Author: shesse

Hello Hikers!

Wednesday March 23

Six Mile Creek, south side rim trail
I’m not bragging, just stating a fact, when I say that, if you start hiking with us, even if you’ve lived here for a long time, you’ll soon find yourself on trails you’ve never seen before. Everyone comments on it. If you like seeing new sights, this is a big benefit of hiking with our group.
This trail along Six Mile Creek is maybe the most striking case of all — so close to downtown and so surprisingly wild — you’d never know it’s there unless you’re unusually curious, or someone shows you. It runs parallel to the very popular and attractive South Hill Rec Way, which is a groomed, wide and gentle walking and jogging boulevard that gets heavy use — if you turn off this in several unmarked spots, you immediately find yourself in the kind of rugged deep woods setting we find in the state forests far out of town — rocky streams, narrow bumpy paths, sheer drops, mysterious trails branching off to the side

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Sandra was making her first hike here on Wednesday and she really got a kick out of it

Official head count: 17 hikers, one dog

More photos online:

Me
Jack V

No photos from Annie  — couldn’t hike at all this week  —  plantar fasciitis

 

Saturday March 26

Robinson Hollow SF, Tioga County
I wanted to be a farmer when I was a boy — I’d like to live on a farm now (provided someone else did all the work) — so I really enjoy it when there’s a farm right at the start of one of our hikes, as we have in a couple of cases — these two beautiful work horses live just a few hundred feet from the Robinson Hollow trail head, and Sabine walked over without me prompting her — there’s also a cow and chickens — really creates a great feeling of being out in the country
I’m still thinking about a list of our most strenuous hikes — I think our people would agree this is one of them
We managed to get pretty far into the hemlock forest part of this walk — it was fairly dark under the trees and I forgot to adjust my camera so none of my photos came out — I realized that the trail under the hemlocks is is quite rough and bumpy and now I’m working on a theory that hemlock groves tend to produce poor quality walking conditions, too many roots and snags
Beautiful morning, no signs of spring but a lovely dazzling sun and nice temps
Official head count: 24 hikers, six dogs

More photos online:

Me
Jack V

 

Easter Sunday

Lick Brook, followed by a get-together at Hobit’s

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Gorgeous morning on a great trail, and a wonderful holiday party

Official head count for the walk:  28 hikers, six dogs

A handful of the walkers couldn’t make it to the get-together, but a number of additional people who weren’t able to hike showed up, and we had a big crowd.  We got a chance to catch up with Hobit’s teenage son Jake, who’s into tumbling

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At one point on the trail we found ourselves right across the street from the home of super-regular hiker Sabine  —  you can see her house and pond in the additional photos I put online

As announced, I didn’t do the whole walk  —  but the parts I did do were completely satisfying and beautiful

More photos online:

Me

Jack V

Hello Hikers!

Wednesday March 16

Ellis Hollow Nature Preserve
This is one of our more attractive hikes, but it never comes out looking that way in my photos, for several reasons — try as I do, it always comes out looking like a blah walk — just be aware that’s not the case
For one thing, the nicest stretches are very dark — one of the few places with any light are the stream crossings — I’m always slightly hoping someone will fall in so I can get an action shot, never happens
Really the only other parts of the walk where there’s enough light for photography are the hardwood areas when the leaves are down — always comes out looking pretty generic to me
Besides above-average scenery, this walk is notable for some unusually steep ups and downs — they don’t last long but they’re a little challenging when you’re actually navigating one
We had a little bit of excitement — regular hiker Vicki has gotten a new puppy, some kind of German hunting dog named Sylvie — she made her first appearance on the trail with us — Yoda generally doesn’t like puppies so it was interesting to see how he’d respond — didn’t seem very interested
Official head count: 17 hikers, six dogs

After the walk we drove about a mile to the house of regular hiker Marianne for coffee and lemon cake — delightful place on two acres on a big cul de sac — Marianne laid out a very nice little spread — I was quite taken by a beautiful pond she created in her back yard

More photos online:

