RI Outdoors: Foraging And Fly Tying
Foraging Along the Trail
Do wild sarsaparilla tea, Indian cucumber or mountain wood sorrel make your mouth water? Do you like adding bedstraw leaves to your morning smoothie? Aimee Gelinas, naturalist guide and co-owner of Tamarack Hollow Nature & Cultural Center, is a kindred soul. She’ll be leading a hike up to the 2,000-foot summit through a spruce fir forest, identifying plants, trees and edibles along the way. “I forage these trails throughout the year,” she says, “and always ethically — keeping the well-being of the population of plants and trees as the highest priority.” Hikers will be tasting wild plants as they go and will collect ingredients for an end-of-trail cuppa. Converts can buy a container of Gelinas’ homemade balsam fir balm made from tree resin, as well as guide books to help with solo foraging.
Forest, Flower and Wild Edibles Hike
Sunday, June 2 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Tamarack Hollow Nature & Cultural Center
1515 & 1516 Savoy Hollow Rd., Windsor, MA
Free
Fly Tying as Meditation
Those big brown trout in the Catskills prefer flies that sit on the surface of the water, rather than sink. Not only do the flies need to be buoyant, they need to look right, too. The result is “Catskill style” flies, an historic nomenclature. Clever fishermen, knee-deep in watershed creeks, select flies that mimic what insect is currently at the top of a trout’s “to go” order. That can change with the weather, the trout pool and the season — all topics well known to Bill Newcomb. When he retired, the local fisherman decided to devote his newfound free time to fly fishing — and fly tying. Newcomb is hosting this workshop to pass some of his skills on to trout fishing devotees. Besides learning how to tie a fly, you’ll be taught a few pointers on how to cast a rod. All while listening to great lore about the history of fishing in this region — maybe even stories about a few who got away.
Fly Tying/Casting Workshop
Sunday, June 9 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Austerlitz Historical Society
11550 NY 22, Austerlitz, NY
(518) 392-0062
Cost: $25
More To Do in the Great Outdoors
May 31: Monthly Star Party at Lake Taghkanic, Ancram, NY
June 1: National Trails Day at Overmountain Conservation Area, Ancram, NY
June 1: Amphibian Amble at White Memorial Conservation Center, Litchfield, CT
June 3: Hike Steepletop in New Marlborough, MA
June 6: Om at Ooms at Ooms Conservation Area, Chatham, NY
June 6: iNaturalist Photography Training at CLC office, Chatham, NY
June 8: Bird Walk with Alan Devoe at Mud Creek Conservation Center, Ghent, NY
June 9: Old Mill Trail Party in Hinsdale, MA
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