Knife Edge Ridge

Sunday Feb 11th '07- Knife Edge Ridge- Zoar Valley

WE had a group of only five, but it was a real fun trip. It was Justin, from the Olean Hiking Group, Mary, her friend Steph and Uncle Dan and I. We did a trek down Knife Edge Ridge (Zoar Valley) just to have lunch on Blue Boat Beach (AKA "The Nude Beach").

This was a "mountaineering trip" 500 feet down a very steep, narrow ridge. It's one of only a handful of ridges that are climbable in Zoar Valley.

Knife Edge Ridge goes down to Blue Boat Beach where we made a fire and enjoyed a warm lunch.

We snow-shoed to the top of the canyon wall from the parking lot. Then rigged ropes and SLOWLY climbed down to the creek level.

We made a fire, and some of us heated soup for lunch. The view was incredible!

After lunch, we made the steep climb back up to the top. After resting, packing the gear back in the sled and taking some photos, we made the trek back to the car. We did the return trip without snow-shoes, as the snow was packed down enough.

All in all, it was a very fun day, uneventful day! The temps were around 20 with 40 MPH wind gusts on the open ridge. There was no wind in the canyon near creek level.

Hopefully, somebody else can add to this trip report!

NOTE: Two of the photos below are linked to larger photos that you can save as a desktop or screensaver. Feel free to take one or both! Just go to the larger photo and use your right-hand mouse button to make them a desktop or save them on your hard-drive.

Here are some pictures!

Our "invitation" to danger!

   

Justin untangling the rope

   

Steph and Mary

   

The view! ... Click on this photo for a large version you can have for a screen saver or desktop background.(use your right-hand mouse button)

   

Steph holding on

   

Justin rigging ropes

   

Uncle Dan

   

Me in the infamous Blue Boat, "up the creek without a paddle"

   

Spectacular view (Zoar Valley Nude Area in the background)

   

Making the climb back to the top, collecting the ropes along the way

   

Me, Mary and Justin

   

Justin bringing up the rear

   

The view! ... Click on this photo for a large version you can have for a screen saver or desktop background. (use your right-hand mouse button)

   

The last section near the top. Note the windblown snow shelf

   

Safe back on top, Steph, Mary and Uncle Dan

   

Justin winding up the ropes

   

Another view of the river 500 feet below

   

The hike back to the car, across an open field (quite windy!)

   

The snow was between knee and thigh deep, but we walked in log skidder tracks.

   

   

Saturday November 26th '05 Zoar Valley Knife Edge Ridge

We did the trip down Knife Edge Ridge in the snow! It was definitely more of a mountaineering trip than a hike.

I purposely only invited a "crack crew", since we needed a crew of competent climbers for this extreme hike to descend from the canyon top to the river level for a winter lunch on Blue Boat Beach. This was DEFINITELY not a hike for the casual hiker.

The crew today was Geoff, Dave, Mary and I (John).

The snow was between ankle, and calf deep, not quite to the knees. There was supposed to be between 10" and a foot of new snow. It was fairly cold, with temps in the 20's.

It was a fairly easy hike to the ridge trail as we followed the tracks of a hunter or two into the woods from the parking lot. There were tracks along the ridge trail all the way to the top of Knife Edge Ridge where we set up for the decent down the ridge.

The top section where there are no trees for quite awhile is the most dangerous. A person could slip to the right or the left and slide, or fall to their death.

Dave rigged the ropes, and we nearly made it to the area where the trees start, and where we could use shorter ropes rappelling from tree to tree the rest of the way down. It was a little confusing and difficult until we worked out a system that worked real smooth and fast. Now we are all descending "experts".

Rather than straddle the Knife Edge Ridge all the way down risking falling off one side or the other, Dave, opted for a steeper, but shorter gully. The "V" shape prevented us from falling to ether side. The trees were spaced close enough to facilitate our newly developed rope technique.

After a very slow start up at the top (about an hour for the four of us to go 150 yards), we did the rest of the gully pretty fast. Soon we were near river level and we walked the length of the beach at river level.

We had lunch right at the Blue Boat (good eye Mary). The boat, and the whole beach for that matter was buried under the snow. We did get to witness an avalanche (small, local) or two from the beach.

The climb back to the top was much quicker than I thought, and it was surprisingly uneventful. On the hike back to the cars, the sun poked out!

What a fun day! What a fun trip!

The scenery couldn't have been more spectacular! The climb up and down was quite exciting! The company couldn't have been better. Thank you Geoff, Dave and Mary for coming out and making this one of my most favorite trips of all time!

packed up after lunch, ready for the accent

   

January 1st NEW YEARS DAY 2006!

The first day of the new year, this trip was to take some "extreme" pictures for the "Extreme Ironing Dot Com" website. Here is the story and photos we did that day:Extreme Ironing Dot Com- Ironing Zoar Valley Nude Beach!

In celebration of New Years Day, I dressed as the New Years Baby for a picture for the Extreme Ironing website.

"Our team" GOT favorable mention, and/or world-wide recognition, by ironing in the extreme conditions of cold, while dressed in a diaper on Blue Boat Beach at Zoar!

I have Mary to thank for coming up with the idea and the "Baby New Year 2006" costume that included an adult diaper, a large bottle, a large pin, a bonnet and a sash that said "Baby New Year 2006".

Here are some photos, some VERY unique!

Geoff on top of Knife Edge Ridge with the ironing board

   

32 degrees! "swimming" on January first in upstate New York!

   

My Polar Bear Dip- Blue Boat Beach- Zoar Valley January 1st 2006

   

Plugged in and ready for action!

