Category: hike reports

Hello Hikers!

Tuesday Feb 23

Abbott Loop from Michigan Hollow Road east, Danby SF
We hiked a day earlier than normal to beat the big rainstorm moving up from the south — delightful morning in a beautiful woods, but it left me a little disoriented for the rest of the week. We almost always do our midweek hikes on Wednesdays — very rarely, on Thursdays — I can’t remember ever doing one on a Tuesday before — I kept finding myself confused about what day it was — realized I orient my mental weekly schedule entirely around a Wednesday hike without even thinking about it
The photos I’ve used in this hike report, and Jack V’s nature shots as well, will make you think this is a level trail. In fact, it’s one of our steepest. I was thinking about this afterwards and I decided I might try making up a list of our 10 toughest hikes. I sent out an e-mail to our regulars asking for their thoughts — turned into possibly our biggest discussion thread ever.
This is one of several walks we do where you climb up one side of a hill and then go down the other, so you end up having uphills on both legs of the walk. I like the far side of this hill because it’s quite wet, with several picturesque streams and soggy areas that are fun to navigate.
We were right around the freezing mark and there was a nice mix of soft snow and a little left-over ice — hard to know whether to wear foot traction or not — the trail was a bit choppy in spots and the traction can make it worse on your ankles

Lovely sunshine effect in the pine woods that cover the first half of this hike — it’s really a first-rate stretch — if you’re not too out of breath to appreciate it.
Official head count: 12 hikers and Yoda. Our super-regular hiker Good Dennis should have hiked with us but he chose to go skiing instead — took a bad fall — broken collarbone — surgery, with a plate in the chest — he’s hoping to rejoin us fairly soon.

More photos online:

Me

Jack V

Second great hiking weekend in a row  —  mild Saturday, spring-like Sunday

Saturday Feb 27

Carter Creek loop, Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area

Wonderful morning  —  nothing special to report

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Official head count:  18 hikers, three dogs.  I want to give a special shout-out to Dave G for leading us around.

More photos online:

Me

Annie

Jack V

 

Sunday Feb 28

Shindagin Hollow SF, east from Braley Hill Road on the FLT

First time we ever did this trail — now I’m wondering why I never scheduled it before — it’s not like it’s hidden away in some obscure part of the county — we’ve been hiking right nearby for years — in fact it couldn’t be a more obvious walk to do

I’m sorry it took so long for me to wake up to this one — it’s an excellent trail, above average in general, and part of the walk is quite stunning

The trail takes us right along the edge of an extremely steep, deep and dramatic precipice for quite a long stretch. We were walking in a mix of soft snow and slippery dirt, and the path is slightly tilted toward the drop-off for part of the time, so it was a little more exciting than I like, and I had to bushwhack extensively to keep back from the rim. I wish I’d gotten a photo of the ravine but there was no way I was going to walk up to the edge and then spend time fiddling with the camera to get a shot that captured the scene.

There was some question before we started out whether people should wear foot traction — I said no — then, when it was so slippery along the ravine, there was a bit of grumbling that I’d given bad advice. Possibly ….

A very satisfying number of stream crossings along this trail — I always enjoy these, the need to hop and jump and the constant risk of getting your shoes wet ….

Official head count: 25 hikers, five dogs

More photos online:

Me

Annie

Jack V

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Feb 17

Road walk, Hill Road and Curtis Road, South Danby
We got into hiking along deserted country roads a year ago when the snow in the woods was too deep to hike there. I’d never done it seriously before and I immediately loved walking on a picturesque rural road just as much as hiking in a forest. This year we obviously don’t have a snow-depth problem but I’ve been eager for a road walk anyway.
To be great, a road walk should have all of the following, IMO: Rolling terrain — long views — mix of farms, fields and woods — mix of active farms and decayed ones — basically no traffic — and horses. I also like local dogs that run out to engage with us, but not all the hikers appreciate that. This walk had everything but the dogs.
We had a little excitement beforehand — a mess of slush, ice and wintery mix until shortly before hike time — we had some chitchat online about what to do — could have been nasty, and it held down attendance; several hikers said afterwards they assumed the roads would be awful  — in fact, our roads were neatly plowed and easy to walk on.
A road with open stretches can be windy but this one wasn’t bad and the temperature was pretty mild — dramatically cloudy and then the sub peeked through near the end to spectacular effect.
I’m a sucker for old barns and I thought this one would make a great photo backdrop — we have two regular Dennises, Good Dennis and Bad Dennis — I liked how this scene with the dark area worked out — Good Dennis looking a little bit Bad —
…. a second later the background looked entirely different and he was smiling sweetly.
Official head count: Eight hikers and Yoda

