Punxatawney Phil saw his shadow and we’re still in the thick of winter here in New York. A large swath of the east coast got hit by yet more snow just last night and I’m pretty sure just about everyone is ready for a spring thaw. And a thaw doesn’t just mean less freezing toes and heavy sweaters–it means that the sap will soon start to run in sugar maples everywhere.
Late February through March is traditionally sugaring season and there are lots of great places families can visit to take part in this early spring tradition. One of those places is at the Trailside Nature Museum at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Cross River, New York. Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, all 4,315-acres of it, is Westchester County’s largest park and it is truly enormous
A Bit About the Park
The Reservation (not a Native American reservation, but an area ‘reserved’ for plants and animals) was named after the pound that the local Native American Indians kept on the land for animals. They built an enclosure of saplings and drove the game into the pound. According to NYNJCT botony online, the name Ward comes from the powerful Westchester politician William “Boss” Ward. In 1925, through his foresight, forty-one hundred acres were acquired by the Westchester County Park Commission. He is also credited for creating, with the park commission, an overall plan for recreational ares in Westchester County.
The reserve hosts 35-miles of hiking trails, some of them self-guided nature walks, a nature museum and a wildflower garden. The varied terrain takes visitors through woodlands and meadows, past streams, caves and Native American petroglyphs, over open fields and through the woods. It is also a habitat for myriad breeding birds and the premier butterfly watching area in NY State.
Our hike took us along a portion of the Fox Hill trail that connects to the Brown Trail along the Cross River. Aside from the beautiful landscape and tranquility that comes from hiking along a rushing stream, we encountered MUD. Lots of mud and puddles good for stomping and general sploogery. We paused frequently along the trail to toss sticks and stones into the stream, to explore the thawing beds of ice alongside the stream, and to gape a bit at the remains of a deer in a wooded portion of the trail. The adults had varying theories about the demise of said deer, and earlier tonight I read that folks don’t see as many deer in the reservation as they might in their own backyards because of the quantity of predators, namely coyote and bobcat, making the reservation their home.
I also noticed today how our kids are learning to read trail maps and blazes. They were all really into their maps today, watching for the numbered trail junctions telling us when we needed to change course. Their enthusiasm was good, because I myself am a bit cartographically-challenged. It seems that honing up on my map reading will be a beneficial take-away for me to!
About 3/4 of the way through our hike, a group of us spotted a playground just off the trail, and the kids took a break from the walking to romp and slide and swing and play. They discovered a teepee-like arrangement of branches in the woods, and quickly took up residence on the log stools left inside by the previous owners.
A Sugarhouse Chat
When our hike ended we returned to the Trailside Nature Museum where just outside there is an ampitheater of sorts made up of log benches. It was our good fortune that we’d chosen to hike on a day when Pound Ridge was holding one of its Sugarhouse Chats . Our group sat together to eat a picnic lunch and listen to a story about making maple syrup. Off to the side stood the reservation’s sugar house, where the sap that we saw being collected from maples at the beginning of our hike was boiling away to be turned into syrup. We learned that it takes nearly 40-gallons of sap to produce only a single gallon of syrup. We also learned through a taste test given to us by one of the reserve’s naturalists, that we prefer real maple sugar to the high-fructose, non-food sort!
And so, our morning ended with sweetness on our palates and a hankering for the next hike.
Ward Pound Ridge Reservation is hosting their informal Sugarhouse Chats from 10am – 2pm on March 8th and 22nd this year. Museum staff will be on hand to answer questions, demonstrate maple sugaring techniques and offer sweet samples of the finished product. The Reservation’s maple sugaring season will end with music, stories, and tastings at their Sugaring Off Party at 1pm on Saturday, March 29th. Visit the Friends of the Trailside Nature Museum for a calendar of events and more information about the fantastic programs offered year round.
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