   

Geoff on Knife Edge Ridge on the climb halfway back up

   

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Here are some more photos from Knife Edge Ridge and Blue Boat Beach:

The Blue Boat from a summer hike

   

Kayaks on Blue Boat Beach- Our lunch stop

   

Knife Edge Ridge in the fall

   

Raft trip at lunch stop on Blue Boat Beach

   

THE BLUE BOAT!

   

Another lunch shot

   

Boats on Blue Boat Beach

   

Amanda winded near top of Knife Edge Ridge

   

Dave Storer on The Knife Edge

   

Summer creek crossing to Blue Boat Beach

   

Knife Edge Ridge in the Summer

   

Single boulder at the top of Knife Edge Ridge

   

Also visit our page on ICE CLIMBING NW PA & NY

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The closest place to park to hike down Knife Edge Ridge or the rim trail or to reach Blue Boat Beach, is the state game lands parking lot at the end of Unger Road.

You take the Gowanda-Springville road east out of Gowanda. At the top of the hill, turn right onto South Quaker Road. At a sharp turn, South Quaker becomes Vail Road. Continue up Vail Road, east, until you see the parking lot on your right, across from Unger Road.

Map 1 - Overview

   

Map 2 The Rim Trail

   

Map 3 Unger Road parking area

   

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From: Mr. Stephen McCabe To:JOHN STONEMAN Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 12:30 PM Subject: Fw: South Branch of the Catt Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 2:44 PM Subject: South Branch of the Catt Hi John, In-as-much as you've been helpful and proactive in the past, I'm calling on you yet again for support and a favor: could you please post the following announcement on your Zoar Valley web site? As you'll see, it's pretty much a self-explanatory attempt to announce the steps that three South Branch landowners are taking to try to stem the ever-growing tide of destruction that has been going on down there. I know you and I have discussed the problem at some length in the past and I'm not sure whether you've been down the South Branch lately, but the time has long since come and gone to try to reclaim the area. Here's the copy, in bold, that I'd ask you to post: Landowners in the South Branch gorge of Cattaraugus Creek are coordinating an educational and law enforcement effort to reclaim their property from an increasingly dangerous and destructive pattern of abuse by trespassers. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Nature Sanctuary Society of Western New York (NSSWNY) have joined other private property owners in the gorge immediately upstream from the Zoar Valley Multiple Use Area (MUA) to post their property against trespassing in compliance with New York State Environmental Conservation law, Section 11-2111. Contrary to several published guidebooks (Guide to the Ancient Forests of the Zoar Valley Canyon (Citizen's Campaign for the Environment 2001) and Secret Places: Scenic Treasures of Western New York and Southern Ontario (Kendall Hunt Publishing Co. 1994), both by Bruce Kershner, and anonymous copy posted on numerous Web sites), the South Branch gorge & upstream from the MUA has always been private property, and trespassing has neither been condoned nor welcomed there. The South Branch gorge has been the site of deaths, injuries, rescues, forest fires, alcohol and drug use, vandalism, cutting of trees, destruction and disturbance of plant and wildlife habitat, graffiti "tagging," and littering by an ever growing number of trespassers. A map of the MUA is posted in an informational kiosk at the Forty Road parking lot and can be downloaded directly as Figure 5, "Access and Parking," from the NYSDEC Web site here: http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/22552.html. In addition, warning signs have been posted at the boundary of the MUA to inform visitors of where the border of the MUA is located. TNC and NSSWNY volunteers and private landowners have been working with NYSDEC Forest Rangers on an educational effort to advise visitors to the MUA of its boundaries. For example, during the Labor Day weekend, more than 300 MUA visitors were turned back with warnings after attempting to trespass on private land in the South Branch gorge; despite this effort and warning, more than two dozen arrests were made for trespassing in the South Branch gorge off the MUA. The New York State Environmental Conservation Police and the New York State Forest Ranger Division have clearly marked the boundary of the MUA with signs and are continuing to arrest trespassers on posted private property in the South Branch gorge. Depositions have been filed by TNC, NSSWNY, and other private landowners within the gorge, and those arrested are being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. TNC, NSSWNY, and private landowners feel strongly that the current educational and law enforcement effort they are undertaking is the best way to help preserve and protect this unique, fragile, and--sadly--terribly abused area. I'm also attaching some recent photographs to give just a rough idea of the scale of the abuse, although you've probably seen worse. The dead tree is one killed in an area of old growth timber during a forest fire on Mother's Day 2006. The fire was set by a drunken trespasser's runaway campfire on the plateau at the Big Falls, and it burned all the way up the gorge wall to Deer Lick. The flames girdled many trees, and they are dead or dying. The cut tree is a hemlock that was cut down with an axe by trespassers, probably because it held a posted sign. Please feel free to post any and all of these photos as you see fit; I would ask only that you include a photo credit line (Photo by Steve McCabe, Copyright 2008) so that they are not reproduced elsewhere without my permission. Also, do you think it would be worthwhile to post the NYSDEC map that I linked in my copy above? You've got the Deer Lick map posted, so maybe the actual MUA map would be equally helpful. I appreciate your consideration of this request, John, and remain hopeful you'll see fit to help. I know we agree the resource is well worth the effort. Best regards-- Stephen J. McCabe, Preserve Custodian Sweetland Preserve, NSSWNY (Photo by Steve McCabe, Copyright 2008)     (Photo by Steve McCabe, Copyright 2008)     (Photo by Steve McCabe, Copyright 2008)     (Photo by Steve McCabe, Copyright 2008)     (Photo by Steve McCabe, Copyright 2008)