road, but the juncture itself, at the convergence of Pine Creek and Little Pine Creek, is much older than the roads.
This year marks the 200th continuous year in business for the Waterville Hotel. It’s a traditional Pennsylvania tavern, with a bar below and rooms for guests above—six rooms on the second floor, and an apartment leased on the third floor. It’s old enough to have been on the railroad line—that’s evident by the closeness of the rail trail that now runs on the former New York Central line. But this hotel is much older than that. Brad Wyland, one of the Waterville’s new owners, says, “When we renovated the kitchen, we tore out old walls to the original [structure].” And there, the hand hewn beams from old-growth timbers were
visible again.
Harry Stephenson’s History of the Little Pine Creek Valley confirms it. This hotel was built before the railroads, before the tourists and nature seekers, before fly fishermen from all over the country plied the trout streams. In fact, this history makes a particular note of the buildings belonging to the original owner, Abraham Harris. That’s because the barn behind, long since burnt to the ground, was the more important structure. There, housing for the horses, mules, and pack animals needed to carve out a farm and a home in the Pennsylvania wilderness could be found. That there were buildings here at all is a testament to the first people to settle and farm this area of the Pine Creek Valley.
In 2023, local residents Jason McConnell and Vanessa Brown took over as new owners of the hotel (formerly the Waterville Tavern), along with business partner Brad. Jason and Vanessa already own McConnell’s General Store, right across from the parking lot. So, when Al and Deb Harakel, who owned the business for fifteen years, decided to sell, each of the new owners began to think privately about the fate of the hotel and whether one of them
could be the person to carry on the tradition.
“This hotel is part of Waterville and part of the valley,” Brad explains. “The fact that the Harakels could retire and it close didn’t sit well with any of us. Then there was the fear that someone would buy it and not keep it as the Waterville Hotel.”
Finally, in 2022, Jason, Vanessa, and Brad shared with each other the thoughts they’d been having as individuals. Communicating a vision of the future for the hotel, thoughts turned to the practical matters of figuring out how they could make the vision reality. Jason and Vanessa are the owners in Waterville, and Brad is the partner who has ties to the village but lives in Pittsburgh. It made sense, as Jason and Vanessa love this village, and are part of the history themselves. After all, according to Jason, his great-grandmother and grandfather were the tavern keepers right here between 1933 and 1945.
Brad sums it up best: “The Pine Creek Valley is in our souls.”
Luckily for them, they bought a property that was loved and cared for before they arrived, as the Harakels had completed a major renovation about ten years ago. When Jason,
(3)
Courtesy Brad Wyland
Vanessa, and Brad opened, they did work on an exterior bar area, so that patrons could be outside, hearing the water and enjoying nature.
The other thing this trio did was highlight the tradition of the place. The walls are filled with mementos. From a photo of Abraham Harris by the front door, to the photos of the hotel over the years, the maps of Tioga and Potter counties (even a map of Camp Kline, the nearby site of what was once a Boy Scout camp), the story of the area and the hotel are woven throughout the building.. These walls can and do talk.
They remembered the past in food, as well.
“One of the first things we did was bring back the Mountain Burger and the Porky Sandwich,” Brad says. These, along with the waffle fries, were staples and favorites at the hotel for decades. But it’s not a total turning back of the clock. There’s plenty of space for chef Dan Collar to create entrées and specials for today’s visitors to love. See the full menu at thewatervillehotel.com, or call (570) 7535970, but know it includes a charcuterie
board, Pittsburgh salad bowl, Pine Creek Canoe Part Two, and a full bar. The special board promotes mac-n-cheese and lamb lollipops, and offerings change regularly.
“People just love the food,” says Brad. The Waterville Hotel is open Thursday through Monday. Kitchen hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. except for Sunday, when it closes at 7 p.m. The bar is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. except for Sunday, when it closes at 9 p.m.
