Wednesday, December 24
Cayuga Trail South Loop
Hike report by Nancy Lorr
6 hikers gathered on the morning of Christmas Eve at the Flat Rock Parking Lot for a hike a long Fall Creek. We started by bouncing across the suspension bridge and then headed upstream along the creek. No spikes were needed. We reached Freese Road and crossed the closed road bridge to continue along the creek on south side. After reaching a good creek viewpoint, we turned around for a relaxing hike back.
View Nancy Lorr’s photo album.
Saturday, December 27
Texas Hollow State Forest, Hector
Hike report by Mark Sussman
On Saturday, December 29 nine hikers and one dog met at Texas Hollow State Forest for a hike in the newly fallen snow. There was about 4-6 inches on the ground which made the going slow, but the sights beautiful. The temperature was mild with no wind.
We started on the beautiful Blue Loop to the Finger Lakes trail, and then a little further. Some hikers went partway up the hill looking for the fabled coyote den, but did not discover any recent activity. The rest of the group headed back on the Finger Lakes Trail. We all reunited at the first pond. We only covered about 3 miles in 2 hours, but stopped frequently to enjoy the ambiance and explore.
Sunday, December 28
Lime Hollow Nature Center, Cortland
Hike report by Jim
Seventeen hikers met in the Lime Hollow Nature Center parking lot on Gracie Road in Cortland County for a hike of the easterly trails of Lime Hollow. This was a variation of hike 37 from our hikes page: hike #37 – ithacahikers.
We have recently split the Lime Hollow hike into two different hikes, east and west of Gracie Rd, to take advantage of some of the Lime Hollow trails we’ve ignored in the past.
My original plan for this hike was to hike several of the blue, white, green and red trails that run off of the Lehigh Valley Trail. However, I found that the fresh powdery snow of the last couple of days was a much more difficult slog for me than I had anticipated. I had expected that given the amount of use the Lime Hollow trails see that the footpath would have a much more compacted walking surface than what we encountered. As we drew near one of the Marl ponds that border the trail, I decided to simply turn the group around and retrace our route, as that simple rail trail section had taken us nearly an hour in the snow.
Some of the hikers expressed an interest in taking the Maple Run trail to Chicago Bog, and a small subset of the group did make that side trip. The remainder of the group went straight back to their cars.
We did encounter some dog walkers during our hike but for the most part had the trails to ourselves.
