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Tuesday, August 26, 2008 7:17 PM EDT
Allegany State Park busy as summer winds down
By Rick Miller
Olean Times Herald
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| As summer winds down in Allegany State Park Aug. 25, paddle boats pass on Red House Lake off the Red House Beach area. Photo by Rick Miller |
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RED HOUSE - Summer may be winding down, but Allegany State Park is still chock full of campers.
There’s nary a vacancy among the 400 or so cabins and hundreds of campsites in the Red House Tent and Trailer area or Cain Hollow on the Quaker side of the park.
Park visitors are busy this week getting in that last hike to Thunder Rocks, walking or biking around Red House Lake, or heading to the beach for a swim or boating.
“We’re still booked,” said Park Manager Brad Whitcomb as he sat in his office in the Red House Administration Building. “We’ve really been pretty full all summer. The gas crunch hasn’t affected us.”
Besides some wet weather this summer, there have been few problems, Mr. Whitcomb said. Now, the biggest problem is college students who are lifeguards heading back to school.
“College seems to be starting back up sooner than ever,” he said.
Red House and Quaker lakes will be fully staffed and open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily through Labor Day on Monday, although there may be some reduction in swimming hours at Long Point Park on Chautauqua Lake and Lake Erie State Park in Chautauqua County, which are also in the Allegany Region.
After Labor Day, the park charges a vehicle use fee on weekends only from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
People may view Labor Day as the end of summer, but its not the end of business for park employees.
“It’s just a change of seasons,” Mr. Whitcomb said. “We’ll be moving into the fall foliage season. A few trees have already started to turn.”
The end of summer is a nice transition time for park employees, he added.
“We’re starting to get ready for the fall season,” Mr. Whitcomb said. “It gives us a chance to catch up.”
Unlike the past several years, there have been few reports of bears in the park this summer, Mr. Whitcomb said. Park officials feel that is because of the steps taken beginning last year when refuse and recycling centers were set up in the Red House and Quaker areas. Campers were advised not to leave food or garbage around their campsites or cabins. The fenced refuse and recycling centers worked, Mr. Whitcomb said.
Also, campers who left food around their campsites or cabins were given friendly warnings by park policemen.
“People are being much more cooperative this year,” he said. “(The bears) are still out there, but they’re acting more like bears should,” Mr. Whitcomb said. “If they can’t get the (humans’) food, the bears have to go back and get it where they normally do.”
Some of those bears who got used to Dumpster diving or foraging among the picnic tables have wandered away from the park, showing up in Limestone and along State Park Avenue in Salamanca, where they’ve tackled garbage cans and bird feeders, Mr. Whitcomb said.
“I heard there was also one hanging around the Red Garter Restaurant,” he said.
Park officials haven’t had any confirmed sightings of any of the four bear cubs that were released back into the wild a year ago after their mother, declared a problem bear, was killed, and the cubs were sent to a wildlife rehabilitator.
Flights over the park this spring were unsuccessful in picking up any signals from a radio collar worn by one of the male cubs.
(Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com)
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