Danielle Kisko, the bar manager, says that the ghosts in the building talk to her when she opens. Knowing the area, chances are they are just catching up on the local news about people they were related to. Those relatives are here on a cold day in early spring, visiting at the bar. Everyone is enjoying the quiet before fishing season and warm weather arrives and visitors from all over the world fill the hotel.
“There’s lots of repeats,” Jason notes.
Mountain Home contributor Linda Roller is a bookseller and writer in Avis, Pennsylvania.
Rollin’ on the River
Head Downtown to Go Downriver
Elmira Shows Its Wild Side on Grove Street
By Jim Pfiffer
The Grove Street Boat Launch, on the Chemung River in downtown Elmira, is the most popular launch on the forty-three-mile river. The launch is easy to access and boasts a concrete boat ramp, picnic pavilion, picnic tables, informational kiosk, and plenty of space for parking and maneuvering boat trailers. The dirt and stone parking area is surrounded by a grassy river plain and forested areas, and is bordered by a twenty-five-foot-tall grass-covered levee the top of which is popular for walking and running, with or without a dog.
The river is wide here, with little current, thanks to the Chase-Hibbard Dam, a thousand yards downstream. It slows the river to a crawl and maintains a steady river level. But don’t paddle over the dam. Just downstream is the Don Hall Portage on the river’s south bank, offering a safe way to bypass the dam, get back on the water, and paddle to other launches downriver.
For solo paddlers, this spot offers the opportunity for a good workout with no need to arrange a shuttle. The faint current at the Grove Street launch lets you paddle upriver for nearly two miles, then back to your vehicle. Along the way, you’ll see forests, meadows, and cyclists and walkers us-
ing the dirt trail along the riverbank. You might spot a bald eagle sitting atop a tall tree or an osprey swooping down from the sky to snatch a fish from the water. White-tailed deer, red foxes, beavers, muskrats, and the occasional black bear enjoy the river, too.
Not a paddler? The grassy riverbanks make comfortable places to sit and fish for walleye, bass, catfish, bullheads, carp, and plenty of panfish. Visitors can also enjoy nature photography, exploring, or simply sitting and watching the water flow.
The launch abuts the site of a former Civil War prison camp. The Friends of the Elmira Civil War Prison Camp host tours of the full-size replicas of the camp’s buildings. For more information go to elmiraprisoncamp.com.
The Chemung River starts in Painted Post and empties into the Susquehanna River in Athens, Pennsylvania. It has eleven public launches offering paddle trips for a few hours, one day, or overnight.
The boat launches are maintained by the Friends of the Chemung River Watershed, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and sporting groups. The Friends website, chemungriv-
erfriends.org, provides real-time river levels, river maps, paddling guides, and safety tips. Educational programming includes introductory workshops on paddling, fly-fishing, river safety, riverside watercolor painting, and more. They also offer some guided paddling trips during the summer. Call them at (607) 846-2242 with questions, to volunteer, or just to thank them for caring for the river so others can enjoy a little wildness now and then.
Jim Pfiffer lives in Elmira, near the Chemung River, with his wife, Shelley, and their dog. He’s a former reporter and humor columnist with the Star-Gazette newspaper and a co-founder and first executive director of Friends of the Chemung River Watershed, an Elmira-based nonprofit organization that protects and promotes our rivers and leads guided paddle trips, hikes, and educational programs. He’s a board member of the Finn Academy Charter School in Elmira, where he occasionally teaches environmental education programs. When he’s not volunteering somewhere, he enjoys reading, hiking, cycling, paddling, pickleball, poker, the Boston Red Sox, and laughter.
Jim Pfiffer floats down the Chemung.
Courtesy Don Knaus
Charlie Fox’s Dream
Charlie’s Dream
Mill Cove Environmental Education Center is now a reality thanks to Charlie Fox.
A Legacy Lives On at Mill Cove Environmental Education Center
By Don Knaus
Have you heard of Mill Cove Environmental Education Center near Mansfield? How about Charlie Fox? If you know Charlie, you certainly have heard about Mill Cove, and vice versa. The two make quite a story.
