Wednesday, May 28
Trumansburg Walking Tour
Hike report by Mark Sussman
On Wednesday, May, 28 18 hikers and 2 dogs met at the Trumansburg Farmers Market for a hike around Trumansburg. We were supposed to begin by exploring the Habitat Trail, but we skipped that due to wet conditions. We did explore the old and new neighborhoods, and discussed several of the items of historical interest. These included showing where Robert Moog’s workshop was and that Morse Chain began in Trumansburg in 1880 before it moved to Ithaca in 1906. People enjoyed the beautiful and varied architecture of the village houses. They also commented that it was an excellent time of year for the hike since so many things were in bloom.
The hike finished in 2 hours and covered over 3 miles.
Saturday, May 31
Kennedy State Forest
Hike report by Jim
On a very wet Saturday morning five hikers and two dogs met on the seasonal part of Owego Hill Rd for a loop hike within James Kennedy State Forest that included parts of the Spanish Loop, the FLT, and the Ukranian Loop, with a short road walk at the very end to close up the loop route. Most of this hike was led by Greg; thank you Greg for stepping up on request to lead the group!
This is hike # 40-5 on our list of regular hike locations: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-40.
All of today’s hike took place on FLT map sheet M19, available for sale in paper or electronic formats at https://fingerlakestrail.org/…/purchase-individual-maps/ . Sale of the map sheets help to defray the on-going costs associated with trail maintenance. Hikers should know that the FLTC has recently updated Map Sheet M19 as well as the various International Trail map sheets for Kennedy Forest. Be sure to update the maps you carry!
Yes, it was very wet. As the early morning passed, I received a number of cancellations via text or on the Meetup page, leaving me wondering if anyone would show up. In the end we had a small crew of hikers and dogs who were willing to brave the continuous precipitation and mud.
Yes, there was mud, a lot of it. So much mud that I soon gave up trying to avoid it, and near the end of the hike at the very last stream crossing I actually face planted into it as a rock in mid-stream shifted under my foot and I ended up on my face on the far side of the stream.
There was a good amount of water flowing in the streams, an obvious result of our many recent days of rain. Nothing too deep, although as I said I quickly lost any interest in trying to stay dry during the hike. That made the stream crossings a little easier to navigate.
We had the trail to ourselves for the duration of the hike.
We did encounter one small blowdown as we started the downhill portion of the Spanish Loop off Owego Hill Rd. It was easily navigated around.
For those who are trying to earn their 2025 FLT50 or FLT100 patch, todays hike included 1.1 FLT miles. I am not sure if the International Loop trails are being counted as FLT miles for patch purposes.
Sunday, June 1
O.D. von Engeln Preserve, Freeville
Hike report by Jim
Twenty-Seven hikers met in the O.D von Engeln Preserve at Malloryville for a hike of the trail system there. This is hike # 44 on our list of regular hike locations: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-44.
Compared to Saturday’s weather the Sunday hike was a distinct improvement; the sun appeared briefly as hikers arrived at the parking lot, and while it didn’t stay sunny long, the morning was still a huge improvement over the non-stop rain we enjoyed on Saturday’s hike. There was an occasional breeze that cooled us down during this hike but for the most part this was perfect weather to be in the woods.
About a quarter of our group indicated that they had never hiked this particular location. This was not surprising, as the group only comes to this preserve about once a year.
The group left the parking lot and began a clockwise hike of the preserve trails in the more southerly part of the preserve as depicted on the preserve trail map: https://www.nature.org/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/Malloryville-Swamp-Preserve.pdf.
About half-way through the loop of the trail system, we left the preserve and crossed over to the former railbed that runs along the eastern edge of the preserve. We took the former rail bed to the northern edge of the preserve and re-entered the preserve near its northern border. The group walked in a southerly direction across the various eskers, across the old beaver dam, and some open fields along one edge of the preserve property to get back to the former rail bed. We then took the rail bed back to West Malloryville Rd and re-entered the preserve property to complete the trail loop within the southern end of the preserve.
The hikers arrived back at the cars about five minutes early.