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Report to Hikers: week of July 25-July 31

Hello Hikers

Wednesday July 27

Harford-Slaterville Road, north on the FLT to Hammond Hill SF

You’ll probably never hike here — this is an obscure trail in the middle of nowhere — but if you ever do, be sure to stay behind the white line on the edge of the pavement

This is a high-speed stretch of road in the middle of a blind S-curve and the cars and pickups sometimes come through moving pretty fast

Luckily our hikers know the drill by now — some years back, we used to have a problem with hikers not staying out of the roadway

The business with the passing cars is always the only excitement here — otherwise it’s s straightforward country trail — shady. a bit steep on the outbound leg, some nice scenery

Back at the cars — you can see everyone’s still staying behind the white line

Official head count: 18H, one D

More photos online:

Annie

Jack V

Saturday July 30

Treman SP on the FLT

As reported to me by Jack V:

Ten hikers shaped up in the parking lot — started to rain and then pour just as they stepped off — they stopped immediately under the Route 13 bridge over Enfield Creek — stood there for about half an hour schmoozing and waiting for the rain to stop — when it didn’t, half of them went to Wegmans for coffee — the others went home. You can see some of the hikers as they were shaping up in Jack’s online photo here.

Sunday July 31

Michigan Hollow Road SE on the FLT to Hill Road, Danby SF

Fantastically atmospheric morning — dark, wet and sultry

The first outbound leg of the walk goes through pine woods and it was really beautiful in the gloom — felt like a rain forest

We decided to walk on Hill Road for the second part of the hike rather than stay on the FLT in the woods

There was a good chance of rain but, alas, we didn’t get any

Official head count: 21H, two D

Jack V hiked but he forgot the memory card for his camera — so no photos from him.

Report to Hikers: 2016 cook-out at Roger’s

Hello Hikers!

A number of hikers who told us beforehand that they were coming didn’t show up — a number of people came late because they were waiting to see if the picnic would be cancelled — the swimming activity was subdued — but otherwise the rain didn’t faze us, and we had another great cook-out

In fact the drenching we got just before people started showing up made Roger’s property look unusually beautiful — his GF Gunilla is really turning it into a showplace

Our new chicken cook Randy (and Nancy) reported the Cornell chicken went over very well — moist, tender and flavorful — Randy said the customers liked it

It started to rain again after we’d been there for a while, but lightly, and everyone just took it in stride

I was just heading into the pond for a swim when our food coordinator Liz spotted me and rushed over insisting I needed to have an unposed photo taken by her showing the love handles and the stomach ….

…. luckily I’ve been sticking to my no-corn chips diet, so I feel like I’ve survived another ordeal-by-photo

Here’s another view of the pond — it really looked lovely in the dim lighting

Liz sent me a comment to use in this report:

WOW!

Thank you, everyone, who so generously contributed to the picnic fund. Even with the lower-than-expected attendance, there was enough to pay for the chicken, all other food and beverages, AND the yearly cost of running the hiker’s website!!! Up until now, Steven and Susan have been personally covering the website costs and some of us have been trying to figure out how to repay them. Thanks to your generosity that is no longer an issue for this year. Hopefully, in the future, the picnic will continue to cover the costs associated with managing our wild and wonderful group.

I actually have a little left over. If you care to respond to me personally (elizkyle@gmail.com), I will conduct a survey as to what to do with it. Some options are:

A) apply it toward food for one of our future gatherings (winter-cookout or thanksgiving get-together?).

B) turn it into a gift certificate at one of Steven and Susan’s favorite restaurants as a thank-you for all they do.

C) apply it to next year’s website fees

D) other – please specify

I had a lot of fun today, and I know many of you did too. Thank you.

Liz

I didn’t get an official head count — I normally get the count from looking at the photos, but in this case I hadn’t photographed everyone — I’d say we had more than 60 people but definitely less than the 80+ who were supposed to come

A special thanks to Roger and Gunilla for all their efforts and for letting us get together every year in this wonderful, gorgeous spot

Jack V has photos online you can see here.

Report to Hikers: week of July 18-July 24

Hello Hikers!

Wednesday July 20

Shindagin Hollow SF — road walk on Shindagin Hollow Road

The most important thing that a road walk on a sunny day in summer needs —

Shade!

