Category: hike reports

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Thursday Oct 29

Abbott Loop, Michigan Hollow Road eastward toward Curtis Road

A lot of people hike once in a while on a a handful of familiar trails.  I’d never knock it if that’s the full extent of your hiking.  But I want to suggest that if you start getting out a lot more, on a very wide variety of trails, you can come to discover there’s actually another whole world of Ithaca  —  parallel, completely different and separate from the daily world we see driving or walking around town — far more beautiful, serene, full of fantastic subtle colors and dramatic light and shade, striking forms and patterns — all you have to do is step off the road into the woods.

I was never into drugs as a young person so I don’t have any experience getting into an altered world. But I have found that by hiking several times a week all over the place, I’ve gotten a broad feeling that there really is another Ithaca all around us, just inside the edge of the forest.

The best time of all to get into it is October, in my view — sorry if you missed it.

I was prompted to try and put this thought into words by this midweek hike — it was fabulous, just so beautiful — raining on the way to the trail head, mild and sultry, dark clouds with some sun mixed in — I like the Ithaca of houses and stores and roads well enough — but Ithaca in the woods — fabulous!

Official head count:  12 hikers, two dogs

You can see nine more photos by me online here.

You can see Annie’s online photos here — she’s started to include photos taken on the drive back home after the hike — I think some of these rural drives are the next best thing to walking in the woods for great scenery..

Do you like challenges and contests? Think you’re observant? Annie tucked a joke into the set of photos she took on our midweek hike the week before, in Yellow Barn SF — if you can find it, contact me — you get two chances — if you succeed, I’ll mention your name as a winner in our next hiker posting — we have one winner so far, Brenda

 

Saturday Oct 31

Abbott Loop, north leg from Michigan Hollow Road to The Pinnacles look-out, followed by a get-together at Hank’s

Another great walk-and-party in Danby to wrap up what turned out to be a two-weekend Halloween spectacular for us. Weather about the same as our pre-Halloween hike-and-party the week before except no wind this time, so it felt milder. One other difference this time — more costumes. (That’s Hank, as a Viking.)

A couple of firsts — first frost clearly visible on the shrubbery as we stepped off ….
and my first hot dog from The Piggery — better than the NYC kosher-type hot dogs I normally love, but a bit more expensive …
a great pop when you bite in, thanks to natural casings
Official head count, almost exactly the same as the week before: 25 hikers, four dogs
As promised, we made it up to The Pinnacles, though not everyone arrived in time for the official Pinnacles group shot — I fiddled with my camera settings to make sure there was enough light on the faces — so the background’s a bit bleached — but the figures pop out nicely. You can see an un-fiddled group shot in my online photos if you want to see what the background actually looked like.

The woods looked great and the temps were just right for the vigorous climbing this trail requires both going and coming. Most people chose to sit inside at Hank’s, but a group of us stayed on his deck the whole time, and it was lovely.

You can see 11 more shots by me online here

You can see Annie’s online shots here.

You can see Jack V’s online shots here.

 

Sunday Nov 1

Hammond Hill State Forest, Dryden

The National Weather Service released its prediction for Nov-Dec-Jan on Oct 15 — supposed to be warmer than average, with average precipitation.
These predictions are often dead wrong, but they sure predicted right for Nov 1 — spectacularly nice morning in the woods, felt like early summer — this is our traditional group shot on the way back to the cars — a number of hikers not shown — a big group broke away and raced off up the trail several minutes before our scheduled start time — the main group of us who left on time never caught up to them — I don’t like starting early myself but some hikers have a mind of their own — if you know the players, maybe you can guess who led the early charge and why from this photo
There was a big crowd of Nordic skiers doing a fall cleanup of the ski trails while we were hiking, but this state forest is so big and sprawling we hardly saw any of them — I didn’t see any NWS predictions for snowfall — I’m sure the skiers want a repeat of last winter — please not

I thought the leaves might be mainly fallen here because of the high elevation, but there was lots of beautiful color left and the trails really looked great.
Official head count: 31 hikers, seven dogs

We’ve now entered the infamous three cloudiest months in CNY — I know some people get depressed by the low light — if it’s any consolation, we have an excellent hiking program coming up — it’s very cheerful in the woods with our group even on a dark day.

You can see eight more photos by me online here

You can see Jack V’s photos here

Click on any photo to see a full-size, high-resolution version.  

Click again to blow this version up.

