Vendors, entertainment and outdoor fun will mark the annual Elk Expo.
Photo: Keystone Elk Country Alliance
One’s soon going. One’s soon coming.
In the meantime, there are celebrations to be had.
Somerset Lake is going to be drained this fall, in preparation for repairs to its dam. After October or so, it’s going to sit dry until 2020, at least.
Pennsylvania’s elk hunting season, meanwhile, hasn’t arrived yet and won’t until September for a few, November for most.
But the annual Somerset LakeFest is set for this weekend, while the annual Elk Expo is slated for next.
LakeFest
LakeFest is being held from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Aug. 12. Activities will center around the boat launch on Wood Duck Road.
And what are those activities?
There will be canoes and kayaks available to paddle free of charge, a “show and go” instructional fishing program for families looking to learn to cast a line and guided bird walks, for starters. There will be food and drink vendors, too, along with music.
The best part? It’s all free.
Of course, given that the lake is going away temporarily – the theme of LakeFest is “see the old lake for the last time” – there will be discussions on the lake’s future, too. Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commissioner Len Lichvar will be on hand to cover that.
More details will follow at a public meeting set for 6 p.m. on Aug. 17 at the Somerset Daily American building. That will include talk of upcoming activities centered around developing a “nature park” on the lake’s shores.
Elk Expo
The following weekend, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Aug. 19 and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 20, the annual Elk Expo will be held at the Elk Country Visitor Center in Benezette.
It, too, will offer plenty to do.
There will kids calling contests, horse-drawn wagon rides, mock goose hunts, a birding competition, youth pellet gun and archery shooting activities, and a “living with snakes” program.
That doesn’t do it for you?
The Keystone Elk Country Alliance, Pennsylvania Game Commission and Elk Country Conservation District will lead outdoors-related seminars. Storyteller Dennis Murray will tell some tale tales, “The Deer Lady” will talk all things whitetails, there will be K-9 officer demonstrations and caricatures, too.
More than 100 vendors will offer food, drinks and crafts, while three bands will perform.
The highlight of the weekend, of course, will be the drawing of names for hunters who will get to chase elk this fall.
The Game Commission will conduct its elk license drawing at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Twenty-five hunters will win the chance to hunt a bull elk, while 93 will get drawn to hunt cows.
Then, on Sunday at 1 p.m., the Elk Country Alliance will pull the name of one hunter who will get to chase a bull elk throughout September. Raffle tickets for that are available until 11 p.m. Saturday at the Expo or online here.
For more information on the Expo, visit elkexpo.com.
