Wednesday, April 23
Dryden Rail Trail from Dryden Village
Hike report by Chip
Spring may have finally arrived! The last time we hiked this section of the Dryden Rail Trail we were starting to embrace twenty degree temperatures and frozen precipitation. Today, we had abundant sunshine, and the temperature was approaching sixty degrees for the ten hikers and two dogs. The welcoming weather, lively conversations, and relatively flat trail, provided motivation to cover more distance and make it to Freeville. We had a quick history lesson of railroading in the area at Station Park, before returning to the trailhead, having logged around 5.5 miles.
Saturday, April 26
James Kennedy State Forest
Hike report by Jim
Several members of both Ithaca Hikers and Cayuga Trails Club joined the Triple Cities Hiking Club which led a Howard Beye Founders Day hike within James Kennedy State Forest. This was a loop hike that included parts of the Finger Lakes Trail, the Swedish Loop and the Spanish Loop.
Today’s hike took place on FLT map sheet M19. There are several more detailed FLTC maps such as the International Trails, Swedish Loop trail map etc that depict areas hiked today. These maps may be purchased in paper or electronic formats at: https://fingerlakestrail.org/…/purchase-individual-maps/
Weather conditions were mostly cloudy, with intermittent rain. Oh yes, it rained. And wind, in parts of the hike.
Trail conditions were mostly good, with the standing water and mud in several places that would be expected given the weather conditions of the day.
For those hikers who are tracking their FLT miles towards a 2025 FLT50 or FLT100 award, todays hike was 7 FLT miles.
The Ithaca Hikers trail maintenance day originally scheduled for today has been moved to May.
Sunday, April 27
Logan Hill Nature Preserve, Candor
Hike report by Leigh Ann
Nineteen hikers and five leashed dogs hiked up the seasonal road to the eastern end of the Logan Hill yellow trail, followed the yellow trail back to the seasonal road, and took the road back down. This 4.4-mile hike is satisfying any time of the year, and most of the steepness is in the first mile. The weather today was windy throughout. We noticed that there are a lot of dead trees along the seasonal road, a few of which we could hear come down in the wind. By 11:30, right near the end of the hike, the wind truly picked up, along with brilliant sun, but some hikers near the end actually saw some trees come down. Happily, all the hikers made it safely to their cars and on with the rest of their day.