Charlie was the human Energizer Bunny. His get-up-and-go outlasted folks forty and fifty years his junior. Charlie’s passion in life was kids. He was a teacher and principal in Troy, where he was a middle school earth science instructor, noted for his caring attitude toward young people. Handed problem students, he relished the chance to lead a kid down a positive path. His friend Bill Bower summed it up like this: “Folks thought Charlie was...frugal. He rode around in a rusty old pickup with rattling fenders about to fall off. But if a kid needed something, Charlie helped. He had sources, but, often as not, he dug into his worn jeans and found some cash. That was Charlie.”
Charlie loved the outdoors and hunting. He was a founding member/president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen. He became a deputy game warden, serving for years and leaving only at mandatory retirement age. He taught the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s hunter education course concentrating on safety, game laws, and, obviously, hunting. Charlie was then key to the opening of youth camps sponsored by the Game Commission. Called PGC Outreach, the camps’ subject mat-
ter ranged from the environment to archery to becoming a junior warden. But the Game Commission wasn’t done with Charlie. When a board member slot opened on the Game Commission in 2012, Governor Tom Corbett appointed Charlie. He served for ten years.
National Attention and…
In 1999 Charlie organized a local Youth Hunter Education Challenge, and then, during one of his trips to the National Rifle Association’s Whittington Center in New Mexico to help with the National YHEC, he boldly suggested to NRA officials that the event ought to come east. They agreed. Tasked with finding a site for a National YHEC in the Keystone State, he approached the US Army Corps of Engineers at the Tioga-Hammond Dams. Charlie had instructed at the annual Youth Field Day at Ives Run, but that site was unavailable. The USACE director suggested another spot. Water backed up from the dam had pushed its way up Mill Creek, with the result being a site previously used to host a mountain man rendezvous. Charlie had assisted at that event, knew the site, and readily accepted, subsequently naming the site Mill Cove.
Gathering local sportsmen clubs to help with setup, Charlie and Bob Davis, the NRA/ National YHEC contact, began preparing the site. An immediate need was small, moveable
pavilions. The NRA funded nine, then teamed with largesse from Blossburg’s Ward Manufacturing and Wellsboro’s Packer Foundation to erect the large main pavilion. That structure is fitted with electricity, parking, and seating for 150. Each year Bob sought site improvements, including road upgrades and funds for the NRA-approved shooting range to the northeast of the property.
Over its twenty-five-year history, Mill Cove would host the National YHEC championships eleven times, bringing kids and their families to the area from forty-six states.
…Local Support
Within a year of that first National YHEC gathering in the east, Charlie imagined what would become the Mill Cove Environmental Education Center or, simply, Mill Cove. His dream was a big one. His encouragement to local YHEC helpers probably went something like this: “We could make this a place where kids enjoy the outdoors, where they learn about nature, where they could do stream studies, where they learn to, you know, learn about animals, fish, trees, plants, insects, and...the environment.” He probably then heard, “Charlie, that’s a lot of work. You’d need a bunch of folks to help.” Still excited at the idea, his response was likely, “Okay. Would you help? We’ll get a board together.”
Wade Spencer
Mary Robinson-Slabey, who had accompanied Charlie to National YHEC in New Mexico, joined the board. Mary taught in the department of education & computer science at what was then Mansfield University. She attended an NRA shooting course to learn how to build a shooting range. She suggested going to the university for help. Mary served Mill Cove until her retirement.
Taking her advice, Charlie went to the biology department chair, Dr. Dave Flesch. Dave liked the idea. He was elected vice-president, serving Mill Cove for years before stepping into the presidency when Charlie died in 2022.
“Without Charlie, Mill Cove wouldn’t have been conceived,” Dave says.