More photos online:

Me

Jack V

 

Saturday Feb 20

Stevens Suspension Bridge, Cornell fields, Fall Creek bluffs and Park Park, Forest Home
When it’s 50 and the sun is dazzling and the snow is melting under your feet, you don’t need me to tell you it was a great morning
This is one of our easiest hikes — just one uphill — the rest is all beautiful flats
Maybe on a different day we’d want to rush along trying to get warm, but it was so fantastic out, we pretty much dawdled quite a bit, just soaking up the fantastic sensation of a spring day
I thought the light had a special quality, probably a combination of reflection from the snow and from the stunning blue of the sky
Official head count: 27 hikers, six dogs

You can see more photos online by me here

 

Sunday Feb 21

Woodard Road NW to Hines Road, Enfield
Second wonderful morning in a row on the trail — more or less made up for missing both hikes last weekend
The snow was gone from some areas under the trees but a couple of inches deep in other spots, making for a very pleasing variety — upper thirties the whole time — nice gloomy quality to the light, very atmospheric
This walk is always a little challenging and it was more strenuous than usual because the snow was soft and a bit slippery — a lot of us were wearing microspikes — not really necessary but they give a nice sense of security
It just so happens you can completely bypass the lively ups and downs on the return leg of the walk by taking a level shortcut on the road — seems like we always lose a number of hikers at this point — of course each and every one always has a great excuse for needing to get back sooner
Just before we turn around, the trail brings us to a large and striking conference and party center for rent out in the middle of nowhere — I never manage to get it into a photo with the hikers — it’s off to the left in this shot ….
…. and off to the left in this shot — unfortunately our two nature photogs were both out of town all weekend so there’s no shot of it you can see this time
Official head count: 24 hikers, four dogs

You can see nine more photos by me online here

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Feb 10

Harford-Slaterville Road, FLT north into Hammond Hill SF
Another excellent hike we can do only on a weekday. The problem with this one is limited parking compounded by limited space to stand around waiting to start the hike — the shoulder is so narrow you can barely get the cars out of the travel lane, and then people tend to drift out onto the main pavement — this is a curvy 55 mph stretch of road — it’s clear from their reactions that the locals bombing around the curve don’t expect to see a bunch of hikers and dogs out in the road
We got a very picturesque snowfall a little before hike time. I usually like fresh snow better out in a country setting, but the new snow this time was very sticky and drapey and it looked more striking close to town, covering all the domestic landscape plantings along Route 79. The stretch of trail we did in HHSF has more of a bleak charm for much of the way.
There are some stretches of evergreens along the way to spice things up — I made Tiger pose for this shot — looks posed to me but it does show the atmospheric mood
Speaking of Tiger, she’s one of the hikers whose nose runs all the time and she finds it funny the way so many of us have this chronic winter condition …. like Steve
Official head count: 11 hikers, two dogs

You can see seven more shots by me online here

 

 

Monday Feb 15

Michigan Hollow Road SE to Hill Road, Danby SF
Great to be back out in the countryside and hiking after the super-cold weekend forced us to lay low. It was still borderline uncomfortable — 10 and breezy at the meet-up, 14 and a bit less windy when we wrapped up — and none of us was fully warm the whole time ….
but we had a great walk ….
and the woods looked fantastic
Nice amount of fluffy fresh snow, enough to make for a delightful effect but but not so deep it was hard to walk
Official head count: eight hikers and Yoda, who is a very rugged little dog
Here he is getting a coat adjustment — he’s a very cheerful companion and it’s always fun to have him along.

