Category: hike reports

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wed March 21

Six Mile Creek  —  wildflower preserve toward Potter’s Falls

Official head count:  18H, four D

More photos:

Jack V

 

Sat March 23

Treman SP on the FLT starting from Route 13

The steepness of the climb up to this clearing where I always feel compelled to do a group-shot tends to separate the hikers pretty widely  —  one-third of the group had fallen behind us and isn’t shown here

There was considerable snow on the upper part of the walk  —  but it wasn’t too slippery

Official head count:  19H, six D

 

Sunday March 25

Finger Lakes National Forest, Hector  —  Chicken Coop Road and snowmobile trails

Lots of snow up here  —  we started out on a nice trail through the woods but it quickly started to get harder and harder to walk comfortably

Frozen footprints, holes, churned-up surface  —  my knees and ankles really started to feel stressed  —  the snow off to the side of the path wasn’t stiff enough to walk on top  —  so we left the woods at the first opportunity

This is Chicken Coop Road  —  it’s not plowed in winter but it gets heavy snowmobile use and it’s nicely tamped down

This led us to a set of huge fields that get lots of snowmobile action

We kept going on the snowmobile trail until it was time to turn back  —  very nice scenery all around

Official head count:  18H, three D

More photos:

Jack V

 

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Thursday March 15

YMCA and Ecovillage lands, West Hill

We postponed this hike for a day because of the midweek snow storm, and there was a nice lively sense of venturing out into a sparkling fresh scene and coping with a little snow hardship at the meet-up

In no way is this one of our most scintillating woods settings, but it seemed extremely pleasant to me this morning because of the soft snow draped on everything, the lovely sun and the light winds

We were sternly warned beforehand not to mess up any skiers’ tracks on the EcoVillage fields

Plenty of room for skiers and walkers both

Dave R got to the trail head late but he managed to find us  —  I was impressed but he said it was easy to follow our tracks

Official head count:  9H, three D

I put nine more photos online

 

Sat March 17

Stevens Suspension Bridge, Cornell golf course and Cornell horse facilities, Forest Home

Official head count:  17H, seven D

More photos:

Jack V

Me

 

Sun March 18

Upper Buttermilk Falls SP

Official head count:  21H, seven D

More photos:

Jack V

Me

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wed March 7

Snowmobile trail from Fisher Settlement Road east to Travor Road, South Danby

Official head count:  19H, three D

 

Sat March 10

Deputron Hollow Road and Gilbert Road, Danby

You get a wonderful sense of driving out into the country when you head up E Miller Road from 96B to this meet-up  —  the road climbs steadily past picturesque farms and broad fields, and the view to the south and west gets steadily more sweeping and dramatic

Deputron Hollow Road gets hardly any traffic, and I was very surprised to see  a churned-up mess of slippery ice, mud and frozen puddles when we arrived at the junction of Marsh and Deputron

At first it seemed like we would have to abort our walk  —  then people began to pick their way ahead carefully

We began to see extensive signs of logging and we realized the mess was created by this logging operation

This is the junction of Deputron and Gilbert  —  we were beyond the logging area and the footing was fine

There’s a really beautiful deep gorge that runs along the south side of Deputron for much of the way  —  it looked spectacular with the snow cover

This is what churned up the road  —  it’s called a skidder and it’s quite a big piece of equipment

Aside from the messy conditions underfoot, the walk was great

Official head count:  23H, five D

More photos:

Jack V

Me

 

Sunday March 11

Potato Hill SF, Caroline  —  Level Green Road SW toward Old 76 Road

This was the first time we walked for more than a short distance on this trail.  It’s a decent stretch for a hike, though a little tiring  —  there are significant uphills in both directions  —  made even worse by having to plow through the snow.  There’s a lovely stretch of uncluttered hardwood forest, and a lot of low scrubby growth that clearly used to be fields, and has a distinctive atmospheric feeling.  A good bit of mud and water, both streams and little rivulets running down the middle of the footpath.  The walk through Potato Hill SF on the other side of Level Green Road is easier and more varied  —  there are several areas of beautiful dark pines, for instance  —  but this direction has its charms too.

Official head count:  22H, six D

 

 

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wed Feb 28

Willseyville Creek, Caroline

Our newest hiking doig, Pooka  —  not super-eager to jump into the icy brook to get cleaned of mud ….

Official head count:  22H, six D

 

Saturday March 3

Six Mile Creek  —  south side rim trail

The photos don’t capture the great beauty of the scenery  —  it was really extraordinary

Official head count:  24H, seven D

More photos:

Jack V

Me

 

Sunday March 4

Bock Harvey Forest Preserve, Enfield, east to Hines Road

Official head count:  23H, seven D

More photos:

Jack V

Me

 

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wed Feb 21

Farm road walk  —  Red Mill Road, Malloryville

Fantastic morning  —  we caught the tail end of the two-day warm spell just as the cold front was coming at us

Upper 60s and a balmy wind from the south that started to shift while we were out on the road  —  beautiful pale sun as we set off ….

The walk covers the top of a large flat hill and it feels like you’re on top of the world when you’re up there.  After a while it started to cloud up very dramatically

From our vantage point, we could watch the storm coming at us from the northwest

It stayed mild and gorgeous the whole time we were out.  But by 1 pm, the temperature had fallen 20 degrees, and then it started to rain.

Official head count:  16H, three D

I got some extra photos that you see online here

 

Sat Feb 24

Jim Schug Trail, Dryden

I’d hoped we could walk through the woods on the FLT, but when wee got to the trail head there was considerable snow on the ground, so we decided to do the Schug trail instead  —  it was mostly free of snow

Five hikers missing from the group shot on Dryden Lake

Our regular hiker Roger built this dam years ago when he was a young man doing flood control construction projects  — dam  still looks great

Official head count:  24H, three D

Hopshire Brewery  —  this is a delightful place to come after a hike  —  first time we dropped in on a Saturday  —  we had the big room to ourselves

More photos:

Jack V

Me

 

Sunday Feb 25

Woodard Road east into upper Treman SP on the FLT, Enfield

The storm that began overnight and was supposed to hit us veered off  —  we just got some great atmospherics …. dampness and gloom

I was surprised at how much ice and snow we ran into …. some of it was  on the verge of being treacherous

This was the second time we used this upper route to get onto the FLT through the southern edge of the park  —  much easier than climbing up from Route 13  —  it only took me and Tiger more than 13 years of hiking here to realize we could start from the top

Official head count:  18H, six D

More photos:

Jack V