Mill Cove is in Tioga Township, so Charlie recruited one of the supervisors, Hank Leatherman. Hank advised him that Fred LaVancher, a Tioga resident and, at that time, employed with Hunt Engineers, was good with details, planning, permits, and grant applications. Charlie pulled Fred aboard, where he served as board secretary and piloted longrange plans to completion.
“Charlie provided leadership and direction for his dream,” Fred says. “He had contacts with state and federal agencies, outdoor groups, the NRA, and Game Commission. His passion, drive…the love Charlie showed Mill Cove is beyond description. He spent hundreds of solo hours planting trees, cutting brush, mowing, and supervising the shooting range.”
Marilyn Jones, who was in charge of the Ives Run Recreation area, advised the board, predicting what the USACE might require. When she retired, she joined the Mill Cove board. When Fred wanted relief from his duties as board secretary, Marilyn took over.
And so, a complement of enthusiastic, hard-working folks filled the roster and worked, step by step, on the long-range plans, one of which was making sure the legalities around use of the site were in order. At tortoise speed, a lease was ultimately secured for Mill Cove from the Army Corps.
Fred attended board meetings with printed agendas. Charlie often started on item five or six until Fred gently brought him back to the agenda. That was Charlie. And that was Fred. True to Hank’s prediction, Fred, who served Mill Cove for twenty-two years, knew where to go, whose chain to rattle. His volunteer hours were surpassed only by Charlie’s. But—“Charlie was the spark plug, the visionary, a tireless advocate for the Cove,” Fred reflects. “Charlie was our leader, teacher, and inspiration. He fostered friendships with state and federal agencies, outdoor groups, all while soliciting memberships and contributions. Charlie made it all happen.”
Via Mansfield’s Bruce Dart, the Chamber of Commerce became involved. Bruce had logged twenty years on the borough council—as president for some of those years—and served in the chamber, as American Legion Post Commander, and was a Mansfield University alumnus.
“Charlie was ever optimistic and he found a way to share his optimism,” says Bruce, who was Mill Cove’s board treasurer for years. “His enthusiasm was infectious.” With Bruce’s help, the Mansfield Chamber became the address for Mill Cove, receiving mail and phone calls.
Charlie also recruited Mansfield University’s Fisheries Program Chair Aaron McNevin. Aaron pushed for an Earth Day event at Mill Cove, saying it was, “a perfect place.”
“The community responded,” he says. “Everyone wanted to participate and connect to the environment and Mill Cove. Charlie was one of
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those people who gets the job done. If we advanced Mill Cove’s mission, Charlie was happy.”
The fisheries program at the university had a large research boat that needed a home. Bring it to Mill Cove, Charlie said. So, a boat livery appeared for the study vessel and for Mill Cove’s kayaks.
Many others have contributed to Charlie’s big Mill Cove dream. Former Tioga County resident Dave Lamphier, a manager with Consolidated Gas, a locally based gas transmission company, came aboard. Consolidated Gas contributed to Mill Cove, along with Dave. Retired now to Florida, Dave’s an advisory board member who funds and manages the Mill Cove website.
Recently, the 250-acre USACE lease was renewed for fifty years. Several university programs use the area as an outdoor laboratory. Lee Stocks, head of Commonwealth University-Mansfield’s Institute for Science and Environment, supervises research projects at Mill Cove. With Charlie’s connections and his ability to twist arms, the US Fish and Wildlife Service did an extensive stream bank restoration project along Mill Creek that included a wheelchair accessible path just a foot off Mill Creek where buckets of trout are stocked. Teacher training workshops in environmental topics led to school fieldtrips and environmental career days. Scouts held camporees, managed a butterfly garden, conducted an endangered bat project, and worked on wildlife habitat enhancement.