The temperatures at the trail head at the start and finish coincided almost exactly with the temperatures recorded at Cornell’s national-grid weather station out in the country in Harford — these temps are almost always lower than the Ithaca airport temps. Our hikers who live in Danby always say it’s usually colder there than in town.

Hello Hikers!

 

 

Thursday Feb 4

Shindagin Hollow State Forest, bike trails

This is one of a number of really good hikes that, unfortunately, we can do only on a weekday. In some other cases it’s because parking is too limited if there’s a big weekend turnout. For this Shindagin hike, the problem is that we’re walking on the main mountain bike trails in the county — a weekday morning is the only time we can be sure the bikers are all at work or in school.

A few minutes after leaving the cars, you enter what I regard as one of the two-three best pine woods areas we do — every time we come here, I’m determined finally to get the photo that captures the fabulous mood — failed once again — but now I realize what I’ve been doing wrong — our nature photographer Annie was making her first hike on this trail, and she did a much better job than me, though even her shots don’t do full justice.

It was in the high 30s and it seemed like an early spring day — lots of mud and water on the trail, streams very full, a tiny bit of ice in spots — beautiful morning

Aside from our hard-core skiers, no one seemed the least bit upset that there was no snow

This was the first time doing this walk that we didn’t get lost or turned around the wrong way or arrive back at the cars late — Tiger has been making a special effort to understand the trails here and it was a total success — made it back within a minute or so of our two-hour goal — there are maps of the forest but they don’t show all the trails, and the trails on the ground are not all marked — also, the scale of the maps seems wrong

Official head count: 17 hikers, two dogs

More photos online:

Me

Annie

 

 

Saturday Feb 6

Gorge Trail, Finger Lakes National Forest, Reynoldsville
I’m sorry this hike is so far from town way off to the west — it’s a delightful walk but a lot of our regulars live east of the city and many of them just refuse to make such a long drive — so turnout for our hikes in the national forest is often on the lowish side  —  this was our smallest group on a weekend hike in six months
Too bad — there’s lovely scenery everywhere, and lots of variety
In fact we almost never see other hikers when we’re walking in the national forest — again, too bad, since this is probably the best maintained set of trails around, thanks to being under the jurisdiction of the federal government, which obviously has a decent maintenance budget for this tract — you rarely see an obstacle like this fallen tree in the path
More unseasonable weather, just a little below freezing so again it felt like early spring, with water on the trails and the streams running full — I managed to be the only person crossing this stream to plunge his foot in deeply — good socks, so no problem being a bit wet
Some of the trails were a bit choppy where people had sunk in the mud and then the deep footprints froze — there are some nice country roads here and they certainly have the benefit of being easier to walk on
Sun came out toward the end and it was above freezing by the time we wrapped up — really nice morning all around

Official head count: 13 hikers, two dogs

More photos online:

Me

Annie

 

Sunday Feb 7

Jim Shug Trail east into Cortland County on the Finger Lakes Trail

Another beautiful mild morning — I didn’t even need gloves to take photos at the meet-up — pretty amazing for the middle of winter!

We got off to a sizzling pace on the first leg of the walk, for reasons involving a dog — very energizing, but people were joking they might collapse — pace stayed lively throughout and we did the whole hike a bit faster than normal

As soon as you leave the big fields the trail starts to climb up an old woods road — it’s quite steep and, for whatever reason, it’s covered with a layer of small flat rocks — we find this same treatment on some other old roads too — must have served some purpose in the past but the stony cover makes for terrible walking, especially going downhill — real ankle-breaker

Pressure is building on me to stop categorizing this hike as moderately strenuous — a number of hikers now think it’s one of our steepest — OK, I agree, it is pretty steep in spots — but I don’t want to scare people away by making it sound too awful

This look-out is definitely one of our most beautiful — a wonderful serene quality
Official head count: 30 hikers, four dogs

More photos online:

Me

Annie
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Update:  Seems like the clickable feature is working well, so you can ignore what I wrote below before I had a chance to test the clickability out.

As I mentioned above, we now have clickable photos again, but I liked it before when you could double-click and get a big blow-up. If you enjoy seeing the close-up details like I do, you can click here and see all the photos in this hike report online — click “View Original” for any one and you’ll get a very satisfying large version — all the wrinkles and protruding tongues and moist noses clearly shown

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Jan 27

YMCA and EcoVillage property on West Hill
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
This was a new walk for most of our hikers — through some delightful scenery a little west of town off Route 79. We hiked through extensive deciduous woods on a large tract belonging to the YMCA, and in sweeping brushy fields connected to EcoVillage.
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
Notice anything odd about this photo? It’s in black and white. I was fiddling with the camera controls while wearing gloves as we stood around waiting to start — I couldn’t really feel what I was doing through the glove, and I changed the camera settings without realizing it. When I got home, I discovered a lot of the photos were too dark to use — until Tiger suggested I convert them into B&W. This sidestepped the problem I’d created — pretty ingenious of her.
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
Luckily, when we were out in the open areas, the wrong setting I’d put on the camera didn’t exert so strong an effect, and I was able to use the original color shots — colors came out a bit lurid but I like the look
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
Didn’t seem like there was really any snow at all on the ground when we were driving to the trail head — but as soon as we set off I wished I’d worn my YakTrax — there was a nasty layer of hard ice under the light snow — to avoid it, you had to walk off to the side of the trail, right next to the brambles

          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
This is definitely a good hike — Tiger and I have done pieces of it in the past but not often enough to remember the way — thankfully we had Virginia to lead us around — she lives nearby and walks here all the time
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
Official head count: 21 hikers, five dogs

          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
I was a little upset I messed up the camera settings, but it ended up producing some very dramatic effects I could never have gotten deliberately — looks a little fake, maybe, but fun.

 

More photos online:

Me

Annie

Jack V

 

 

Saturday Jan 30

Roy H Park Preserve and Hammond Hill SF, Dryden
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
We failed to wait my preferred minimum time (three months) to do this hike again, so I was concerned it might seem a little stale — but it’s such a beautiful walk, and it was such a lovely day, everything turned out great
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
Basically no snow on the ground on the way to the trail head, but by the time we got up into the higher areas of Hammond Hill SF, there was complete coverage and it looked very wintery. Not deep enough for skiing, according to our own Mr Nordic Ski Jack V, but he steered us away from the ski trails anyway for fear we’d damage the base by punching through.
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
My one and only real complaint about this walk is that the Roy H Park boardwalk is too short and the wonderful swampy area is over so fast. We tried in the past to extend the walk into the swamp but we got turned back by high water almost immediately.
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
Some hikers have a little prejudice against walking on rural roads as opposed to sticking to woodland trails, but I like them both equally myself — as long as the scenery along the road is decent. In favor of the roads, the footing can be better, and it’s usually easier to walk side by side and talk
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
One of the downsides of being older and exerting yourself on a chilly day — nose just runs and runs — this isn’t a posed picture
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
Official head count: 20 hikers, four dogs

 

More photos online:

Me

Annie

Jack V

 

 

Sunday Jan 31

Cook-out at Chestnut Lean-to, Danby SF
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
So was I a genius for scheduling our midwinter cook-out for a day 25 degrees above normal, or what?
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
The huge amount of wood we cut and hid off to the side 10 days ahead of time was all there untouched, and we had a fire so magnificent it could have warmed the dead
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
Eckhart was in complete charge ot making and managing the fire — at first, there was a lot of skepticism that he was using too much green wood, and piling on too many logs before the fire really caught — but as the fire progressed, people began to say it was the best fire they’d ever seen — in the end, it was universally judged a masterpiece
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online

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          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
There was supposed to be a regular two-hour hike before we started to eat, and most of the people set off on this (Tiger and I and some others stayed behind at the lean-to) — but for reasons that weren’t entirely clear to me, the hikers returned very early, and everyone seemed content just to stand around and work their way through the cook-out menu
          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
Special citation to Roger: Best improvised use of a non-commercial hot dog skewer

          Click here to see a copy of this photo online
Official head count: 32 hikers, three young granddaughters who played hike-and-seek in the woods, and seven dogs

More photos online:

Me

Annie

Jack V