Hello Hikers!
A note about the photos in this report — we’re still working on repairing the web site so the embedded shots become clickable again — meanwhile, I’ve included a link for each photo to the online version — there, you can click “View Original” in the menu bar to see a hi res version — click that, and you’ll get a blow-up.
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Wednesday Dec 23
Buttermilk Falls rim trail
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This was the first time we had four hikes scheduled for one week — I wondered if it was overkill, and if anyone would show up — but people clearly wanted to hike, as you can see
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We don’t do the rim trail along Buttermilk Creek very often — I think of it as being on the borderline between touristic and a real hike — it’s certainly strenuous enough to count as a real hike — it was nicely deserted on this gloomy morning — so we had a chance to behave a little like tourists ourselves, and it was delightful
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Whoever had the idea to put a bridge across the upper part of the gorge, it was a stroke of genius. The spot has a wonderful intimate feel to it and the setting couldn’t be more picturesque. I wonder how long I could hang out here leaning on the railing before I got bored.
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Our group is definitely elderly, and it’s always fun when we have some young people hiking with us. These are the twin college-age sons of regular hiker Mary — they tore up the steepest parts of the trail like a couple of gazelles — it’s probably for the best we don’t have physically fit young people hiking with us more often — they’d end up restless and impatient as we gasped our way up the steep parts.
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Official head count: 23 hikers, five dogs
You can see Jack V’s online photos here.
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Friday Dec 25
Tamarack Lean-to, South Danby, followed by eggnog at Hobit’s and then soup at Katharine’s
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We’ve done Christmas Day hikes before, but this was the first time we tried holiday-type get-togethers afterwards — a complete blast! That Spirit of Christmas on the trail is Katharine.
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The advice from our food coordinator Liz to put the liquor in the eggnog ahead of time was fantastic — the taste really is completely different, and super delicious — it would be very easy to drink multiple cups of this quickly enough to end up staggering around. Tiger and I went over to Katharine’s as Hobit’s event was winding down — Katharine runs a paradise for animals and we got to watch one of her cats eat butter off the counter, a new sight for us — we had to leave early but other people were pouring in as we drove away
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It was fabulous on the trail to the Tamarack Lean-to — overcast and cool at first, then the sun came out and the temperature was just perfect for hiking
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…. felt like a beautiful early spring day by the time we got back to South Danby Road and the cars
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Official head count: 36 hikers, seven dogs
It’s been many many years since I in a house with young children on Christmas morning — Hobit has two kids and I was curious to see what the scene would be like there — judge for yourself
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You can see 10 more photos by me online here
You can see Annie’s online photos here
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Saturday Dec 26
Six Mile Creek, south side rim trail
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Lovely cool grey morning on South Hill. The hike had a nice relaxed feeling to it.
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This trail has just about the ideal mixture of ups and downs, one of the hikers pointed out — the atmospherics were right on for the lively terrain, around 40, so we were neither hot nor cold, really a nice state to be in
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A number of the hikers had been at the Christmas party at Katharine’s the evening before and there was a lot of happy talking about how great it was — people dancing, and everyone watched The Last Waltz, the 1978 concert movie about Dylan’s back-up group, the Band
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Official head count: 27 hikers, four dogs
You can see seven more shots by me online here.
Sunday Dec 27
Huge storm coming straight at us on the radar — Tiger and I went back and forth repeatedly on what to do — at a few minutes before 8 I decided we’d go ahead and hike — but by 8:05 it was raining heavily at our house and Tiger felt the NWS doppler was now indicating we’d almost certainly get some hard rain if we hiked — so I reluctantly cancelled.
Meanwhile, two of our super-regulars, Roger and Eckhart, didn’t see the cancellation e-mail I sent out — they showed up at the trail head at the regular time. Roger’s report:
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” Eckhart and I had a fine hike with near constant drizzle throughout.
It didn’t quite soak through my non-waterproof coat. Headed north from
Star Stanton Hill Road and looped around on some trails I’d never
walked. Passed into lovely spruce forest and onto a hilltop with no
distant view in the total overcast. My GPS compass came in handy. Ruby
missed Brenda’s treats and all the attention she normally gets.
Roger”
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So we didn’t achieve our first four-hike week after all, and we missed a lovely morning in the woods, to my regret. We’ll try again this coming week — three regular hikes plus a special New Year’s Day hike and tailgate partry on Friday — stay tuned.
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There’s a couple of trail hazards we need to watch out for at this time of year — nasty roots and snags in the pathway that are covered with dried leaves, and slippery wet mud on the downhills also covered with dead leaves. And now we have a new hazard ….
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…. Norm lurking ahead of the group and taking videos as we pass him by not really paying attention to what he’s doing — he took a number of videos Friday and he said he’d edit them into one piece — I await the results with curiosity ….