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Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Oct 21

Yellow Barn SF, Dryden

It’s always fun when something unexpected suddenly breaks the routine of a hike — provided it’s not something bad, of course — we were walking through this lovely state forest on a woods road when we came upon a hunters’ platform about 20 feet up in a huge tree — up scrambled Norm — way to go …. but he’s a younger guy, so how impressive is that really? — then, up went Gopi — OK, that’s impressive …. she’s 75 — the rest of us greatly enjoyed the show

Not quite sure who the climbers are? Here’s a view of them from the other side

I like to come to Yellow Barn SF in particular in October because there’s a large area of bright yellow leaves that I can count on every year — I love the intense luminous glow the leaves cast onto the trail.

We were walking along the edge of a field when we started to feel something like spider webs or cobwebs getting in our hair and on our faces and eye glasses — it was tiny whitish worms dangling on threads at head level from the trees — first time I ever saw this strange sight.

If you look at the hike photos regularly you can’t help notice there’s certain hikers who show up at basically every hike — these are our super-regulars, and it’s distressing to the rest of us when one of them has to stop hiking for health reasons — our super-regular Brenda had to stay home for more than three weeks after some minor surgery — she was finally able to get back out with us —

It started to rain on our way back to the cars — we pretty much all had brought rain gear but it was so mild and the rain had such a sweet, lovely quality, half of us chose to leave the rain coats off —  a fantastic morning, and I was sorry when the hike wrapped up

Official head count: 15 hikers, five dogs

You can see 11 more photos online by me here.

You can see Annie’s online photos here

 

Saturday Oct 24

Abbott Loop, south leg up to Bald Hill Road, followed by a get-together at Hobit’s

Great atmospheric morning for a hike up my favorite trail — chilly, dark and blustery outside the shelter of the trees ….

…. not quite so pleasant for sitting around outside at Hobit’s get-together afterwards — only a hard core of us stayed out in the yard — we got to see a very impressive display of tumbling by Hobit’s athletic 15-year-old son Jake, who does flips on the trampoline and off the deck — he was clearly energized by the cool conditions – he’s working up to do a double flip

This leg of the Abbott Loop is extremely shady in summer but it really opens up beautifully at this time of year, and you can clearly see how delightful the terrain is — a lot of the leaves were down and they made for a fantastic bright carpet

Here we are in the boggy area I like so much — it was unusually dry, almost no mud, streams barely running — looked like some of the fallen trees that litter the area were cleaned up — I hate to say it but it wasn’t as much fun for me — a little too sanitized — I love it when the streams are full and the mud is thick

The main group of us didn’t try to get up to The Pinnacles look-out, but a small group of speedy hikers did go all the way — they got back in about 2 hours 10 minutes, and they said they could have done it faster

One hiker wore a (very minimalist) Halloween costume — very amusing to those of us who know him

…. tin foil hat …..

Official head count: 23 hikers, four dogs

I was one of the few hikers who stayed outside at Hobit’s the whole time — the secret to doing this is to wear two coats and two hats at once — great selection of hot dogs and Italian sausage — lots of people were inside, and the food was reportedly great there, but I didn’t venture in until I was leaving

We were happy to get our first view in weeks of another regular hiker who’s been knocked off the trail for medical reasons, Dave B — mugging with my favorite hiker ….

You can see eight more photos by me online here.

You can see Annie’s photos of the hike here

 

Sunday Oct 25

Bock Harvey Forest Preserve, Enfield

It’s not hard to start feeling sad when you hike around Ithaca, if you begin to notice the rocky, muddy, barren-looking soils, and you become aware of the hit-and-miss rainfall, and then you think of the generations of farmers and their families who tried to squeeze a living from this inhospitable combination.

I used to think about this in general, and feel glad all those struggling local farmers evidently were able to find some more productive way to make a living. Then Dave B started hiking with us a year ago, and suddenly we had a real-life example in our group. Dave grew up working with his dad on what’s now the Bock Harvey Forest Preserve — you can clearly see the land’s not that great for farming — there are a small number of very prosperous dairy farms in Tompkins County but Dave said his family farm wasn’t one of those — in Dave’s case, he managed to move on from cutting hay and attending cows to become a highly successful author of college-prep math textbooks and study guides.

I expect there are similar stories connected with all the beautiful trails we walk on that used to be farms and are now woods — we’re always coming on old stone walls or excavations or even patches of grass that used to be farmsteads — I hope those people managed to move as successfully as Dave did from such a demanding and precarious life. Anyway, their loss is now our gain.