Me
Annie

Saturday March 19

Potomac trails, Finger Lakes National Forest
One thing I forgot to mention when I announced this hike is that there can be a lot of mud in springtime — in fact, it was very muddy — but in a big stroke of good luck for us, it was cold enough overnight and at hike time for the mud to freeze, so we were pretty much able to cruise over the top — given the amount of mud here, that made a huge difference.
I’ve walked before on part of the route we did this time, but a lot of the loop that Jack V laid out was new to me — both Tiger and I thought it was the best hike we’ve done in the national forest to date.
Really wonderful variety — ponds, a variety of fields, old country roads, great long views — not sure what we were looking at …. I usually don’t care exactly what it is, I just like the feeling of spaciousness — some very nice woods. Just one complaint — there were some boardwalks in the woods and they were quite slippery with old moss

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Official head count: 25 hikers, three dogs

More photos online:

Me
Annie
Jack V

 

Sunday March 20

Shindagin Hollow SF, FLT to the lean-to and South Road
I really like everything about this walk — except the footpath — it’s very bumpy for long stretches because of protruding roots and snags, and sometimes also extremely muddy. Nothing to do about the rough footing, but now I realize we can avoid the mud by hiking when it’s frozen — we had a generally easy time of it Sunday in the high 20s
Now I’m also thinking maybe the walk is a little more strenuous than I believed — what I used to think was level, I now see is steadily uphill on the outbound leg — another good reason to come here when it’s on the cool side

Our regulars who are accustomed to this walk all pretty much ignore the big cairn landmark when we reach it now, but new people generally show an interest — our first-timers Katy and Sandy actually jumped in and started to work on a tiny side cairn someone else had started

Scenery always beautiful here and it looked especially lovely in a nice not-too dark overcast

Official head count: 24 hikers, three dogs

More photos online:

Me
Jack V

Hello Hikers!

This is a second version of the March 7-13 hike report, this time with embedded photos.  Thanks to the help of a support guy at the web site, I was able to get photos to load again.  This will save some of you from having to go online to see the hikers in action.

The top photo shows us on Wednesday morning starting our hike week with a steep climb.

Wednesday March 9

Heisey Road and Eastman Hill Road, Danby SF

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Official head count:  22 hikers, six dogs

More photos online:

Me

Annie

Jack V

Saturday March 12

Buttermilk Falls SP, rim trail, Bear Trail and Lake Treman trail

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Official head count:  32 hikers, six dogs

More photos online:

Me

Annie

Jack V

Sunday March 13

Hammond Hill SF, Star Stanton loop

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Official head count:  25 hikers, six dogs

More photos online:

Me

Annie

Jack V

 

 

Hello Hikers!

Still having trouble getting photos up onto the web site, so I’m doing a photo-free report this week while I work on solving the problem.  Instead, you can see all the usual photos online.  Several hikers in the past have told me, almost defiantly, “I never click on those photos”  —  well, guys, maybe it’s time to try  —  I assure you, you won’t infect your computer by jumping to our online photo-sharing sites, which are run by Microsoft.

Wednesday March 9

Heisey Road and Eastman Hill Road, Danby SF

Head count:   22
Weather & atmospherics:   summer-like, bright sun
Quality of scenery:  average (which is actually pretty good)
Terrain:  steep uphill at the start, then level

Photos online:

Me

Annie

Jack V

Saturday March 12

Buttermilk Falls SP, lower rim trail, Bear Trail, and trail around Lake Treman

Head count:   32
Weather & atmospherics:  mild-springlike, bright sun
Quality of scenery:  excellent
Terrain:  very steep at first, then ups and downs

Photos online:

Me

Annie

Jack V

Sunday March 13

Hammond Hill SF, Star Stanton loop

Head count:  25
Weather & atmospherics:  cool-springlike, pale sun
Quality of scenery:  excellent  –  our most scenic walk here ever
Terrain:  steep at first, then mild ups and downs

One snafu:  I included a Google Map in the hike announcement but I failed to test out the “Get directions” feature beforehand  —  in fact, the map gave absurd directions on how to reach the meet-up  —  four cars with five hikers ended up in the wrong spot  —  we tried to coordinate over the phone but we weren’t able to run into each other, though we were all near each other.