When the USACE insisted that the bridge spanning the entrance be replaced, Charlie shouldered that task. He cajoled Larry Hines, with Gutchess Lumber, to donate lumber needed for the bridge. Other major project donors have included Ward Manufacturing, Gas Field Specialists (who graded the road, the site, and installed drainage to the Environmental Center), and board member Steve Steinbacher who milled ash from Mill Cove with his portable sawmill for the center’s siding. To date, over $2 million has been invested in Mill Cove’s environmental area. Most was raised from memberships and contributions from individuals, businesses, and foundations.
The last two projects Charlie was involved with show his commitment to doing whatever was needed to get Mill Cove’s story told. Contacted by the host of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers’ annual conference, Charlie couldn’t offer enough. He’d be there to open up the shooting range, attendees could use the main pavilion for a meeting, he’d bring all the wood they’d need for an evening around the campfire. He’d even bring stumps to sit on.
Soon after that event, a graduate student wanted to erect a listening post for a migrating bird study. Charlie called Fred. Fred deadpans, “Charlie and I strained but got it up. Charlie wheezed, ‘Worth it. Mill Cove will be mentioned in a Cornell dissertation.’ He died a week later.”
Charlie had so much energy that folks expected he’d be around forever. On the anniversary of Charlie’s death, friends, family, and board gathered at the Environmental Center and dedicated the new pavilion to him “for his dedicated service to Mill Cove.” He earned it.
This year marks the twelfth annual Earth Day Celebration at Mill Cove. It’s planned for May 3, so put it on your calendar and bring the kids. Find out more at millcoveinc.org or call (570) 418-3593.
Retired teacher, principal, coach, and life-long sportsman Don Knaus is an award-winning outdoor writer and author of Of Woods and Wild Things, a collection of short stories on hunting, fishing, and the outdoors.
Charlie continued from page 23
It’s
AThe Art Is in the Details
Colleen McCall hand paints details on her ceramics; Vani Akula (left) entertains visitors at her studio in Elmira.
a Bloomin’ Studio Tour
Corning and Elmira Artists Open Their Doors
By Karey Solomon
h, artists—reclusive, angst-filledwhile-waiting-for-the-muse—well, not so much for this group. They’ll be defying those stereotypes on Saturday April 26, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday April 27, from noon to 4 p.m., by welcoming visitors to their studios in Elmira and Corning. Through the weekend, visual artists working in a variety of media will throw open their doors to let the curious peek behind the scenes, find the unexpected, buy the irresistable, and learn about each artist’s process.
“A lot of people ask about process,” notes Beth Landin, (41 East Market Street, Suite 205, Corning) who will be turning her second-floor studio into an exhibit space. There’s a recurring theme—the conviction that artists are living an ideal life. Many visitors want to know how they do it—and are not-so-secretly wondering whether they could live that dream themselves. Sometimes it’s couched in another question, like when Beth is asked how long it takes her to complete a painting. Her answer? “Years of study and practice, and then the time to paint.”
And also, like every artist on the tour, not painting while she reconfigures a space to make it more visitor-friendly, gathers refreshments, prepares herself for questions and feedback. “It’s delightful to me to be able to host people in the studio,” she says. She will have work in progress on an easel, finished paintings, prints, cards, ceramics, and a few light refreshments.
Eleven artist studios and galleries are involved with Arts in Bloom—the list of participating artists is on Facebook. Jesse Gardner, owner/director at West End Gallery (12 Market Street, Corning; westendgallery.net), a founding member of the event, along with the ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes, will be hosting at least four artists at the gallery, with a succession of artists demonstrating their process during the weekend.
“Whether visitors are art collectors, appreciators, fellow artists, aspiring artists, or even the ‘art curious,’ this is a wonderful opportunity to watch a professional artist at work,” Jesse says.
Bridget Bossart van Otterloo, whose studio is at 10 Jackson Circle, Corning, rec-
ommends beginning at the West End Gallery as a home base. She counts herself as one of the instigators of the post-pandemic incarnation of the art tour. She says each artist involved takes part in the organization, making it “totally a group effort.”
