Wednesday June 14
Yellow Barn State Forest, Dryden
Hike report by Jim
Wednesday proved to be the wettest hiking day we’ve had in some time. The rain started early in the morning, although we had a brief respite from the rain during the hike itself. After the hike, the rain resumed and continued into the afternoon.
When I arrived on Signal Tower Road for our hike of Yellow Barn State Forest, the rain was still falling and abated only when the other hikers started pulling up. Ten hikers met at the trailhead – a number I was pretty happy with given the morning’s weather.
This was our first hike of the Yellow Barn forest area in 18 months due to the logging that took place throughout much of 2022. Since our last hike in the area, some of the private property bordering the state forest has been sold and construction of private residences has begun. The first 10th of a mile of seasonal road has also been upgraded from its previously deteriorated state, making the beginning and the end of the hike a little nicer than in the past.
We began our hike down the seasonal road, skirting some of pools of water on the unimproved section. There are a lot of new posted signs along the road. If you’re doing a solo hike here and you’re accustomed to side trips to visit some of the small ponds or other landmarks, be aware of these newly posted areas.
The beginning of our route follows the snowmobile trail; we turned into the woods where that route does. The snowmobile trail follows an arc through the woods before emerging into the smaller of two adjacent equestrian fields. The fields had a swath of mowed grass around their perimeters, although the last mowing had been long enough ago that we were getting a good slog through some very wet grass by the time we made our way to the cross-country ski loop at the far end of the second field.
The last time we hiked this area, the ski trails were a morass of horrible, ankle-deep mud that clung to our shoes throughout the circuit. On that previous hike, we experienced some misadventures as some of the side roads servicing the logging operations pulled some of our trailing hikers in the wrong direction. None of that was an issue today; the footpath, though still very uneven from the logging operations, was no longer mud. The surface of the loop was much more unmowed grass than its normal state before the logging. The logged sections are starting to heal, although the tumble of logs left strewn around each patch of ground were visually jarring. I’m not sure why the loggers didn’t clean up better, as was done in similar logged areas on Connecticut Hill.
We completed the ski circuit and returned to the equestrian fields, making the circuit around each field’s perimeter before returning to the woods and the seasonal road, which we took back to our cars. We finished the hike a little late, about 15 minutes past our normal hike time. According to Casey, the hike was a total of five miles.
Saturday June 17
Finger Lakes Trail from Eastman Hill Road
Hike report by Jim
Fifteen hikers and two dogs met at the end of the maintained section of Eastman Hill Road, just over the county line in Tioga County. The day was overcast due to the plentiful rain that had fallen overnight – rain that we soon found had made the early overgrown sections of the trail through doubly “enjoyable.”
We started out on the seasonal section of Eastman Hill Road, a wide dirt road with a gentle incline to it. The early parts of the FLT we crossed are normally muddy in the best of times, but today there was no mud. The trail, however, was extremely overgrown and the unpruned trees and tall grass had held the previous night’s rain for us extremely well. Once we made it to the crest of Eastman Hill, the trail returned to its normal wide and pleasant footpath.
We passed through the FLT reroute from last year and entered Eberhard Preserve property, turning from the FLT onto first green- and then blue-blazed trails that brought us in a loop back to the FLT.
When we returned to the FLT, we retraced our steps back to our cars. By the time we emerged at the trailhead the sun was out in full force, a marked improvement over early morning conditions.
Welcome to Yu Mi on her first hike with the group!
For those trying for the FLT50 patch, today’s hike was 4.5 FLT miles.
Sunday June 18
Loop Trail from Bald Hill Road to Dove Trail and back on the FLT, Danby SF
Hike report by Jim
Thirty-one hikers and four dogs met at the junction of Comfort and Bald Hill Roads for a Father’s Day hike in Danby State Forest. After the rain of the past several days the weather was surprisingly nice: cool, but with plenty of sunshine.
After some new hiker introductions and our group picture, we set off walking down the seasonal portion of Bald Hill Road toward Station Road. Near that intersection, the Dove Trail climbs the hill to the east via some quickly navigated switchbacks. Hikers paused here, as the line of people had already stretched out quite a bit on the downhill walk.
We paused again for a trail journal entry before taking off with Casey and Dave B in the lead. We continued to climb the Dove Trail, avoiding a historically muddy section of the Abbott Loop. The Dove Trail winds through some nice sections of woods, crossing a few streams along the way that had barely any water flowing in them despite recent rains.
Eventually the Dove Trail descends a hill and meets the Abbott Loop again. Along this stretch, we ran into the Abbott family, for whom the loop is named. They were making a Father’s Day hike of the loop and depositing family ashes along the way.
The Abbott Loop comes out on the FLT near Diane’s Crossing. Here we turned onto the FLT and began the gradual climb back to Bald Hill Road. Casey and Dave paused when needed along the way to keep their group together.
I’m always struck by how much the appearance of the section of the FLT between the lean-to and Bald Hill Road changes by the season. Today was no exception, the explosion of green in the trees and weeds along much of the way in sharp contrast to the bare forest floor in the monoculture pine tree stand as you draw closer to Bald Hill Road.
At Bald Hill Road, hikers crossed over and continued on the FLT to Comfort Road. A short roadwalk back to the cars brought the main body of hikers to the cars at exactly the two-hour mark.
A warm welcome to Steve, Arman, Diane, Jack, Robert, Howie, Sarah, and one other – whose name on my written list ran during the hike – on their first hike with us! (I think there was one new canine on the hike as well, no name available.)
Today’s hike of portions of the FLT and the Abbott Loop count towards the FLT50 patch. The various roadwalks and the Dove Trail do not, to the best of my knowledge. For FLT50 purposes, today’s hike was 2.6 miles.
