Remembering Pat Gates

Friends of Yellow Creek remembers our founding board member, Patrick F Gates, 86 of Nanty Glo, who passed away on March 17, 2023. Pat was an enthusiastic, no-nonsense volunteer. H was always ready to help, whether planting trees, registering bike racers, or building picnic tables. When we rehabbed a pontoon boat for the Friends group, Pat showed up with a battery he’d purchased for us at Walmart — “I thought this would be useful.” He also made connections and sought donations from other groups for the park.  Pat was born April 10, 1936 in Hollsopple.  Pat was a United States Marine Corp Veteran and retired from Bethlehem Steel. True to form, Pat made sure to renew his own membership for 2023, signing up in December, beating all the rest of us.  Here he is pictured after helping us sink posts for a canoe rack at the lake.

Litter Cleanup – Volunteers Sought – Sat Nov 12

FOYC members are invited to participate in a litter clean up day! We are part of the Adopt-a -Highway program and are responsible for a section of 422 near the park. Join a group of IUP students who have signed up to help. Safety signs, vests and gloves are provided to us by PennDOT. Coy’s pizza will be provided as a treat when we are done!

We will meet Saturday, Nov 12 at 11:00 AM in  the Environmental Learning Center at Yellow Creek State Park. (Turn off route 422 at the main park entrance, continue past the park office, and look for the building on the left as the main lake comes into view. )

We hope you can join us!

If you can participate, please RSVP to friendsofyellowcreek@gmail.com

Share your labor: thanks 2021 volunteers

dock work
Repairing dock

As this year comes to a close, we at FOYC would like to thank the volunteers who devoted many hours to the park, maintaining trails, organizing events, planting trees, running races, offering sailing lessons, etc.  We will highlight their work in our January annual report.

Meanwhile, if you volunteered but did not “log” your hours, please help us accurately report this information but sharing your volunteer hours here.

 

Friends’ Kayak Rack

Thanks to volunteers for installing a kayak rack at the FOYC Community Sailing base. A group of seven volunteers installed a pair of racks on Saturday on the north shore. The original racks were built on the south shore for FOYC by Luke Hamilton for an Eagle Scout project.

Now the racks have been repurposed and are available for friends storage. Would you like to keep a kayak at the park? Are you on the wait list for the McFeeter’s Cove racks? We have 12 bays available on a first-come, first-served basis. Donations of $130 are accepted for a seasonal rack space. (April 15-October 31). In order to fairly meet demand, we limit any family to one slot. Please contact FriendsOfYellowCreek@gmail.com for more information. Kayaks are stored at the owners’ risk; we encourage you to use a cable to lock it to the rack.

Please contact friendsofyellowcreek@gmail.com for more information.

 

 

IUP Honors College and LHORBA Join Forces on Trail Day

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Last month, a group of over two dozen IUP (Cook Honors College) students joined FOYC volunteers and members of LHORBA to prepare mountain biking trails for spring and summer riding.

The volunteers helped clear brush off the trails, mulched newly planted trees around the parking areas, and scoured the south shore from the day use area to Grandma’s cove for litter. LHORBA folks also build a new access bridge to the trails, fording a muddy gully.

FOYC appreciates all the volunteers from various groups who come together to help improve the park.

Please check the FOYC website and Facebook pages or contact the Yellow Creek Park Office for information on future volunteer activities.

Volunteer Trail Work

buildingWe had a strenuous, but very productive work day on Saturday 4/2/16. The weather was perfect for trail work, it was sunny and stayed in the mid-50s throughout our working hours. We had fourteen volunteers come out for a combined total of 73 work hours. We had a crew of four LHORBA members head up from the Johnstown area that were a huge help. Our thanks go out to Maynard Witherell, Fran Chappell, Rich Maher, and Rob Dorchak. They were were joined by FOYC/ LHORBA members AJ, Vickie, and myself. Lisa Meadows, the Environmental Education Specialist here at YC was a big help and really promoted our event heavily too. She attended and is largely responsible for the remaining seven volunteers who came out to lend a hand.

 

Under Max’s (Fran’s dog) close supervision; Rich, Rob, and Fran did a fantastic job replacing two of our time-weathered bridges on Damsite Trail. After discussing bridge design with Rich, we have some lumber left over, so we’ll probably be constructing another bridge with it soon.

cutting

With the three LHORBA amigos focused on the bridges, this allowed Maynard, AJ, Vickie, and I to focus on the Damsite Trail extension, further bench cutting/defining of the Damsite reroute, and working on signage. The preliminary layout for the Damsite extension was roughed in, but there is still a significant amount of bench cutting and other work before we can call it complete. I’ll update the map soon to highlight where this is located.

Many large trees were also cut that had fallen across the Damsite Access Road that parallels the lake.

 

I’ll post again if/when we plan to hold another organized trail day in the coming weeks or months. It would be great to get some more LHORBA members out that ride Yellow Creek frequently to help us finish the Damsite Trail extension. I think it’s going to turn out to be a really fun, alternative way to ride down to the spillway.

You can also see one of the new trail markers funded by Friends of Yellow Creek.  Keyed to the map, this signage should help experienced riders and first-time visitors enjoy the trails.

Aaron Kovach

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