Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

By SANDRA RHODES It’s no coin-incidence that there’s a new feature in the Trekking the Tuna Trails program this year. The Trekking the Tuna Trails, sponsored by the Tuna Valley Trail Association, is in its third year of raising money for the McKean-Potter Counties American Red Cross. Participants are asked to walk the trails in the Tuna Valley Trail System as well as help out the Red Cross. The program, currently underway, continues until Aug. 15. This year, a new challenge has been added into the trail mix. The Geocoin Challenge allows participants who raise $20 in addition to finding the nine geocaches on the nine trails of the TVTA plus a 10th cache when they turn in their log at the Red Cross, to earn a geocoin. The trackable geocoin, created by Glenn Melvin, is a two-inch wooden coin made of maple. One side has the Red Cross and Tuna Trekker logos, while the other side as the Erik Benjamin Covered Bridge, located at the Marilla Reservoir on West Washington Street. ...

More than 300 people turned out for Sunday’s second annual Marilla Winter Trek. Rick Lutz of the Tuna Valley Trails Association says, “Everything went great, including the weather. I am especially happy for Gene (Cornelius), who created the monster.” He said the hundreds of people were all over the Marilla area snowshoeing, hiking, cross-country skiing, ice fishing and geocaching. He said the geocache crew planted the caches a few weeks ago, and the snow covered up all traces of them. Lutz also said families were building snowmen out on the ice and the county rescue dive team did a demonstration. He said paramedics wee on hand as well, and local police helped with parking. He added that they went through “every bit of food” they had, along with 5 gallons of cider and 5 gallons of hot chocolate. Planning has already started for the third annual Marilla Winter Trek, hosted by the TVTA. “It is a lot of work,” Lutz said, “but worth it when it turns out so well.”