Bridget believes Arts in Bloom is a valuable event. While the creative process is often solitary, “I don’t want to be making art in a vacuum,” she says. “People have always been interested to see how artists work, and each artist’s personal space is inspiring to see.” Sometimes visitors, inspired by her work, will want to take a class with her. “It’s all interconnected.”
Some artists, like Lee O’Connell (81 East Fifth Street, Corning) work from home. While her real studio is in a former upstairs bedroom—she’s a poet and writer as well—Lee wants to make things easier for visitors, so she’s setting up a temporary gallery of her work in a downstairs den with an accessible side door.
“Arts in Bloom is my way to open my studio to new people,” she says. “It’s exciting to share what I do with somebody new.”
See Bloomin’ on page 28
Ann Cady
Courtesy
Vani
Akula
Piecemakers of Elmira
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Lee took up the arts in retirement. She loves hearing people say they’ve followed her work on Instagram, but that seeing it in person touched them even more deeply. And to those expressing the wish to follow in her footsteps and explore art, “If they’re still working full time I tell them, ‘you will too, eventually.’”
The Turquoise Terrapin is between Corning and Elmira, a little off the beaten path at 465 Steege Road, Corning (actually closer to Big Flats), where Kelly Ormsby designs jewelry out of natural materials like parrot feathers, rattlesnake bones, and, of course, turquoise. Kelly’s love for designs inspired by the Southwest was honed by her former job at the Rockwell Museum. Her workshop, in a woodsy cabin next to her home, has a fireplace, colorful Mexican tiles, and beautiful things she’s collected on her travels.
“I’m really grateful for the people who take the time out of their day to come and learn about what I do,” Kelly says. “I take it as a huge compliment. I learn from them, and they get the novel experience of seeing something that isn’t usually open. It’s an exchange.” Perhaps, depending on his mood, the weather, and Kelly, Lyle the tortoise might also make a cameo appearance.
Marc Rubin (166 North Main Street, Elmira) puts some specials on one wall, and often fields interesting questions from those who visit his studio. Some viewers will see the sometimes-startling juxtapositions in his signature still-life paintings and ask, “What’s the story behind this one?” He likes to turn that question into “What do you see? Once it’s on your wall, it’s your story.” Marc’s space is a storefront, where the plants, real stuffed animals, and a small herd of easels give some insight into the creative process he invites people to share with art lessons and by looking deeply into the world around us.
“What you see is usually not what you think you see,” he says.
Ceramicist Colleen McCall (50 Foster Avenue, Elmira—look for a house with butterflies) sets up a gallery space on her home’s first floor, allowing visitors to enjoy the integration of her work with the décor in a space as colorful and patterned as her pottery.
“People want to see the artist’s life, not necessarily where it’s made,” she says, adding that she actually works in her home’s basement. For Arts in Bloom last year, she incorporated an interesting
On the Hook
A wild brown trout was fooled by a green drake fly.
Water, Water Everywhere Sometimes
Too Much to Fish
By Kevin McJunkin
It’s June 1, 2019, and green drake time here in northcentral Pennsylvania. The big brown trout should be charging out of their lairs and devouring those giant mayflies. There’s only one problem—too much water.
It started with a record-setting heat wave in the south, fueled by unseasonably warm tropical air from the tepid Gulf of Mexico, (now America). Then a northern cold front dipped down, clashing with the warm humid air, spawning wave upon wave of violent thunderstorms across Pennsylvania. In May of 2019, it rained on twenty-one days, the most rainy days ever in a month, this after Pennsylvania’s wettest year on record, 2018, with 63.6 inches of precipitation.
