Sunday, February 22, 2009

Family Hike, Indian Lore








Yesterday we drove out to the Eastern side of Canandaigua Lake, we hiked at Bare Hill 865 feet above the Lake a "DEC Unique area". I had always wanted to go here for a hike, It has strong connections to the Iroquois Indians and home to the Lore Tale of the 2 headed Serpent. There are also 2 letterboxes here but we only found one of them. Muggles prevented us from finding the other. Let me say before I tell the tale that taking a Family Hike, sharing time in the great outdoors, sharing a tasty treat along the trail is tops for me. I love being together in this environment. We followed the directions to the first letterbox which yielded this stamp in the first Photo. The tale goes like this- much abbreviated, A young Indian boy found a 2 headed snake that he cared for and fed, it grew to enormous size and had a huge appetite that in the end included a whole village. In a dream a young Indian learned how to Slay the Serpent. Firing an arrow to a spot in the back of its neck, it was killed. As it rolled down the slope to the lake, it cleared all the vegetation and trees - "Bare Hill" it also spit out the skulls of those it had eaten- hence the erratic rocks known to Geologists as Septaria and to locals as Indian Heads on the slopes. This spot also is home to the Council fires of the Seneca tribes and the Origin of Genundowa Festival of Lights (the Circle of Fire) every September to celebrate the Harvest.
Photo 1 is the Letterbox stamp, Photo 2 is Council Rock, Photo 3 is looking North up Canandaigua Lake, Photo 4 is part of the icy road that the kids enjoyed trying to skate down as mom said be careful a hundred times.
It was beautiful sunny as the hike started but back to going gray as the hike concluded.

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