Wayne County Life

SUBMITTED by Barb DeRoo, Trail Works, Inc. (19-Apr-2011)

This Saturday, April 23rd from 1 to 3 p.m. join Trail Works, Inc. for the 2nd Annual Wildflower Walk at the Spring Farm on State Farm Road in Arcadia. Trail Works' Mark De Cracker will be leading the walk.

Plan on at least 2 hours of walking over level to hilly terrain and dress for the day’s weather conditions.

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“Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak” Thomas Carlyle

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Twenty-two people attended a Wildflower Walk with Trail Works, Inc. on Sunday, 25 April 2010 in Arcadia, NY. The nature hike took place at Spring Farm and was led by local wildflower enthusiast Mark De Cracker.



Gathered inside a gazebo out of the weather, Williamson, NY author Jim May started things off by reading the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken. The group of 22 were then led by Mark De Cracker along the trails of Spring Farm, wearing rain jackets and bearing umbrellas. Along the route were spotted: Marsh Marigold, Skunk Cabbage, Cattail, Bloodroot, Bluebells, White Trillium, Solomon's Seal, Squirrel Corn, Dutchman's Breeches, Red Trillium, Rattlesnake Fern, Trout Lily, Green and White Trillium, Green Trillium, Wild Leek, and two special guests--a White "Quadrillium" and a Morel Mushroom.



At a certain point along the walk Mark De Cracker shared a new adage of his, addressing the best time to see the Trillium: "When the green-gold tips the leaves, Trillium bloom beneath my knees". It reminds us that when the bright green colors of Spring are showing in the treetops, we should head to our favorite Wayne's Wildflowers destination to spot all the different kinds and colors of Trillium.

Trail Works, Inc. schedules a Wildflower Walk every Spring when wildflowers are hitting full bloom. Look for this activity next year in late April / early May!

More PHOTOS are available on Wayne County Life's Facebook page in the Spring Farm Wildflower Walk album.

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There are places in Wayne County so full of stunning Nature that they are best described in words as "God's country"--and Trillium Heaven is surely one of those places. Local author Kate Chamberlin has written an incredible book in this setting, called Green Trillium.

Trillium Heaven in Spring is full of an amazing index of wildflowers, including White Trillium, Green & White Trillium, Trout Lily, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Red Trillium, Cut-leaf Toothwort, Dutchman's Breeches, Mayapple, "Extraordinary" Trillium, Christmas Fern, and Yellow Trillium. See Nature's Secret Garden for yourself in a video recorded 18 April 2010 by Trail Works Director Mark DeCracker.

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SUBMITTED by Barb DeRoo, Trail Works, Inc. (16-Apr-2010)

Please join Trail Works, Inc. for a Wildflower Walk on Sunday, 25 April 2010 at 1:00 p.m. We will meet at the Spring Farm, located at "the curve" on State Farm Rd. in Arcadia for a visit to Spring Farm's Trillium Valley and the many great trails to be found there.

Trail Works' own naturalist, Mark DeCracker, will be leading the way and pointing out the various Wayne County Wildflowers as we come across them.


Plan on at least 2 hours of walking over level to moderate terrain and dress for the day's weather conditions.

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SUBMITTED by John Cieslinski, Books, ETC. (20-Mar-2010)

On Saturday, 27 March 2010 at 2:00 PM. Mark De Cracker will give a presentation on the Wild Flowers of Wayne County at Books, ETC. in Macedon.

Every year society spends more and more time trapped inside playing video games or watching the latest reality shows. As Henry David Thoreau said it best in 1856: "Man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest." It has always been these simple pleasures of nature that have meant the most to me--whether watching the sunset on a mountain lake, walking in woods in the Spring, or looking at the beautiful wildflowers at my feet. It is nature that gives me my inspiration. It is important that we introduce our children to nature. The times we truly never will forget are the times a child discovers that special wildflower or the setting sun. - Mark De Cracker

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SUBMITTED by Kate Chamberlin (13-Mar-2010)

Do you remember the names of your teachers from high school…from grade school? Does the name of Miss De Leeuw ring a bell? How about Mrs. Maine?

When Leonora (DeLeeuw) Maine was a girl, her father farmed their 40-acres in Lyons, NY by himself. Well, that is, by himself with the help of Lenora, her younger brother, and older step-sister. The children were required to hoe the potato plot, cabbage patch, and corn field. Perhaps this is how a love of the land became instilled in her heart.

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SUBMITTED by Kate Chamberlin (1-Feb-2010)

It was a warm, sunny, Sunday one day in May when I harnessed up my guide dog and went on a wildflower hike with Mark De Cracker and about 20 other devotee hikers of Trail Works, Inc. He didn’t mention anything about tripping and stumbling through acres of corn field stubble to…Well, maybe I should begin at the beginning.

