TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

THE FALLS GUY

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARY ESCH, The Associated Press

Published: October 14, 2007

COPAKE FALLS, N.Y. - Standing on a boulder overlooking a turquoise pool beneath an 80-foot-tall cascade of water, Russell Dunn recounted the legend of Bash Bish Falls.

'An Indian maiden named Bash Bish, accused of being unfaithful, was strapped to a canoe and sent over the falls to her death,' Dunn said. 'If you look into the mist, you can see an image of the beautiful maiden as the splashing water murmurs her name.'

That's one version of how the falls got its name.

'The other is that it's onomatopoeic, suggestive of the bashing and bishing sound of falling water,' he said.

Dunn can tell you plenty more about the spectacular waterfall 40 miles southeast of Albany, N.Y. It was painted at least five times by Hudson River School artist John Frederick Kensett. In 1858, 'The Great Blondin' walked a tightrope across the Bash Bish gorge, imitating his famous feats at Niagara Falls. Various inns came and went over the decades. Several people have fallen to their deaths as they climbed its steep cliffs.

A licensed guide, outdoors writer and retired medical social worker, Dunn has researched and visited hundreds of New York waterfalls in the course of writing a series of guidebooks. Black Dome Press recently published the fourth, 'Mohawk Region Waterfall Guide.' The previous guides cover the Adirondack, Catskill, and Hudson Valley regions.

Dunn has visited more than 320 waterfalls described in the books, returning to some of them several times to make certain his trail descriptions are clear and accurate. Usually, he is accompanied by his wife, Barbara Delaney, another licensed guide and co-author with Dunn of 'Trails With Tales' (Black Dome Press, $17.95), which describes 30 hikes through history-rich areas of eastern New York and western Massachusetts.
Bash Bish Falls is in Massachusetts, just over the border from New York, but one of the trails that leads to it, the Bash Bish Falls Trail, begins in Taconic State Park near Copake Falls.

Because Dunn wants his books to serve as historical texts as much as guides to pretty picnic spots, he includes extensive references in the back. The Hudson Valley guide, for instance, has more than 70 pages devoted to footnotes, bibliography and index.

Dunn and Delaney are often called upon by community groups to lead 'history hikes' to destinations that are rich in cultural as well as natural history. Waterfalls are often steeped in history, since they provide energy for industry as well as inspiration for poets and painters.

'One of the things that appeals to me in working on the books is the sense of adventure in searching for these natural treasures,' said Dunn, who divides his time between a home in Albany and a camp on the Great Sacandaga Lake in the Adirondack foothills.

'I've always collected old postcards, and it's fun to have one of a waterfall that was very popular in Victorian times and try to find it again,' Dunn said. 'It's exciting to find a beautiful place people have lost track of over the years. Of course, we've also been to many desolate gorges and ravines looking for waterfalls, only to come up with nothing.'

Dunn includes old postcard pictures of waterfalls as illustrations in his books.

The sound of a waterfall has much to do with its appeal, Dunn said. And they offer an ever-changing show over the seasons: splashing into pools reflecting brilliant foliage in the fall, freezing into dramatic blue pillars in winter, surging with fury in the spring.

'I think people today have the same reaction to waterfalls as the Victorians did,' Dunn said. 'We're fascinated by the sublime and the awesome, mesmerized by these entities of rock and water.'

IF YOU GO

WATERFALL GUIDES: Russell Dunn's 'Mohawk Region Waterfall Guide' ($15.95), 'Hudson Valley Waterfall Guide' ($17.95), 'Catskill Region Waterfall Guide' ($14.95) and 'Adirondack Waterfall Guide' ($14.95) are published by Black Dome Press; www .blackdomepress.com.

WATERFALLS: Some scenic spots in Dunn's guides:

Bash Bish Falls: Near Copake Falls, 40 miles south of Albany at the Massachusetts state line, reachable by a half-mile walk on a gravel road through forest bordering a boulder-strewn stream with numerous pools and picnic spots.

Cohoes Falls: A National Historic Landmark, 10 miles north of Albany near the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, reachable by a roadside overlook.

Kaaterskill Falls: A half-mile from Route 23A in the Catskills. The 300-foot, two-drop fall was an icon subject for Hudson River School painters Thomas Cole and Asher Durand.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT