Report to Hikers: Week of July 11-July 17

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Thursday July 14

Ellis Hollow Nature Pr4eserve

R0101153 (2)There were a couple of strikes against this walk going into it:

  1. 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)
  2. 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
  3. It was 81 and steamy when we shaped up at the trail head

R0101167 (2)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?

R0101175 (2)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.

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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

R0101201 (2)R0101233 (3)R0101257 (2)R0101277 (2)R0101364 (2)R0101380 (2)R0101397 (2)R0101408 (2)Lovely morning, great hike

Official head count:  24H, seven D

 

Sunday July 17

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

Aviary Photo_131132552012583167Another delightful morning, nice temps, still damp in the woods after the rain overnight

Aviary Photo_131133005023591590This 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

R0101546 (2)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

R0101575 (2)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.

R0101587 (2)R0101596 (2)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 ….

R0101618 (2)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

R0100650Very 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.

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R0100713Norm 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 ….

R0100717Official head count:  15H, 0 D

Check out Jack V’s photos online here.

 

 

Saturday July 9

Texas Hollow SF, Bennettsburg

R0100768There 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

R0100787It’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

R0100817Almost 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

R0100851Jack V was excited because he managed to get some close-ups of a butterfly, which you can see at the link below

R0100872Just 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.

R0100890Official head count:  18H, two D

R0100752We 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

Aviary Photo_131126469849608290It 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

R0100950The big question about this hike is always, How tall will the grass in the huge field be?  Sometimes it’s up over your knee ….

R0100973We 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.

Aviary Photo_131126479262480561R0101027 We old people just plodded along as usual, but you definitely feel something special here, even if you don’t act it out

Aviary Photo_131126490761279830Bruce Hill Road  —  most of this walk is in the woods but I didn’t bother trying to get any photos there, too dark

Aviary Photo_131126496796784949Fabulous to be out on a cool dark wet morning.

Official head count:  27H, six D

You can see Jack V’s shots here.

Report to Hikers: week of June 27-July 3

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday June 29

Edwards Lake Cliffs Preserve, Lansing

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R0099999Great morning in this small and interesting preserve that runs along the lake in upscale Lansing.  It was a beautiful day, and we got to see a very satisfying variety of scenery.

R0100008The high point here is always the stream bed carved out by Gulf Creek  —  it’s extremely picturesque in general and it was really fun this time because of the lack of rain  —  the floor of the stream bed is basically flat and it was mainly dry, so we were able to walk a long distance upstream  —  there’s a big waterfall upstream that people were hoping to see  —  but it was further than they thought and they turned back without reaching it.  (The scene right below is a sheer drop the creek makes close to the lake  —  it gives you an idea of what the stream bed looks like.)

R0100016There’s also some high cliffs here that you can walk near the edge of, but we didn’t have time for that.  Instead we dropped down toward the lake level to visit a look-out.  It was full of sweet pea flowers in bloom and everyone went gaga over that.

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R0100102This is a big birding spot, and there was a lot of very melodious singing going on  —  several of our birding ladies said it was wood thrushes, out in unusually large numbers.

R0100137Official head count:  27H, four D

You can see Jack V’s photos online here, including a number of shots of the stream bed.

 

Saturday July 2

Woodard Road NW to Hines Road, Enfield

R0100177Really lovely morning, on the cool side and with a great breeze

R0100196An alarming amount of poison ivy along the first stretch of the trail ….  a number of hikers were wearing shorts  —  I suspect I was the only one wearing both long pants and long underwear  —  I have neuropathy and my legs and ankles always feel cold  —  I believe this double layer of pants will protect me from getting PI.

R0100211Hines Road  —  we have to cut the outbound walk short here now because the next stretch is on private property and the landowner withdrew permission  —  this is the spot where you can bail out and take a very quick and easy shortcut back to the cars

R0100242Even those of us who retraced our steps through the woods got back to the cars early because of the trail closure  —  What to do next?  walk a bit in the other direction to make it a full two hours, or cut the hike short and head home

R0100266Fishkill Creek  —  an extremely nice spot along the obscure CCC Trail in upper Treman

R0100294One benefit of the drought for us  —  no insects have been pestering us on our walks so far this summer  —  also, seems like there are more fragrant flowers or tree blossoms or whatever along our trails this year ….?

R0100312Official head count:  24H, four D

Check out Jack V’s photos online here.

 

Sunday July 3

Jim Schug Trail east into Cortland County on the FLT, followed by a get-together at Ann and Carlton’s

R0100350R0100428This walk takes us up and over a small hill  —  there’s a fantastic look-out on top  —  I like to pose the hikers against the beautiful distant valley that spreads out before us  —  unfortunately the angle of the sun was bad  —  so here we are in a compromise pose  —  lighting poor, background dull and overgrown, but the hikers don’t look too horrible

R0100456Here’s a shot I took by turning entirely around, with my back to the panoramic view  —  the hikers emerging from the very dark woods  —  much better lighting

R0100475R0100520Official head count for the hike:  35H, three D

Get-together at Ann and Carlton’s

R0100547This is a wonderful property  —  delightfully shady and cool on a warm afternoon  —  in fact, a couple of us were actually feeling a little chilly under the trees on the patio

R0100556Great pool but no one but Nico wanted to go in  —  I wasn’t feeling warm enough to try it myself  —  that’s Carlton’s art studio in the background, which he and Ann built themselves

R0100579View from the back yard showing the shady patio  —  I didn’t get an official head count for the get-together  —  some people who hiked didn’t come, but a number of people who skipped the hike did show up for the food, so we had quite a crowd

Check out Jack V’s online photos here

Report to Hikers: week of June 20-June 26

 

News flash:  We’ll have a holiday weekend get-together in Freeville on Sunday July 3 on the way home from our regular hike.  Swimming, beer and snacks under the trees.  Stay tuned.

 

Hello Hikers!

Wednesday June 22

Road walk, dairy farm area between Freeville and McLean west of Fall Creek Road

R0099416R0099476Another in our series of road walks in unfamiliar rural neighborhoods  —  this neighborhood turned out to be spectacular, spread out across the flat top of a hill with distant views in all directions  —  the morning weather was incredibly nice  —  the walk quickly became one of the best we’ve done in some years

R0099412 (2)We often see cows standing around in a field outside an old barn on the way to our various hikes, but this dairy farm is in a different league  —  basically just a number of huge open sheds scattered around, all looking very crisp and tidy

R0099430A little smell of manure near the sheds but not really that bad considering how many cows we saw

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R0099488A great feeling of being on the open road at the top of the world  —  so beautiful there was (momentarily) absolutely nothing to worry about

R0099425I doubt many groups of walkers pass by this farm  —  one of the hikers claimed she saw some of the cows looking at us with an expression on their faces that said, “We want to be out on the road with you!”

R0099463Road walks have several advantages over walking in the woods  —  one big one is that it’s much easier to socialize  —  our guys were really having a blast chatting away

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Most of our walk was through open areas but we did hit a few wooded spots  —  important if you need to make a pit stop

Official head count:  18H, two D

You can see more photos by me online here

 

Saturday June 25

The Saddle, Connecticut Hill WMA

R0099631R0099642When we have a hike in an out-of-the-way area like this, it might help if you spend a few minutes beforehand and draw a crude little map of the directions  —  especially of the intersections you need to negotiate  —  there are often no road signs at the corners, and it’s a big help if you have a blow-up sketch showing the road geometry in detail

R0099665For whatever reason, these Connecticut Hill woods aren’t quite as dense as we get in some other areas  —  the shadows aren’t as black, we don’t get as many extreme sun-and-shade conditions  —  you can see a bit better and the woods have a lovely luminous quality on a sunny day

R0099681We hit several areas that smelled intensely sweet, and some that had a delightful light piney smell, made more spicy by the very dry conditions.  The last leg of the drive to and from the meet-up, on Tower Road, was churned up into such an incredibly dusty mess by the cars you actually had trouble seeing.

R0099702Most of our Connecticut Hill hikes are on ski trails  —  these trails used to be marked with widely spaced little markers but these have been taken down, apparently by the state, which doesn’t really like the trails  —  the result now is that the trails are completely unmarked and obscure  —  if Dave B had, say, suddenly sprained his ankle, we would have been lost in the wilderness  —  I doubt any of us could have picked out the route we’d taken in

R0099708Official head count:  28H, three D  —  two more hikers were nearby but they couldn’t figure out the roads so they missed the hike

R0099711Dave’s extremely conscientious and organized about leading us around in this wild area  —  he walks the trail a few days beforehand, for instance, something Tiger and I never do  —  he also likes to clock the hike with a stop watch  —  he’s really superb at pacing  —  our hikes are theoretically supposed to last two hours  —  he brought us in in two hours and one second

Check out Jack V’s shots online here.

 

Sunday June 26

Stevens Suspension Bridge, Forest Home, east into Monkey Run Natural Area

R0099751Definitely too warm  —  but we managed to have a wonderful hike anyway

R009980380 when we reached the big Cornell fields on the bluff  — could have been really oppressive but there was a little breeze and it wasn’t very humid  —  great summer feeling

R0099828Just enough shade along the edge of the Fall Creek gorge across Freese Road

R0099833R0099865R009991085 by the time we got back to the cars but it felt OK  —  we actually spent a good bit of the time in deep shade  —  too dark for good photos

R0099925Official head count:  26H, three D

Check out Jack V’s shots online here

Report to Hikers: week of June 13-June 19

 

Hello Hikers!

A warm week but very low humidity  —  lovely under the trees and we had three great hikes

 

Wednesday June 15

Bald Hill Road to The Pinnacles look-out, Danby SF

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R0098903The wonderful look-out with the striking views over West Danby and the hills beyond is now fully obscured by scrubby trees until the leaves drop in the fall  —  so we had to do the traditional commemorative shot facing the other way

R0098929At the half-way point  —  it takes an hour to get back to the cars if you retrace your steps, including a steep climb  —  or about 20 minutes without any climb if you go back on the road here.  There’s always a little drama at this point  —  who will wimp out and take the short-cut?

R0098962…. more than half the group took the short way back ….

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R0098990Official head count:  24H, four D

Check out Jack V’s photos online here.

 

Saturday June 18

Hammond Hill SF, ski trails

R0099028A little excitement at the meet-up:  Randy and Nancy pulled up in a 69 Jag

R0099049R0099059R0099091R0099094R0099118R0099134R0099138Official head count:  18H, four D

 

Sunday June 19

Shindagin Hollow SF, Braley Hill Road to Shindagin Hollow Road on the FLT

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Official head count:  28H, three D

 

Roti get-together at Jack and Sandy’s

R0099299Jack and Sandy had this house built when they moved here from San Diego 16 years ago.  It’s a classic passive solar design  —  it catches the low winter sunlight but excludes the hot summer sun with overhanging roofs and decks.

R0099235The roti was fantastic; the wrap part was especially tender.  It took a lot of work but the result was really exceptional.

R0099274R0099287Gorgeous setting looking south over the pond with some hills in the distance

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Margaret  —  the pond is full of blue dye to control algae

A number of us went swimming  —  water temp was just right

R0099314Talk about a hiker doing a good job keeping the love handles and waist puffiness under control  —  Tom  —  Tiger looks a little blase ….?

Get-together head count  —  I didn’t try an official count but we picked up some people who didn’t hike and it was a good turnout, especially considering it was Father’s Day.

Check out Annie’s photos online here.

Jack V didn’t post his shots online yet  —  stay tuned.