(If you think the farm sector is looking good in Tompkins because of all the artisanal farms starting up, you’re mistaken. There’s an interesting survey of the ag sector here published just this summer. Only 125 farms in the county had more than $40,000 in annual sales in the most recent survey. Only 213 had sales of more than $10,000.)

Aside from melancholy thoughts of a hard farming past, we had a great hike here — more fabulous atmospherics — rain on the way to the trail head, gloomy, 10 degrees warmer than Saturday — the leaves looked wonderful

Official head count:  27 hikers, four dogs

There’s a new outhouse built here over the summer, open to the air — here’s Margaret demonstrating it — just pretending, of course — that’s Dennis and Leigh-Ann standing guard — photo totally faked, but I like it anyway.

You can see 11 more photos by me online here.
You can see Annie’s photos online here.

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More photos:

Sheep:  Annie and Margaret encountered a big herd of sheep on their way home from our recent hike at Virgil Creek dam.  Includes a video!

Four Corners:  New regular hikers Mark and Ellie recently went hiking in the Four Corners area of the southwest.  There are a lot of shots  —  you really get a thorough idea of what it looks like out there

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Oct 14

Stevens Suspension Bridge, Park Park, and Cornell golf course and horse fields, Forest Home

First time I ever selected a hike to accommodate a dog. Maybe you recognize Yoda — if you look at the hike photos regularly, you know he goes on just about every walk we do —  he’s crazy about hiking  —  the kind of dog who starts to nag you to get going the minute he arrives at the trail head.

He faced the prospect of staying home for this hike because his owner, Brenda, is recovering from minor surgery — he lives in a lovely house in Lansing, but which would a hike-mad dog rather do on a Wednesday morning, lie on this soft couch, or be out with our group?

Theoretically we shouldn’t have done this hike because we just recently did it — but it’s very convenient to Yoda’s house and Tiger and I could easily take him to and fro —

In fact, the hike worked out great — there’s actually a good variety of trails to take, and we walked in the opposite direction from what we normally do, and also ventured into a new area we hadn’t known about — in short, the walk seemed completely fresh, and it was delightful

Official head count: 19 hikers, four dogs

You can see 11 more photos by me online here.

You can see Annie’s photos online here.

You can see Jack V’s photos online here.

 

Saturday Oct 17

Arnot Forest, with breakfast beforehand at Freddy’s Diner, Newfield

In the announcement for this hike I sent out last week, I said we’d managed to figure out the trail through this huge and remote forest — well, we may have managed last spring, but we bombed really badly this time — maybe we were confused by all the summer growth since then, but we got lost in a maze of overgrown and brambly old woods roads — not technically lost, because we knew where the cars were — but it took a major bushwhack and a long time to make our way out of the woods

One of the hikers wanted to join us at Freddy’s for breakfast but he had a conflict — so he hiked on just two cups of coffee — I had a three-egg omelet, home fries and toast in my stomach, and I really needed all that energy — this turned out to be one of our most rugged and challenging hikes ever — we finished up almost an hour late, which is unheard of for our group — on the last leg when we were bushwhacking, a lot of the way was on steep slippery terrain — I fell down once, soft landing  —  my legs and ankles were fully stressed at the end, though I recovered after I was home for a while

So it was a real adventure, and I had a great time. The scenery was beautiful everywhere.

We were pretty high up and we saw our first snow of the year coating some leaves — I remind you that you can click on any photo in these postings and you’ll see a full-sized, high-resolution version — click once more and you get a big enlargement — if you click this shot twice, you can clearly see the snow  —  and a close-up of Norm’s beard if you’re interested

There are no good maps of this forest — Tiger created a very crude one of her own by tracing the old road network from Google Maps on our computer monitor — Norm had some kind of crude map of his own — we kept trying to make sense of them, unsuccessfully — Annie has GPS on her phone but the reception was spotty so that was of limited use. Two small groups of people headed off on their own after we’d been floundering around for a while — both groups beat us back to the cars by a good margin.

Official head counts:
Arnot hike: 17 hikers, two dogs
Freddy’s: Nine hikers

You can see nine more photos by me online here

You can see Annie’s photos online here. The Newfield countryside on the way to and from the trail head is extremely lovely, and she got some shots of it as well as shots in the forest.

You can see Jack V’s photos online here.

 

Sunday Oct 18

Six Mile Creek, Mulholland Wildflower Preserve to Potter’s Falls

Fantastic walk along this picture-postcard creek — chilliest morning of the season so far (by a hair — one degree cooler than Saturday) — lively snow-sleet squall for a little while on the return leg — fall colors finally in full swing — everybody energized and cheerful — great fun!