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The Wayne County Passport to Family Wellness initiative was a new program for 2009 jointly supported by Trail Works, Inc., Cornell Cooperative Extension of Wayne County, and Wegmans Food Markets. The Passport Program has been wildly successful in terms of number of people hitting the trails and exploring Wayne County spaces in a re-energized fashion.

The goal of "owning" an individual Wayne County Passport is to hike / bike / ski / ride all sixteen of the listed trails and to obtain a rubbing from the market post at each site. Those rubbing marker posts were all installed in a single day on 27 March 2009 by two teams from the Trail Works organization. The Passport Program started effective 1 April 2009 and challenged the public to complete all 16 trails in a period of one year--by 31 March 2010.

Bruce and Edie Farrington of Sodus Point, New York are amongst the group of people who have completed all sixteen Wayne County Passport trails so far. The Farringtons recently recorded on video some reflections of their experience on the trails of Wayne County in 2009 and these we share with you in the YouTube clip below. The We love the Passport trails of Wayne County video was shot in the Central Park of Historic Lyons by Trail Works Board member Mark De Cracker.

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RE-POSTED from Gardening Matters, with K.C. Fahy-Harvick (18-Nov-2009)

Question: I saw this Jack-in-the-Pulpit at Chimney Bluffs today and found it very interesting. It appears green etc. as if it were Spring. Any thoughts? - Seth Burgess


K.C.: Hi Seth, that's VERY interesting. the weather this year has caused many unusual plant events. Since Jacks go dormant in the heat of the summer, they then only have the soil temperature to go by. So it rained alot in September, then got sort of cold, then we have this warm November. Once the leaves start to sprout the plant then has day length for signals, and of course, jacks have short days like this in the Spring, so there you have it! A confused Jack!

[original post on Gardening Matters Bulletin Board]

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SUBMITTED by Mark De Cracker, Peppermint Cottage Bed and Breakfast (3-Sep-2009)

It’s now September, it took all summer to finally get a great stretch of weather cloud free in the summer of 2009. Days like these I would want to be on mountain ridge in the high peaks of the Adirondack looking into the fading sun in the western sky to the many hues of blues cast on forever. Today I was in Wayne County biking across meadows full of Goldenrod, Queen’s Anne Lace, Thistle, Spotted Touch-me-not Spotted and Joe-Pye Weed. The end of the growing season was soon coming to a close and nature was putting on her best show before she goes to bed for the winter. I soon found myself in the hardwood full of Maples and Beech, this is a place I spend many a day from April until the middle of May watching weekly as the spring wildflowers blossoms in front of me. From the first Bloodroot to the last Trillium I was either hiking or biking to see the daily changes. I will often visit the woods in October to watch the colors change from the first red maple leaves to the last rusted beech leaf. Today it was early September biking through the woods and finding the nature’s finishing touches to her season. The False Solomon’s Seal were now full of red berries, and White Wood Asters at the foot of Maple tree that was full of Spring Beauty just a few months ago. I was able to still find one lonely trillium with a dried up blossom, and bloodroot. Bloodroot is always my welcome to spring, one of the early bloomers and oh so beautiful. I started to ask myself why has it taken so long to come back to these woods? A place I find myself walking 2 or 3 times a week in the spring. Perhaps it was the rainy summer, or the bugs. Then I came to the conclusion these factors were at play, but the main reason was after a long winter the first sign of wildflowers in bloom is exciting. Perhaps the summer with the many perennials and annuals has saturated my mind. I found myself walking down nature’s main street with towering pillars of architecture and getting the same feeling I have had in spring. The sounds of the streets were replaced with the Cicada, Tree frogs and a Red Tail hawk over head. I was lost in nature again; I didn’t need a compass or a GPS to get back home, I was at home.

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Wayne County, New York is a canvas on which Nature has chosen to paint beautiful Spring Wildflowers. Take a video tour of Wayne's Wildflowers in the below scenes from Mark DeCracker's A Walk on the Wildside two-part series. Wayne County, NY wildflower highlights in the video include:

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You ask why we need Nature. Every year society spends more and more time trapped inside playing video games or watching the latest reality shows. As Henry David Thoreau said it best in 1856. That "man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest." It has always been these simple pleasures of nature that have meant the most to me. Whether watching the sunset on a mountain lake or walking in woods in the spring looking at the beautiful wildflowers at my feet. It is nature that gives me my inspiration. It is important that we introduce our children to nature. The values of introducing our children to nature at an early age will pay dividends forever. Appreciating the beauty we are surrounded by will only help us appreciate everyone around us and grow as a civilization. In all my years of hiking, I have never heard anybody expressing anger while on the trail. Oh we might complain how cold it was or the rain pleating down on our face, but we never forget those times. But the times we truly never will forget are those times a child discovers that special wildflower or the setting sun. (Mark L. DeCracker)

Why We Need Nature direct video link

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