Saturday, April 18
Owl Creek Trail, lower Buttermilk Falls State Park, Ithaca
Hike report by Nina F.
Twenty-one hikers and two dogs met in the parking lot of lower Buttermilk Falls on a gorgeous spring day, with temps rising into the 70s during our hike and tiny spring wildflowers gracing us with color along the trails. After leaving the parking lot and heading uphill on an asphalt service road, we reached Owl Creek Trail, crossing Owl Creek on a small wooden bridge and following the trail’s steep, winding route. We continued uphill up to Owl Creek Gorge, where we stopped to catch our breath and enjoy a scenic overlook of the gorge below and a distant farm, complete with a pretty red barn. The rest of the short (approx 0.9 mile) trail took us to Stone Quarry Road, where we turned around and backtracked until we took a cut off to visit the picturesque King Cemetery farther up Stone Quarry Road (where some hikers located a former friend among the inhabitants!). For the return trip, rather than retrace our steps, we tried a different trail that was called CG trail on the OnX Hunt app but does not show up on the Park trail maps. It was a gorgeous trail, winding back down the mountain along the park boundary stone wall on the left and a beautiful creek on the right. Because the hike was fairly short, many hikers chose to take a short, extra walk along the converted rails to trails path that also leaves from the Buttermilk Falls lower parking lot. We turned around where the rail trail ended shortly past the Kirby Edmunds Bridge that crosses Route 13. (Note: Previously, this bridge was informally known as Ithaca’s “Bridge to Nowhere” due to the controversial nature of the project that many considered a waste of money. The bridge was renamed a few years ago to honor Kirby Edmunds, a local social justice advocate.) The total hike was two hours, and all hikers seemed thrilled at our luck with the spectacular weather and pretty scenery.
Sunday, April 19
The junction of Hanshaw and Lower Creek Rds
Hike report by Jim
The scheduled group hike for Sunday didn’t happen due to a lack of an available hike leader.
Since there was no group hike, I planned to do this hike on my own because of our scheduled trail maintenance day next Saturday. I put out an invitation for anyone in the group to join me for an informal hike of our adopted section of the Cayuga Trail to check out conditions ahead of the trail maintenance day. As it turned out, our group today consisted of four hikers and one dog.
This hike started at the parking area at the junction of Hanshaw and Lower Creek Rds. This is normally hike #5-1 on our hikes list: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-5.
I started the hike here because I knew that the Cayuga Trails Club was doing an Earth Day hike of the Cayuga Trail from Freese Rd and I didn’t want to tie up their parking spaces at the Community Gardens.
Today’s hike took place entirely on the FLTC map sheet ” The Cayuga Trail”, available in paper or electronic formats at: https://fingerlakestrail.org/store/maps-and-gps/purchase-individual-maps. Sale of the map sheets help to defray the on-going costs of trail maintenance.
There were light snow flurries falling as the group met and set off on the red-blazed trail section. The flurries ended by the time we were back at our cars.
As could be expected, trail conditions were a little muddy along the way. I wound up sliding back down the hill on one slope because of the muddy conditions. Stream crossings were a lively experience as water levels at the smaller stream crossings were high, with no way to avoid getting our feet wet while crossing. Water levels in Fall Creek were to the creek banks, and an observable steam was coming off the water in Fall Creek, leading to some very atmospheric conditions.
The various hiker bridges we crossed were covered with a light but slippery layer of snow.
We did encounter two blowdowns on the hike; these trees were communicated to CTC sawyers.
Along our route we encountered multiple dog walkers and two separate groups of Cayuga Trails Club hikers. As the CTC hikers reported no additional blowdowns between our meeting location and Freese Rd to us, I saw no reason to check those areas on our own, and our group turned around for the return leg of our hike.
For next Saturday’s trail workday, hikers should wear long sleeve shirts, long pants, bring light work gloves, bring hand tools including loppers, bow saws, garden rakes, weed eaters etc. We cannot use chain saws, but gas or battery powered trimming/ pruning tools are otherwise allowed and can be labor saving. We have several re-routes of trail sections near Freese Rd as well as some blazing of both this section and a trail re-route we did last fall.