It seemed like every other hiker had some kind of camera and they were all snapping away energetically — you can see what the excitement was about by checking the links below — we had three of our regulars at work taking shots and together they’ve provided extensive photo coverage of the scenery

The main group of us didn’t make it as far as our usual destination of Potter’s Falls — ran out of time — I can usually count on getting a decent photo of the creek there — here’s the next best thing — very picturesque beach much closer to our start point — water level quite low but the creek still looked wonderful

Our group often fragments on this walk — we really broke into pieces this time, as various clusters of people took different trails — at one point I was shouting to try and pull everyone together and voices were answering from all over the creek gorge. When we turned around to go back, a sub-group of daredevils kept pushing ahead to the upper reservoir on a narrow trail I regard as a death-walk. Our photographer Annie was with them and she has some shots — see her link below.

The snow and sleet squall was fabulous — I’m sure we’ll all be completely sick of snow way before our bad-weather season ends in April, but it sure was fun in mid-October.

Official head count: 32 hikers, five dogs

You can see 10 more photos by me online here.

Even more photos:
Annie

Jack V

Hussain

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Oct 7

Lick Brook + lunch at Ithaca Beer Co

A question: How much time needs to pass before you’re up for hiking a given trail again? For me, it takes about three months — repeat a trail too soon and the walk can feel tame and a little stale — unless there’s been a big change of seasons. The timing was just right on this Lick Brook walk — three months almost exactly — I’ve done it many times but it seemed amazingly fresh and beautiful — what a great hike!

The torrential rains we had in June did quite a bit of damage to the lower part of this walk that hasn’t been repaired yet, if it ever will be — you can see a big mass of fallen trees heaped up in the background of this photo, and the stream beds are full of new rocks. So there are new things to look at.

The hairiest part of this hike in my opinion is the long narrow spine path on the white trail where the land falls away abruptly on both sides — there are roots and trees in the way and the trail shrinks to only a few inches wide in spots — interestingly, more people seem to get stressed crossing this railroad bridge …. they hate navigating the cross ties.

As we neared Town Line Road after the steep uphill, we came upon a lone person 20-30 feet below the trail, down in the dramatic stream bed — it was our hiker-photographer Hobit, who shoots and sells nature photos to help make a living — she’s heavily into water shots — when we passed by on the way back to the cars 45 minutes later, she was still down in the gorge.

We drove up Route 13 a mile or so for lunch at Ithaca Beer Co — it’s the time of year when there are lots of yellowjackets hanging around — always check your beer glass before you drink — I was there two years ago, not paying attention — took a sip of my beer  —  very painful sting in the tip of my tongue.

Official head count: 18 hikers, two dogs

You can see seven more photos by me online here.

You can see Annie’s photos online here.

 

Saturday Oct 10

Virgil Creek dam flood control project, Dryden + get-together at Norm’s

Every one of our hikes is great, of course — but some are more great than others — and this one was really great

Cool enough to make you feel energetic but not chilly — beautiful slanting sunlight — puffy clouds — red and orange leaves finally out — the acres and acres or grass freshly cut — this walk is always striking but the conditions all added up to make it really stand out Saturday, and everyone had a wonderful time

Here’s the heart of this unusual flood control project — that’s Virgil Creek behind the hikers, flowing toward them — in periods of intense rain, the water rushes down the creek and then backs up into the giant basin you see here, held back from flooding downstream by the huge berm our hikers are climbing — the only way the water can get out of the basin is through a narrow channel under the berm, so it trickles out slowly, and Dryden doesn’t get inundated.

It would certainly be interesting to visit here in a flood, but I’m perfectly happy when it’s dry — I love the sweep of the landscape and the distant views and the terrific sensation of openness

We’ve expanded the walk to include a neighboring farm field with some great views of its own — grass a little longer and I soaked my shoes

Official head count: 25 hikers, five dogs

Get-together at Norm’s

Norm lives a simple and frugal life that I admire, but from time to time it doesn’t work out as planned. He cooks hot dogs in a small hibachi using twigs from his property as fuel — he collected twigs for his cook-out ahead of time but then they got soaked in Friday’s rain —

…. the resulting fire was enough to give everyone instant emphysema — so he had to boil the hot dogs on the stove

You can see 14 more photos by me online here.

You can see Annie’s photos online here.

You can see some panoramic photos by new hiker Charlie here.