I check the USGS stream flow map every morning. The stream gauges were all black and blue, indicating flows over the ninetieth percentile—much above normal. Penns Creek, a Susquehanna River tributary in central Pennsylvania and famous for its green drake hatch, was way too high to safely wade. Some of our less pressured local trout streams also have green drakes and eager trout. So, I drove thirty minutes to a small mountain stream in southern Lycoming County. I expected it to be high and it was—off-color and leaping over its banks into overflow channels. The fish had to be hunkered down on the bottom. They can survive most floods behind large rocks or other obstructions, unless there is extensive bed
load movement. Late fall storms can destroy their spawning redds (the gravel nests female trout make), wiping out an entire year’s class, although under normal conditions trout populations will bounce back quickly. This day, though, there was no way to get my fly to them. I was afraid if I fell in I’d end up in the Chesapeake Bay.
At its headwaters, though, the water was high but a little clearer. I managed to catch several dozen wild brookies, none over seven inches and not a single brown. Catching pretty little brookies is fine, and I had discovered a nice stretch of new water, but when you’ve anticipated the green drake hatch for months, with visions of giant browns rapaciously devouring the mega mayflies dancing through your head, it’s a bit of a come-down.
Downstream, the water was still raging, and I had to walk fifty yards or more in between fishable pockets. I caught a couple more brookies, but still no browns. To add insult to injury, I saw a few green drakes coming off the creek and on the streamside logs and vegetation.
The rains finally stopped the next day, followed by a bright and sunny cold front with unseasonably cool nights. I knew the fishing would be tough while the trout acclimated to the colder water. By the time waters receded and warmed, the green drake hatch would be over.
Are local trout streams getting flooded more often?
Yes, according to my research. The northeast region, with a sixty percent increase between 1958 and 2021, is in the bullseye of more frequent major storms. I wasn’t imaging things. In 2024, Hurricane Helene morphed from a tropical storm into a Category 4 in barely more than a day. When the warm moist air from the south meets the ridges of the Appalachians, it flows upward into colder, lower pressure air and releases suddenly—a phenomenon known as orographic lifting—dumping huge quantities of rain in a short period. In the mountains just north of Asheville, North Carolina, Helene dumped up to forty inches. It happened to Trout Run when tropical storm Debby dumped over ten inches of rain within an hour near Fry Brothers’ Turkey Ranch, and other areas of the Northern Tier. Tropical storm Lee in 2011 was another example of orographic lifting followed by catastrophic flooding.
What can we do to help our streams be more resilient to flooding?
Pennsylvania is stuck in an escalating cycle of spending millions of dollars to dredge and armor stream channels, repair and rebuild flood damaged roads and bridges, and protect adjacent land uses from erosion or flooding damage. Many of these river management investments fail during the next flood, or result in increased damages from downstream flood-
ing or upstream bank erosion, and increased gravel bars. At the same time, stream erosion is increasingly cited as one of the most significant statewide water resource concerns.
Dr. Ben Hayes, director of the Watershed Sciences and Engineering Program at Bucknell University, has published extensively on using more sustainable models for stream stabilization and habitat improvement. His studies have shown that properly anchored woody debris will stay in place during flood events and help the river connect to its floodplain. This will contribute to increased floodwater storage to reduce the peak runoff of stormwater flows and more groundwater recharge, making the stream cooler and more resistant to drought as well as improving aquatic habitat.
When the stabilizing influences of a stream’s natural boundaries—vegetative root systems on the banks, for instance—are disturbed, the resistance of the bed and bank to erosion is largely diminished. Of course, even streams in a natural state will move in response to large precipitation events. Streams in our region appear to be in a phase of disequilibrium largely in response to major shifts in sediment delivery from their watersheds caused by historic logging practices—channels were dredged, straightened, and widened in order to transport timber, and mountainsides were denuded—and a series of floods over the past century or so.
A more sustainable approach is to allow the stream to passively reconnect with its natural floodplain rather than trying to constrain it within existing channels. Woody debris, such as fallen trees, can be left in place or replenished unless it threatens to clog bridges. Riparian corridors help hold water and should be encouraged, and ceasing or limiting channelization and construction of stream projects allows the stream to work toward a state of dynamic equilibrium (a balance between input and output).
