Hello Hikers!
Wednesday July 6
Shindagin Hollow SF, bike trails
Very warm morning, but this forest has a lot of great shade, and we were comfortable enough. Some mosquitoes around, but they weren’t biting, just hovering. Norm reported he was mobbed by flies in one spot when he was off the trail looking at plants.
Norm was collecting some plant specimens when his glasses dropped off his nose, and he stepped on them and bent the frame — so we get to see what he looks like without glasses. He found some variety of oats that behaves in an interesting way when you add water — I couldn’t follow what he was talking about or what was happening, but the other hikes found it very lively ….
Official head count: 15H, 0 D
Check out Jack V’s photos online here.
Saturday July 9
Texas Hollow SF, Bennettsburg
There are hikers who simply refuse to come out to Schuyler County because of the extra drive required — too bad — there are some really fun hikes out here, and the ride out Route 79 is the best rural route we do in terms of country scenery and fabulous terrain, IMO
It’s especially nice with the right atmospherics — it had rained earlier and it was still damp and a bit gloomy when we stepped off, and the cloud formations driving west on the way to the trail head were wonderful
Almost all of this walk is under the trees — this kept us comfortable even though it was getting a little warm — too dark for photos so all my shots are out in the big field we cross
Jack V was excited because he managed to get some close-ups of a butterfly, which you can see at the link below
Just before we got back to the cars we ran into Roger on the trail — he’d arrived five minutes late, didn’t know which way we’d walked from the parking lot, and gone the wrong way — it’s always fun to run into one of our hikers unexpectedly like this.
Official head count: 18H, two D
We had a new regular hiker making his first outing with us, Griffin — he took an instant liking to Rusty, who can be persnickety — for those of you into dogs, Griffin might be a purebred petit bassett griffon vendeen .
You can see Jack V’s online photos here.
Sunday July 10
Layen Road to Bruce Hill Road, Danby
It was raining slightly hard as we drove toward the trail head — normally I’d be a little disappointed, but this time I thought it was great — the rain stopped by the time we stepped off — then started again just as we were driving away at the end
The big question about this hike is always, How tall will the grass in the huge field be? Sometimes it’s up over your knee ….
We had some young people hiking with us, including visitors from Sweden — the kids really reacted to the wonderful feeling of openness you get off the fields, dashing about exuberantly and horsing around.
We old people just plodded along as usual, but you definitely feel something special here, even if you don’t act it out
Bruce Hill Road — most of this walk is in the woods but I didn’t bother trying to get any photos there, too dark
Fabulous to be out on a cool dark wet morning.
Official head count: 27H, six D
You can see Jack V’s shots here.