Wednesday, April 22
Texas Hollow State Forest, Hector
Hike report by Mark Sussman
Fourteen hikers and one dog met on Earth Day (Wednesday, April 22) at Texas Hollow State Forest for a hike up the hill. The day started out cloudy, but by the end of the hike the sun was out in full force. Two hikers dropped off quickly – one to check out Plein-Aire art possibilities, and the other to explore mosses and ferns.
We took the Blue Loop on the way out and enjoyed looking at the various ponds at wetlands and beaver activity. We rejoined the Finger Lakes Trail and started the long uphill trek. The group made it to the third logging road, where we turned around. It is quite a strenuous climb.
Since we were running a bit late, we stayed on the Finger Lakes Trail on the return and even took the road for the final stretch back to our cars. The hike lasted a little more than 2 hours.
Saturday, April 25
Cayuga Trail from Freese Rd.
Report by Jim
No hike today, but seven hikers turned out on a rainy Saturday morning for an important trail re-route of a few sections of the Varna Cliffs end of our adopted section of the Cayuga Trail. The trail has been eroding away (again) in recent months. A few weeks ago I walked through the affected area with CTC trails chair David Priester and representatives from Cornell, who identified footpath re-routes for the affected trail sections. Today was our workday to implement those trail changes
There remains one additional section to be re-routed that will require the CTC to mow a portion of open field rather than have our hikers try to cut down the section by hand. Also, because of today’s rainy weather we were unable to re-blaze the new footpath.
Until it is blazed there are temporary flags in place to indicate the new route.
Thanks to everyone who turned out this morning despite the conditions!
Sunday, April 26
Alex & Michele Gonzalez Hiking Sanctuary & Preserve, Virgil
Hike report by Leigh Ann
Fifteen hikers and a hiker dog on a leash on Daisy Hollow Road near the western kiosk for the international loops. It was a lovely hike after the all-day rain on Saturday cleared the air. The many, jumpable streams were running fast, but the trail was dry for the most part. We returned to the cars in two hours, having hiked about 4 miles with almost 600 feet of elevation gain.
The international loops are enjoyable to get to know because there are many, well-marked and lovingly cared for trails within a smallish area. There’s no good way to describe the route we took without including a map, so a map follows my description. I refer to the trails by color.
From Daisy Hollow Rd., we went up the orange trail to the western end of the yellow-blazed Jose Trail. We took the yellow-blazed Jose Trail to the blue-blazed trail. Then we took the blue-blazed trail east all the way to its end at the orange trail. From this junction, we headed east on the orange trail until we got to the sign for the bivouac on the red trail. At this bivouac sign, we turned south on the red trail and crossed Cristina Creek. When we re-encountered the orange trail, we took it south to Adams Rd. From there, we did a road walk to follow the blazes for the orange trail east on Adams Rd. and Owego Hill Rd. We stayed on Owego Hill Rd. after the orange blazes departed Owego Hill Rd. to the east. The reason is so we could turn around where the powerline crosses Owego Hill Rd., which is an especially pretty spot. We returned the way we came until we got to the junction with the blue trail (labeled Irvin Trail in the map below). From that junction, we stayed on the orange trail and took it west, back to the cars.