Streamside property owners see first-hand the impacts from flooding and often demand site-specific stream stabilization solutions that can result in adverse impacts on the waterway. Flood disaster funding can alternatively be used to relocate, buy out, or modify stuctures and roads. For example, owners of the Pier 87 restaurant along the Loyalsock moved back out of the floodway and raised the structure well above flood levels, providing a great view of the river and saving considerably on flood insurance. The existing pad is reused as an outdoor patio. Eighteen months after relocating, the restaurant rode out the next flood with no issues.
I’m hoping for better luck with the green drake hatch this year, unless the heat wins, and we see low water, late summer conditions in early June. I was scheduled to go on a backpacking trip last fall to Wilson Creek in the mountains of North Carolina with my non-fishing brother, who had decided to give “this fly-fishing thing” a try, but we had to cancel due to Helene. Who knows how long it will take for that stream to recover. I’m well aware that my concern about the quality of fishing on my favorite trout streams pales in comparison to the problems of flooding, drought, landslides, and wildfires. It’s easy to discount or ignore these problems when they don’t directly impact you, but now it’s getting personal!
Kevin McJunkin is a retired Environmental Planner for Lycoming County. He is “Secretary for Life” for the Susquehanna Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Babb Creek Watershed Association. He lives in Muncy, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Fran.
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Creek, with about fourteen vendors and demonstrators. It fulfills his goal of not just connecting people with unique outdoor products but giving them a taste of new skills and activities. This year some of Nessmuk’s recipes will be used in the Dutch oven cooking demonstration. There’s fishing for kids—they dam up a ditch feeding the creek and throw in a couple buckets of trout, thanks to the Morris Rod & Gun Club. Kids will be shown how to clean and cook their catch, too. There’s decoy carving, tips on fly-fishing and foraging, free hot dogs, and “the smoked cheese guy is always a big hit.” This year’s festival is Saturday, April 12, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1803 Route 287. Zack also holds “Camp Fire” events on various topics. Check Facebook for events or call (570) 724-0717.
Having a second store has certainly changed the Buck family’s life. Gwen isn’t thrilled that her dad could only take her hunting three times last season. Zack says, “You get to do way less of the outdoor things after you open an outdoor store.” Looking at his daughter he adds, “The hope is as the business grows, we can hire more people so I can buy back some of my time.”
They’re off to a strong start, offering basic gear for “the average outer,” as Nessmuk would say. Zack sources as locally as possible, with items like Hunters Soap, Haft and Head Dressing, and Nessmuk’s box turkey calls, made just for them. Punky Dope bug repellant is made according to Nessmuk’s recipe, and trout flies to his instructions. Zack had to go to Johnson Woolen Mills in Vermont for the kind of quality jackets he wanted. Frost River packs (Minnesota) and Hults Bruk axes (Sweden) are brands Zack has long admired for their quality. They’re hard to find (available online, including at nessmuks.com), and Zack likes that customers can handle them here before purchasing.
In February, Al dropped by first thing one Saturday to check on his building (“Zack’s been a perfect tenant,” he says). “Honest to Pete, the door kept opening and opening. I looked around and it was full. I said, ‘You know how jealous any retailer across the country would be of you right now? Middle of February, ten in the morning, and you have a packed store.” He laughs. “I never thought there’d be a big, mounted bear standing there, but people love it.”
BACK OF THE MOUNTAIN
Catch of the Day
By Linda Stager
With my camera and long lens I am always looking for wildlife that frequents Hamilton Lake outside Wellsboro. When I saw the cormorants on this day, I knew the shot I wanted. Any angler can tell you that cormorants can fish the best trout from a lake. When a cormorant dives, you never know where it will resurface, so it’s challenging. They seemingly swim a distance underwater before they resurface. But sometimes, when they return to the surface, they have speared a fish, and that’s the moment I wanted to capture. It’s only a second or two before the bird flips the fish up and pushes it down the hatch, so to speak. I captured the whole sequence, but I liked this frame the best.
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