Lion's Den Gorge

Saturday I rode out to the Lion's Den Gorge Natural Area, about 7 km south of Port Washington and 38km from my home. An easy 1:45 bike ride. Oddly for a Natural Area quite near a small city and fairly near a big one, they have parking for cars but none for bicycles at the park. Apparently that slipped their minds. They do have some trails of packed fine gravel supposedly usable by wheelchairs, so that was on the checklist. There are currently no toilets and no drinking water.

The trails though the woods are nice and shady, with a wood-chip surface. Here and there loops lead to the edge of the bluffs and a quite dramatic view of the lake. Port Washington and its breakwater are easily visible to the North. At the far end, a series of stairs leads down to the water. The beach was closed to swimming last Saturday due to high bacteria levels. The beach is unlike the expanse of sand 20km farther north at Harrington Beach, instead it consists of rounded rocks and is fairly narrow. Mixed in with the rocks is the usual assortment of driftwood, drift-plastic-drink-bottles, drift-car-parts, and other miscellanea. There actually is a tiny bit of shade here and there, however.

Port Washington being nearby, I stopped there for lunch at the Dockside Deli. The veggie quesadilla is good.

Lion's Den Gorge

I have a few photos from Lion's Den Gorge Natural Area

( photos )

For the German Speakers

There is all sorts of interesting old stuff in the lab. We use 1,2-ethanedithiol for peptide synthesis. A little bit goes a long way, so the bottle we have has been in the lab longer than I have. A little bit goes a long way in terms of smell, too. It is related to the stuff they put in natural gas to give it that smell that warns of leaks before (hopefully) you have an explosion. Just opening the cabinet in which we store the closed bottle with the parafilm sealing tape around the lid is a noticeable event. Anyway, I don't know if the labeling on this bottle has anything to do with the fact that the lab director at the time grew up in West Berlin:

( photos of the bottle, a 'gift' for the German speakers )