Biggs Cross Country 2017: Day 35 - Letchworth State Park

It was raining a bit this morning. Kellie had gone off to work early (she has an odd schedule as a service writer for a Subaru dealer - 3 13 hr days, then four days off!) Jake was off to watch his boys in a baseball tournament. We'll see them tomorrow when Jake's week begins.

We headed off to Castile, about an hour's drive, to spend the day with our friends Bob and Mardi. Mardi was one of Linda's college buddies and they have stayed in touch over the years. We always to visit when we come out to visit Jake.

Bob's family has owned this 150 acre farm directly adjoining Letchworth Sate Park for many generations. He grew up here and knows everything about the history and all the short cuts. We started out with a nice lunch at the Glen Iris Inn (we've been here before on previous visits). Its the restored 1914 country inn of William Pryor Letchworth, located right across from the spectacular Middle Falls.

This is a wonderful state park, with spectacular views into the canyon and miles of hiking trails and other recreational opportunities. The gorge is the creation of the Genesee River as it flows north into Lake Ontario by Rochester.

Interesting history here about the CCC camps of the 1930s. 3,000 young men were assigned here to build the park. After 1941 these young, talented and fit men, were all "drafted" into the Army and sent to Europe. This effectively ended the CCC program. However, withing several years German prisoners of war were sent to NY on otherwise empty returning troop ships, and sent to the Letchworth camps to work on the farms, which, of course, were without their men who had gone to war. Interesting "circle"!

We completed our tour with a visit to the new Humphrey Nature Center. Interesting displays of geology, flora and fauna of the area.

The area around here is beautiful, fertile farm land. Mostly feed corn but some wheat, oats and alfalfa. They've had a ton of rain around here this spring so the corn is slow to get started. No "knee high by the 4th of July".

We got back to Jake's about 6:15 to an empty house, all except for Casey, the dog.