Klaus' Korner & Yorktown Battlefields
Visitors Center, Beach & Yorktown
Please note this site is now a
static archive. Please go to Buddy's
Boondocks for updated info on the Battlefields and such.
(January 16, 2006, EGR)
A Few Words of Advice and Caution
What is Klaus' Korner?
Klaus' Korner is this web site, now a tribute to Kaiser Klaus III (AKC: DL 569628/04), my 8-1/2 year old, ~100 lb. white German Shepherd Dog (wGSD) who lost his valient fight against cancer on July 21, 2003. Here are the sights we encountered during our daily walks around the Colonial National Historic Park in Yorktown, VA. The title image above shows some of the local wildlife one may easily experience in the park. Klaus was the son of Sargeant Sampson (D930433) and Princess Shanae (DL466135/07) and had completed Basic Obedience Training at the Merrimac Dog Training Club (be warned it's a GeoCities hosted site), in Hampton, VA. Dr. Liz Leonard and the great staff at Seaford Veterinary Medical Center in Yorktown, VA helped keep Klaus in tiptop shape, until the onset of this terrible disease.
The remainder of the site will still be in present tense until I can find the time and wherewithall to change it.........
Why Create This Site?
I've seen handouts proposing a dog park in Newport News, and frankly I'm not a large proponent of such parks, unless you live in a purely urban area with no other recourse. I grew up in Long Island, NY and have lived in Southern California for several years besides residing in VA Beach, Norfolk and now in Seaford. Myself, as well as my family and friends from these areas, can not believe our eyes when I take them to the battlefields. It is simply incomprehensible that the area population does not avail themselves of the beauty of nature offered to them in their own backyard. So, I created this site to help publicize this tremendous resource that is available to dog owners, and non-owners alike in this area.
To exercise Klaus and help decompress after a long day running around at Mach 5 and above in the Hypersonic Airbreathing Propulsion Branch at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA, we take 3-5 mile hikes around the tour roads and trails in the park several times a week. It's quite easy, given the variety of routes available, to keep the walks fresh and challenging. One may choose from the paved tour roads, easy trails, open fields, more challenging footpaths, or just walk through the wooded areas. By frequenting the park you can also make some new friends, both of the two and four legged kind. At least several times a week Klaus and I meet up with some friends we've made at the park, be it another dog and their owner, some jogger or bicycler, or a fisherman down on the bank of the York River east of Yorktown now that the pier is closed to fishing
If you're looking for a nice respite for you and your dog, come join us, anyone is welcome. Most weekend mornings and weekday evenings we're about and don't mind company or showing folks around. A current project under way is using my Garmin GPS III to map some of the walking routes. If you'd like to join us let me know, I'm always willing to show others around, my e-mail address is at the bottom of this page .
A Few Words of Advice and Caution
A few words of advice and caution are needed. First, the park is now charging a visitor's fee. Local residents may buy a family pass good for one year for $15, as shown below. Yes, that is pass number 0008! I urge you to get a pass, the money, the amount of which is really trivial if you ask me, is used for needed maintenance projects in the park.
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Second, this is a National Park and all the normal rules apply, follow the CNHP link above for details. By regulation, leashes are required. The rangers particularly do not like dogs chasing wildlife, this will get their attention. However, by experience, as long as you have your dog under control and are not causing any hazard it shouldn't be a problem. We frequently see and wave to the rangers during our walks. I mainly walk Klaus off leash, however I have quite good verbal control of him. He also does not really want to chase the deer, so a simple "no" is enough to keep him near me in the presence of deer.
My recommendation is if you're around the visitor's center or the beach picnic area with a lot of people around, do the prudent thing and use a leash. Now, let's not forget this area is home to many wild animals. Be sure you know how your dog will react. It's not uncommon to have unfamiliar dogs chase deer until they are long out of sight from their owners, lost and tuckered out. Don't let this happen to your best friend. But if it does, be sure to let the Rangers know. This way if the dog is found by a local resident or someone else, you can be notified. While on the tour roads keep an eye and ear out for discourteous motorists and bicyclists who ignore the 15 mph speed limit. Most folks I've encountered are courteous, but it's always best to err on the side of safety. My main policy and recommendation is lets all keep safety in mind first, and allow everyone to enjoy the park.
Finally, due to the uncontrolled large population of deer in the area, ticks can be a very large problem during certain parts of the year. There are several species prevalent, and as such, various species are problematic at different times during the year (spring, summer and fall). It can get bad at times in certain areas, especially the fields the deer graze in and the wooded areas where they bed down. At the very worst times of the summer, I'll stick mainly to the tour roads and the beach picnic area. Be aware of the hazards and thoroughly check your dog and yourself. I use Frontline on Klaus year round due to his exposure potential. For those afraid of even the mention of ticks, I will point out that even in Seaford, where we live, Klaus is exposed to ticks to some degree.
