Hello Hikers!
Wednesday March 1
Road walk: Chicken Coop Road west from Grove Road, Perry City
Another 60-degree morning with a stormy cold front coming straight at us on the doppler radar, complete with thunderstorms this time ….
I’ve never spent any time in farm country but our meet-up felt just like what I imagine a country crossroads would be like — slight stink of manure in the air, rural buildings everywhere you look, completely quiet and peaceful
This is the home neighborhood of our nature photographer Jack V — his family has been here for two hundred years and he has relatives living all over nearby.
I told Norm I thought his old-style beard really fits in in a back-country setting — no, he said, in fact the college girls really appreciate his look — he lives in Dryden and he does a lot of research in the TC3 library — he said the young students there often compliment his beard
Not only did we not get any rain, but the sun came out near the end and it was gorgeous
We went by Jack’s house afterwards to have some wine and to check out the photos he’s planning to put up in his first photo show, coming in June to The Commons — that’s Jack’s grandson Winchester, nine months old, who lives next door
Official head count: 12H, five D
You can see Jack’s photos here
Saturday March 4
Forest road walk, Bald Hill Road from Station Road south in Danby SF
Quite a bit more snow on the ground at hike time than predicted — the roads weren’t fully plowed on the way to the trail head and we did some skidding in the car
I’d no idea what the woods road would be like but I didn’t expect what we found — much of it was underlain with ice
Several of the hikers left their foot traction home — one hiker fell down hard onto her leg shortly after we set off — after that, everyone was careful and we didn’t have any more falls
This walk’s always picturesque but it looked especially good in the gloom and snow — then the sun came out briefly a few times and that was really pretty
…. resumed snowing pretty quickly
The roads were all plowed by the time we headed home except for the last steep stretch of Bald Hill Road just before the meet-up — Tiger had to gun the car up this hill while it slipped around a bit — fun
Official head count: NineH, one D
Sunday Feb 5
Lick Brook
Official head count: 15H, three D