Wednesday, May 7
Yellow Barn State Forest, Dryden
Hike report by Jim
Eight hikers met at the junction of Tehan and Signal Tower Rds in the Town of Dryden, for a hike in and around Yellow Barn State Forest. This is hike #33 on our list of regular hike locations: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-33.
The day started out a little unusual, as our normal parking area was occupied by heavy equipment delivering construction materials for new houses being built along the seasonal portion of Signal Tower Rd. The group size was small enough that we managed to park at the junction of Signal Tower and Tehan without any issues.
We were fortunate that the weather cooperated for us during the hike; we had none of the significant rain that the area experienced the previous day. The day started out overcast with sporadic light drizzle, but by the end of the hike the skies had cleared, and the sun was out.
The seasonal part of Signal Tower Rd had the usual waterholes full of (at least for today ) fairly fresh-appearing water and not the stagnant mess we’ve seen in the past. Eventually our route took us into the open fields, where the lower forests edge had a lot of standing water. The entire field was full of rain-soaked grass, so it really didn’t matter which route we took across the field; we were going to get wet and that’s all there was to it
Eventually we reached the ski/ equestrian loop which we completed without incident. We returned to the open fields, taking the upper edge this time which had no standing water, but which was still as wet as the rest of the field.
We returned to the seasonal portion of Signal Tower Rds and retraced our original route
Flying gnats were in abundance today, so hikers might want to bring their head nets to hikes. Also, as a reminder- spring turkey hunting season is underway. Please wear something preferably in blaze orange or blaze pink, or at least highly visible and not earth toned.
Saturday, May 10
Finger Lakes Trail east from Lake Road, Dryden
Hike report by Leigh Ann
After a week of almost nonstop rain and below normal temperatures, it was time for a gorgeous, warm, and sunny day for hiking, which we got today. Twenty-three hikers and three dogs on leashes met at the junction of Lake Road and the Jim Schug Trail. Two hikers opted to hike along the very pretty and flat Jim Schug Trail for two hours. The rest went east on the FLT from Lake Road, went up and over Havington Hill, and turned around at the top of the second field.
This turn-around spot was before our planned turn-around spot at the stream. It turns out that we had accidentally crossed into a turkey-hunting FLT closure once we headed east on the FLT from Lake Road. Jim had a friendly talk with the landowner, who said we could return on the trail because no one was hunting that morning. One Jim got a hold of me by phone to let me know this update the group was about five minutes from the second field. So, we went down to the field and enjoyed the view for a few minutes and returned to the cars.
This got us back about half an hour early, so many people chose to extend the hike for the last half hour on the Jim Schug trail. This was a gorgeous hike: three miles on the FLT (out and back), plus another 1-1.5 on the Jim Schug Trail.
Sunday, May 11
Stevens Suspension Bridge – Cornell natural areas
Hike report by Jim
Fourteen hikers and four dogs met at the suspension bridge on Forest Home Drive in the Town of Ithaca for a loop hike of the Cayuga Trail footpaths and surrounding areas. This is hike #4-3 on our list of regular hike locations: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-04.
While the FLTC does provide a Cayuga Trail map available for purchase in paper or electronic formats: https://fingerlakestrail.org/…/purchase-individual-maps/, their Cayuga Trail map doesn’t display the route for this hike very well. A better option might be the Ithaca Trails on-line map at : https://ithacatrails.org/map?trailList=Cayuga%20Trail.
The day was sunny and somewhat chilly and breezy at points, particularly when we crossed the area of the Robert Trent Jones golf course https://cornellbigred.com/facilities/robert-trent-jones-golf-course/17. There were a few sections of trail that were wet or muddy. Those wet sections on hillsides proved to be a little slippery for some hikers. We encountered one blow-down tree on the high bluffs trail immediately off the horse fields, about half-way through the hike.
Crossing the Stevens suspension bridge, the group turned westerly, following the northerly bank of Fall Creek. The trail here winds through the woods for a while before it turns towards the golf course. The trail loops around the edge of the golf course greens before turning northerly towards the equestrian barns on Bluegrass Lane. The part of our route that passes through the horse barns has been closed to us for a couple of years due to construction; I was pleased to find the fences removed and the route open to us again. We passed through the equestrian area before arriving at Piglets Corner, where we turned back to the south and re-entered the orange blazed Cayuga Trail system on the high bluffs above Fall Creek.
The group took these high trails to a junction that returned us to the lower trail system at creek level. Once there we returned to the suspension bridge and crossed back over to the Forest Home Drive side of the creek. We turned onto the red and blue blazed trails, doing a loop that often came right down to creek level.
We returned to the cars a few minutes early but overall, everyone seemed pleased with the hike.
We encountered many groups of people on the trail today; clearly this hike was a popular Mother’s Day hike destination.
Welcome to Wendy and Aiden on their first hike with the group!