Notice the nice smooth road surface — it’s a real pleasure to be able to walk in a lovely setting without having to stare at your feet the whole time to avoid tripping

We drove down this road last Sunday for the hike to the Shindagin lean-to — noticed several areas of bright red flowers along the edge of the road — bee balm — went over big with the hikers — I’m color blind and I could barely make them out

This grim-looking spot is normally a beautiful swamp that our nature photogs love to get shots of — looks very unappetizing now.

Speaking of unappetizing — part of Shindagin Hollow Road runs right along the edge of a very high sheer drop, and we often can smell a rotten smell as we walk along, probably dead deer — this time the smell was about 4X stronger than I’ve ever smelled before, really dreadful

Official head count: 19H, one D

Both our nature photographers were back on the trail with us:

Annie

Jack V

Saturday July 23

Malloryville hike along Fall Creek with Bob B

Our first hike here — huge success — a number of hikers said I should put this one in our Top 5

The hike was put together by Bob B, who grew up here and lives here now — it included some private property and limited access property, so it’s not a walk the general public can do

Part of the walk took us along an abandoned railroad line running next to Fall Creek — I took this shot from the trestle crossing the creek — Annie has photos showing the trestle support structure, which looks very old fashioned

There are a number of unusual geological features that we saw — too technical for me to remember

Norm walked across the whole length of this fallen tree — he said he wasn’t nervous because the drop was so slight — but I think he could theoretically have fallen onto a sharp stick and done some serious damage

We saw a large and interesting beaver dam and a beautiful pond — Annie got some photos

Much more variety of scenery than normal for us — really fun.

One mishap — one of the dogs, Griffin, got stung — on his penis

Very warm morning but it was extremely pleasant in the woods

Official head count: 25H, seven D

You can see Annie’s photos online here.

Sunday July 24

So Danby Road east to the Tamarack Lean-to on the FLT

Official head count: 19H, two D

You can see Annie’s online photos here.

Report to Hikers: Week of July 11-July 17

Hello Hikers!

Thursday July 14

Ellis Hollow Nature Pr4eserve

There were a couple of strikes against this walk going into it:

I had to push it off from a nice day to the next day, when it was supposed to storm, so I could have an emergency eye exam (which turned out OK)
We had a report that a hiker had been here a few weeks earlier and found it hideously infested with flies, almost as bad as the Adirondacks in black fly season
It was 81 and steamy when we shaped up at the trail head

I always try to stay optimistic when we set off on a hike — but as soon as we got into the shrubbery just beyond the cars I was mobbed by flies all over my head — thankfully they backed off when I got my hat on, and they weren’t bad from then on. Shampoo?

This is a very shady walk and it was bearable under the trees — though it’s possible to bail out of this walk after an hour, and half the group chose to quit and go home then.

Tiger and I walked on with the remaining hikers — a few minutes after we left for home it started to rain somewhat hard.

Official head count: 11H, one D

Saturday July 16

Roy H Park Preserve into Hammond Hill SF, Dryden

Lovely morning, great hike

Official head count: 24H, seven D

Sunday July 17

Shindagin Hollow SF, FLT to the lean-to and beyond

Another delightful morning, nice temps, still damp in the woods after the rain overnight

This trail is one of the 3-4 darkest and shadiest we do — only a few brief spots where any light penetrates, and that’s often very harsh — great on a sunny summer day when you want to stay cool, but very poor for photos

A lot of this trail is full of roots and snags and small flat rocks, and everything was a little slick from the rain — one hiker reported he slipped or tripped, couldn’t catch himself and fell flat on his face

This is one of the main arguments for using hiking sticks — I use two and there’s not a hike where I don’t trip at least once and then save myself from crashing down thanks to the sticks.

For the second Sunday in a row, we had children with us — this trail isn’t conducive to running back and forth or fooling around the way last week’s was, the children were younger than last week’s rambunctious kids, there was only two of them, and they were a little more serious — the 10-year-old boy had visited the Cornell synchrotron and then met with two physics professors his grandad knows — he wants to be a particle physicist — this is how successful scientists get started, I think ….

Still only 70 when we got back to the cars — very nice!

Official head count: 27H, six D — including a mother-son pair — not clear if they know they’re related, and there’s a little bit of disconnect in their interactions.

Report to Hikers: week of July 4-July 10

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.