Wednesday, September 10
Finger Lakes Trail from Comfort Road
Hike report by Jim
Thirteen hikers and one dog met on Comfort Rd for an out and back hike on the Finger Lakes Trail from Comfort Rd towards Bruce Hill Rd. This is hike # 17-2 on our list of regular hikes: https://www.ithacahikers.com/17-2.
This hike took place entirely on FLT map sheet M17. FLT map sheets may be purchased in paper or electronic formats at: https://fingerlakestrail.org/store/maps-and-gps/purchase-individual-maps/. Sale of the map sheets helps to defray on-going costs related to trail maintenance.
This section of the FLT has been closed to hikers since July 2024 due to storm damage. As soon as I heard recently that the section was re-opened, I scheduled todays hike. This section will be closed to hikers again in a couple of months due to hunting season closures, so I didn’t want to wait long to hike here.
The day was sunny and warm. This section of trail is often quite muddy during the rainy part sof the year. As this summer has been quite dry, we had no mud at all, other than a very small patch of trail that I suspect gets runoff from a spring. All water crossings were bone dry.
Once in the forest there it was a patchwork of shadow and light on the forest floor. Some of the hikers commented that they could tell that the trail hadn;t been hiked much due to the weedy overgrowth on the footpath. It doesnt take long for nature to start reclaiming a trail once left alone.
The outbound leg of this hike is generally a gentle downhill walk, with the return leg obviously being a gentle uphill. The footpath leads through many nice stands of pines and along open fields where the round hay bales were in abundence as we passed by
Various hikers walked at their own comfortable pace, so the group soon stretched out through the woods. Everyone turned around at the hour mark and re-traced their route.
For those hikers who are tracking their FLT miles to apply towards an FLT50 or FLT100 patch, I believe that todays FLT miles totaled around 4 miles.
Warm welcome to Savanna who joined the group today for her first hike!
Saturday, September 13
FLT: Schuyler County Veterans Park to Gulf Road and beyond Hike #66
Hike report by John D.
17 hikers and two dogs gathered at the Schuyler County Veterans Park.
The day began with partly sunny skies which would turn cloudy over the course of the hike. The temperature was in the 60s. We hopped onto the FLT off of S. Pine Rd. heading south.
I note that there is a spot about 0.1 miles in where the trail is easily lost. As you approach the edge of a field the trail becomes overgrown. You enter the field and make an immediate left back into the woods though there is no blaze visible.
We followed the trail until we reached County Rd. 6, followed the road for a tenth of a mile to Gulf Rd., and then rejoined the trail off of Gulf Rd. The trail runs along Cayuta Creek which we followed for about a mile and one half. We turned around at the one hour mark with Casey and Mary continuing on a little further.
Travelling back along the creek we ran into Zoe and Rogelio and their canine companions who were delayed by being detoured through an alternate dimension. (New total 19 people + 4 dogs)
The creek-side trails hosts various flora. I saw woodland goldenrods, Spikenard, American Cranberry Bush, Cardinal Flower and more.
Photos by John D.
Sunday, September 14
Texas Hollow State Forest, Bennetsburg
Hike report by Leigh Ann
Sixteen hikers and two dogs on leash met where the FLT crosses Texas Hollow Road for an easterly out-and-back hike. Mark Sussman told me he and David Priester had been doing some heavy trail maintenance there over the past week and it showed – trail conditions were excellent, and there was no hint that the portions of the trail had been almost impassable a week before.
These were the best trail conditions I’ve ever seen on this section of the FLT and on the blue trail that loops out scenicly to the north. Instead to staying entirely on the FLT, we took the blue trail loop both ways because of the views it gives of large and small ponds in the valley floor. These are lovely any time of the year, but on this hike, the ferns that line the shores had turned orange and looked like they were on fire. That is, fire with little white flowers scattered all through it.
Once past the blue trail going east, the FLT heads steeply uphill toward Newtown Road. We didn’t reach Newtown Road because we took the blue trail (which is fine, because Newtown Road is not very interesting in itself). Even so, the maximum elevation gain hikers some hikers got was almost 1000 feet. This was in approximately 4.75 miles, round-trip, which we all finished in two hours.
