Tag: Durand Eastman Park

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Zen & X-Country

Freshly groomed cross-country ski trails in Durand Eastman Park in Rochester, New York
Freshly groomed cross-country ski trails in Durand Eastman Park in Rochester, New York

Donations to the Rochester X-Country Ski Foundation are in order this year. The groomed trails in the parks are the best option for skiing due to the lack of a substantial snowfall that would cushion the trials in the woods. And all that time out in the open covering a vast expanse of open land (golf course) has made us better skiers. When we first started it was clearly a trudge. I would say we skied no faster than we would move through the snow on foot. Then came a slow glide and it was much less effort than walking and we covered more ground. Now we have taken to studying the motion of skiers who ski like you would skate. We mimic them for a few strokes and then stop to marvel at the scenery.

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Ready, Aim, Fire

Target on tree in Durand Eastman Park
Target on tree in Durand Eastman Park

We generally stay in the woods when we walk. There’s less chance of running into an off lease dog than there is in the park and it feels safer. Our neighbor stays on the streets even in the park but then she walks alone. She told us she often has Nick Cave on her iPod and that might get a little spooky in the woods.

We cut through the park the other day and came across this target nailed to a tree. It’s an official 25 foot Rapid Fire Pistol Target and it was peppered with small holes. I found a handful of silver BBs at the base of the tree. And here we were just stopping by to check on the progress of the Magnolias.

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Bootleg Bench

Bench in Durand Eastman Park at the top of the luge hill.
Bench in Durand Eastman Park at the top of the luge hill.

I not sure but I think this is a bootleg bench chained to a tree at the top of the luge hill in Durand Eastman Park. Not as brazen an act as Anthony Pilato driving a bulldozer through the undeveloped part of the park so he could ride his horses up there but still pretty bold. The bench doesn’t look like any of the others in the park. It’s the kind you could buy at Home Depot and it’s in the same spot as the makeshift bench that was placed here when the luge fans were out last year (and then hidden behind a tree when they went home).

There is a metal plaque nailed to the bench that reads, “In Loving Memory of Elizabeth Salathiel 1921-2009 From The USA Luge Team.” I looked her up. She’s for real or was for 87 years. This is the same hill where we used to see the man child, nick-named “Mayor of Durand.” He’d sit at the top and drink Genny’s from the can between occasional sled runs. Haven’t seen him in a few years but there is quite a crew here when the weather is right and plenty of regulars who we say hi to as we ski by. I’ve seen some of them videoing their ride and I found this clip online.

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Man Child Mayor Of Durand

Saint Francis in Sprng Valley in the Winter, Rochester, NY
Saint Francis in Sprng Valley in the Winter, Rochester, NY

Saint Francis of Assisi may have taken a vow of poverty but he seems to be diggin’ his Russian style hat, his mink wrap and whatever that small white animal is in his hands. We pass this redwood chainsaw sculpture over near where the bulldozer guy came through the woods.

The one foot or so of fresh snow is enough of a cushion for us to try the big bobsled like run at Durand so we headed over there on our skis. Peggi said, “We haven’t seen the mayor yet this year,” just as we spotted the man child with an air mattress mounted to a big plastic sled with small British and American flags on the back end and a radar gun mounted to the front end. He had just cracked open a can of Labatt’s Blue and he told us he had reached a speed of 18 miles an hour on his last run. He said he was thinking about getting a “helmet cam”.

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Man Improves Nature

Fallen tree in Spring Valley before Mr. Bulldozer Man
Fallen tree in Spring Valley before Bulldozer Man plowed a mud highway through one of the prettiest parts of Durand Eastman Park

When I retire I might just hang around the hall of Justice all day. There are so many interesting characters coming and going, court workers, lawyers, the cops and undercover cops, the gang bangers, the accused and their families, the judges and Bulldozer Man. Today’s proceedings were pretty swift. Two lawyers huddled with Judge Elliot. There was some chuckling involved but we couldn’t quite hear what was being said. Monroe County’s attorney wants restitution and Bulldozer Man’s attorney argued that his client was only doing improvements to the park. A new court date was set for 1:30 on November 10th. The fallen tree above is no longer lying across the path through Durand Eastman Park. The BullDozer Man and his crew removed it before they plowed their new mud highway through one of the prettiest parts of the woods.

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Nine Degrees Of Separation

View of frozen Eastman Lake in Durand Eastman Park
View of frozen over Eastman Lake in Durand Eastman Park

When it is only nine degrees outside it’s warmer in the woods than it is out in the open. This cold view is looking north across Eastman Lake in Durand Eastman Park. There is a little spit of land on the horizon running east/west and beyond that is Lake Ontario and then Canada. At this point we turned around and went back home. Who knows, we might have discovered another country if we kept going.

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