An Overview of the Area
A map of the area around the visitors center is shown below left, with many of our routes marked are marked from memory. While any route along the tour roads is a nice walk, the walk from Redoubt's 9 &10 (D) down the tour road to Wormley Pond is an excellent place to start exploring and experiencing the park. Follow the above link to see some of the sights on the way down to the pond. Below on the right is a scan of the map in the park brochure. Instead of adding the various walking routes to this map by memory, I'm still working on using my GPS at get the routes on a topographic map of the area. As a start, the route we took on Sunday Feb. 25 th is shown in red on the topographic map below.
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Click on any of these maps to see a larger version.
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Latest News
All the downed trees have been removed from the tour road running west from Wormely Pond to Cook Road.
Two good signs. First, it appears that work has progressed far enough along on the repair of the earthen dam and spillway that they've stopped all wter flow through the spillway and are allowing the pond to fill up again. Second, all the downed trees have been cleared off the tour road leading down to the pond.
For the first time since hurricane Isabe,l I tried hiking around the "inner loop," beginning at the Grand French Battery parking lot.I took the right fork at the trailhead immeadiately off the road at the bottom of the loop. It did not take long to come to downed trees across the trail, maybe a couple hundred yards. With these trees and others trees down where this trail goes up hill to meet the trail coming down from the old road it's best to just follow the ravine down to were the trail begins paralleling Cook Road. Here is where the real surprise is. The floor of the valley here is now flooded. Beavers have made a new dam just north of were the trail split to go around either side of the north most finger of the pond. If you hung the left side of the hill you can make your way around to were the little log bridge crossed the stream/drainage, however be careful of trash and glass. From here looking north the new dam is easily seen. From here I stayed along althe northern shoreline of the pond. There are a few trees down along the way the worst being along the stretch of cedar trees. Most all are easy to get around. The worse part is on the point directly across from the dam. There are quite a few trees down along the top of the ridge hehere as it parallels the tour road leading down to the pond. Finally again where the trail finally meets the tour road there are quite a few downed trees as well.
4-6-02
At approximately 7:40 am this morning of, as we got down near the main part of the pond on the tour road, an osprey came flying up the creek, over the dam and up the pond carrying a fish. That's cool enough, but then came a bald eagle hauling up behind him and after the osprey turns back south makes a pass at him, knocking the fish loose. The osprey heads off north and the eagle takes a perch in a tree just off the dam, I guess looking for the fish. Photos of the eagle may be seen on the Fauna page.
3-7-01
I spoke with Mr James Burnette the Chief Park Ranger in response to an e-mail message I had sent to both the Park Superintendent and Natural Resource Manager in regard to my encounter on 3-1-01 asking for a clarification on the enforcement policy of the "leash law" in the park. In short he assured me the policy is to simply ask a pet owner to leash their animal(s), not confiscate or threaten to destroy the animal(s). For those interested, I've scanned his written (page1, page 2, page 3) reply.
3-1-01
I'm sad to report I had a quite ugly encounter with a park ranger while walking Klaus along the reconstructed First Seige Line at approximately 5:30PM.
A description of the encounter follows. The ranger was stopped on the tour road leading down to Wormley Pond from Moore House Road (Rte 238). Klaus and I were walking east along the First Siege Line from Moore House Road. As I approached the ranger he said, "would you put the dog on the leash." I replied, "sure." Next he said as I haven't been given a warning before, I was lucky, and that if he caught up to the fella on the bike with his dog he was going to confiscate it. Next, he said if he saw any dog chasing deer he was going to destroy it. While saying this, the ranger's demeanor was quite threatening.
I do not use the words "threatened" lightly. Given the demeanor of this ranger, that is exactly what experienced, threats.
2-25-01
Someone, I'm guessing mountain bikers, has blazed/cut a new trail beginning at the bottom of the ravine behind the Grand French Battery at the south end of the old road that runs perpendicular to the road that runs by the cemetery. This new trail runs south almost to the northern edge of the large field where the tour road coming from Wormley Pond and the Moore House (now closed) meets Cook Road. I had my GPS with me during our Sunday morning walk, so this trail is part of the track shown in red on the topographic map shown above.
2-6-01
Finally Wormley Pond has reached it's normal water level controlled by the spillway in the dam.
1-4-01
A problem with the sluice gate in the spillway of the earthen dam at Wormley Pond has resulted in almost all the water from the pond. Isn't it time the Parks Service and the Coast Guard stop studying the problem and do something? Follow the link above to see the problem first hand.
10-14-00
The colors of fall have begun to emerge in the trees surrounding the shoreline of Wormley Pond. See the Digital Photography portion of my site for a photo.
9-17-00
We walked the inner loop around Wormley Pond and found that a new partial trail loop has been made by I guess mountain bikers. The new section starts at the top of the ravine that leads down to the water where there is several concrete blocks, almost directly across the pond from the large beaver lodge. The old trail comes off left at the top of the ravine through an area of large downed pines. This new path heads west and intersects the earth works were the old path turns north, following the pond.