 

Sunday Oct 11

Shindagin Hollow SF lean-to

Perfect fall day, great hike — nothing memorable to report, just the kind of morning where it’s pure pleasure to be out in the woods

I know I’m always saying such-and-such trail is one of our shadiest — well, this stretch of the FLT is really one of our shadiest — here’s the scene at the lean-to — I have a decent camera but the sun-shade effect really messes up the photos — the people in the bright sunlight look melted, while some of the faces in the shade are vaguely in focus. Photos taken in such mixed lighting also tend to lack contrast, so you can’t distinguish the subjects from the background.

The lighting is bad even out on Shindagin Hollow Road where we shape up — same light and shadows combo that confuses the camera sensor, same melted-face effects

The only unshaded open space on the whole trail sector is where the big cairn stands — the only place where I can hope to get an OK photo, though it’s actually a bit too bright on a sunny day — that’s Margaret — I’ll take the opportunity to mention that her two sons, who grew up here, have an alternative rock band that’s achieving national stature

Official head count: 35 hikers, five dogs (photo at the South Road crossing)

You can see nine more photos by me online here.

You can see Annie’s photos here. (Annie sometimes uses a flash in the shade — my camera doesn’t have one.)

Hello Hikers!

 

Thursday Oct 1

Willseyville Creek, Caroline

Finally, a genuine fall morning on the trail — mid 40s, hikers wearing gloves, beautiful gloomy lighting, a spritz of chilly rain on the windshield on the way to the meet-up — it felt great to finally put summer behind us

I pushed the hike off one day to Thursday to avoid the tail-end of the big storm — I always wonder whether doing this messes up people who would have come on the original day but couldn’t make the rescheduled hike — in hindsight, we could have hiked Wednesday as originally planned and barely gotten wet

This walk takes us along Willseyville Creek where it spreads out into a big pond and swamp, and it looked like everything survived the long dry spell nicely. The route passes through some noble woods but these were too dark for me to get any shots — there are also lots of raggedy, scruffy woods — these were brighter so I got a few photos.

I think maybe some people like to hike only when the scenery is first class — I love hiking because it reminds me of playing in the woods as a child, and I’m completely happy with overgrown jumbled up areas like those here.

Part of the trail runs through some large rolling fields that in the past have always been open and created some wonderful vistas — this time they were planted with corn that was mostly picked but not cut down and we couldn’t see much of anything.

Official head count: Eight hikers, three dogs.

You can see eight more photos by me online here.

 

Saturday Oct 3

Monkey Run Natural Area, north side of Fall Creek

More lovely cool grey weather — there was rain around but none of it hit us — we had a delightful hike — captured and returned a runaway dog …. plowed through some serious weeds …. a number of satisfying chats about illness and aging parents ….

This photo shows the first beach along Fall Creek — the weeds are extremely high and dense this fall and there was major griping from some hikers about having to take this route — “I hate this,” said one person — but we pushed on and it was soon over

You’ll get the impression from just looking at the photos that this walk is all out in the open — in fact, most of it is under the trees — but it was too dark as usual for me and I didn’t get any shots there

This is the edge of a big Cornell field just before you get back to the cars — it had been recently cut into a golf-course-quality carpet of green, and its lush sweep clearly energized our dogs — two of them put on a spectacular show of running for us, the bigger one chasing the smaller around and around in huge circles — they were pretty equally matched for speed but the smaller dog was nimbler and always dodged away at the last second — looked like they were having a fabulous time — but I suppose the smaller dog could have actually been running for its life ….

Official head count: 15 hikers, three dogs

You can see eight more photos by me online here.

 

Sunday Oct 4

Kennedy SF, Virgil

Great mild dazzling morning in Cortland County after a week of chilly grey days

This is yet one more hike where we’re in the shade 99% of the way — it starts literally as soon as you turn off Daisy Hollow Road from the cars toward the trail head —

Sometimes this walk can be so dark you can have a little trouble seeing — but the woods are very uncluttered and spacious for almost the whole time, and some leaves had already fallen, and maybe the sun was at a good angle — for whatever reason, enough light was filtering through on this morning and everything looked fabulous

Our group fractured a bit — a fast bunch shot ahead and a slower bunch fell back — but I didn’t get any bad reports so I guess everyone made it back OK. It certainly was a wonderful day to be out.

Official head count: 25 hikers, two dogs

You can see seven more photos by me here.

Still more photos:
By Annie — who’s been away a lot of the summer on an island in the St Lawrence River
By Hussain — too busy to hike with us much recently — he’s in the last 60 days of finishing his PhD