Photos online:

Me

Annie

Jack V

Reminder  —  we’re having a get-together in Danby after our regular hike on Easter Sunday  —  details in due time

Hello Hikers!

 

Thursday March 3

Deputron Road, Danby — road walk
Our first time on this deserted country road. This was the scene just a few minutes after we left the cars. I wonder how many hikers would be immediately turned off by the puddling, and wish they hadn’t come out. I myself enjoy this type of messy going as long as it doesn’t last too long.
After a little while more, the scenery turned extremely beautiful. I started the walk with really no expectations of what we’d see; even so, I was surprised by the extreme deep-woods look of the road. This stretch reminded ne of the rim trail along Enfield Creek in Treman SP. Tiger and I are much too cautious to ever go exploring in the car on a road this rough, even though we have a 4WD — but one of our hikers actually drove the whole length before the hike.
We decided to do a road walk to accommodate our super-regular midweek hiker Good Dennis, who broke his collarbone in a skiing accident the week before. He normally uses two hiking sticks to deal with the bumpiness of our trails — but as you can see here, his right arm is now inside his jacket and his right sleeve is hanging down empty, so we decided to do a more or less smooth surface. It worked out well.
Official head count: 14 hikers, three dogs
We had a very strong sex-ratio imbalance this week, 10 ladies to four guys — all our ladies are extremely cute and I thought it was fun to have so many around
I’d never heard of this walk until earlier in the week — I put out a call to some of our regulars to come up with a really good new road walk — Hank (third from right) is a big bicycle rider and he discovered Deputron while riding — then it turned out that two of the ladies on the walk (who I didn’t poll) are very familiar with it too.
Impromptu birthday celebration when we got back to the cars — gorgeous morning, delightful time all around

More photos online:

Me

Annie

Bonus: Annie’s photos of Marsh Road, just up the road from Deputron

 

Saturday March 5

Bock-Harvey Forest Preserve and Rieman Woods, Enfield
Lovely cool grey morning and a great walk if you like subtle shades of brown everywhere, which I very much do
If the “Bock” in Bock-Harvey sounds familiar, yes, it’s our regular hiker Dave B, in the background here with Joanna — they’ve been wintering over in NC but they were back home for a visit and it was fun to see them. Both are still recuperating from major surgeries — Joanna has a new knee and Dave had a big ankle repair done.
I’m color blind so I asked Tiger to tell me whether we’d seen any other colors besides brown — no, she said, and then she pointed out there are almost no evergreens anywhere along this walk except a very few planted as decoration around the few scattered houses.
I love scenery of nothing but muted browns and tans myself and we don’t have many hikes that are such a consistent mix of brown fields and brown woods
Official head count: 19 hikers, five dogs
Could a one-armed person do this walk comfortably? Good Dennis managed fine with his right arm strapped to his chest. There are two very nasty steep ditches he neeed help with, but so did some other hikers, including me.

More photos online:

Me

Annie

 

 

Sunday March 6

Abbott Loop, north leg from Michigan Hollow Road to The Pinnacles look-out, Danby SF
I hope everyone’s gotten the message that the photos I embed in these hike reports are clickable again. I like classic group line-up shots in theory — but in practice they’re often wretched, faces too small, so badly focused you can hardly recognize people — I promise, at least you can enlarge any group shots I run here — just click once, and then click again or twiddle the wheel on your mouse — and they’ll always be in enough focus that they’re not blurry — though they may not be super-crisp.
I mentioned recently that I want to make up a list of our ten toughest hikes — I suspect this one will be in the final 10 — the trail’s really quite steep in several spots, and the uphills just keep coming
The first group of us just managed to make it to the look-out in 60 minutes — it took a few minutes more for the somewhat slower people to arrive — and a number of hikers failed to make it at all in time for the group shot — it’s always fun when you get to the top of the hill, it has a nice festive feeling to it.
Many scenic woodland spots along the way — a bit dark for taking photos but delightfully atmospheric
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Official head count: 28 hikers, six dogs

More photos by me online here, including another version of the look-out line-up shot where the faces are larger