Wednesday, June 4
Hinchcliff Family Preserve, Spafford, Onondaga County
Hike report by Jim
Seven hikers met on the first really warm and sunny summer morning of the year for a hike of the Hinchcliff Family Preserve led by Casey C. This is hike # 60-8 on our list of regular hike locations: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-60.
Water was flowing well at all stream crossings, and there were a few muddy spots along the way. Overall, a good and enjoyable hike day and location.
Saturday, June 7
Cayuga Trail South Loop
Hike report by Jim
Twenty -two hikers and two dogs met at Flat Rock for an out-and-back hike of the Cayuga Trail South Loop. This is hike # 4-2 on our list of regular hike locations: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-04. While the FLTC does produce a Cayuga Trail map available in both print and electronic formats at: https://fingerlakestrail.org/…/purchase-individual-maps/. There are better Cayuga Trail maps available elsewhere.
As I arrived at the parking area, I found that there were numerous tour buses and private vehicles lining the road. I found that a foot race was just ending, and luckily the majority of the vehicles were gone by the time the remainder of the hikers began to arrive.
The morning was warm although a little humid after recent heavy rains, the after-effects which impacted our route this morning due to the amount of footpath that was under standing water or reduced to a flowing stream due to the quantity of water coming off open fields and hillsides onto the trail.
The hikers started out from the parking area and crossed the Stevens suspension bridge before turning right on the opposite side of that bridge and making our way along Fall Creek. The creek was flowing vigorously and quite loudly, the water levels very high after recent rains. We stayed close to the creek, continuing to make right turns at successive trail intersections.
Eventually the trail breaks free of both the woods and the creek as it enters several open fields as it draws closer to Freese Rd. Here we encountered both ankle-deep standing water as well as flowing water of the same depth that transformed the footpath into a flowing stream Arriving at Freese Rd we crossed the derelict old bridge (yes, they’re still planning on replacing it…) before making a left turn and rejoining the orange blazed footpath as it now followed the southerly bank of Fall Creek.
We soon entered and traversed a couple more open fields before returning to the woods, which I greatly prefer over hiking in open fields. There are some good viewpoints of the creek along this part of the hike, and I made sure to grab a couple of quick seasonally appropriate photos to use for future Meetup thumbnails for this hike, to replace the winter photo we posted for today’s hike.
Reaching the turn-around point we reversed course and re-traced our previous route back to the cars. Along the way we encountered a couple of dog walkers and trail runners but otherwise had the trail to ourselves.
Warm welcome to Lucia, Yeonso and Francisco, on their first hike with the group.
Of course, the sun came out as soon as the hike ended. So it goes in Ithaca….
As a quick PS, a reminder that our annual summer picnic will be the first weekend in August. We will need a number of volunteers to forego the hike that morning to make preparations for the picnic.
We are also in need of more hikers who may be interested in leading group hikes in the future to make their interest known.
Sunday, June 8
Loop Hike: FLT and Lower Treman Park Trails
Hike report by Leigh Ann
Sixteen hikers met up at the Shady Corners parking lot for this hike. We followed the FLT west to the YMCA shelter, then took the spur trail northwest from the YMCA shelter to the rim trail. From there, we followed the rim trail to the bridge below Lucifer Falls, crossed this bridge, and followed the gorge trail east to where it ends at the lower Treman parking lot. We returned to the cars by walking along the park road back to the FLT, then taking the FLT back to the Shady Corners parking lot.
This was the first day in a while that didn’t have rain, and the creek was powerful and impressive. The air quality was worse than the day before – not good for sensitive groups. This air quality gave this hike a golden-hour quality all the way through. Most of the group returned to the cars by noon, and a few hikers took longer.
