ithacahikers

Hello Hikers!

 

Wed Feb 25

Snowmobile trail behind Dandy Mini Mart, Slaterville Springs

Fantastic morning on an unfamiliar snowmobile trail up into the huge fields north of Slaterville Springs — the setting was truly spectacular, and we had dazzling sunny weather with puffy clouds — result ….

…. one of the best walks we’ve had in a number of years.

We ended up on this trail by sheer luck — we’d shaped up a few miles away at what I thought was the start of a snowmobile trail into Hammond Hill SF — but then a passing farmer told us that trail wasn’t used any more; instead, he directed us to a trail behind the market in Slaterville Springs

What a total delight it turned out to be! We kept hitting one beautiful field after another — much of the outbound leg was uphill and the broad valley behind us kept getting more and more dramatic

Maybe it was the effect of all the sparkling snow, but it seemed like we were in some wonderful space midway between the land and the sky a lot of the time — just one downside — the wind was gusting up to 30 mph straight in our faces on the outbound — but it wasn’t fully awful — the temp was in the low 20s, so the net effect wasn’t that bad.

It’s not very often that everything comspires to produce such a great hike,

Official head count: 15 hikers, three dogs.

Click here to see seven more photos online

 

Sat Feb 28

Snowmobile trails, Yellow Barn State Forest, Dryden

It was 23 below at the Cornell weather station in Harford just two hours before we had to leave for this hike, and I seriously wondered if it would come off — but we lucked out once again, to wrap up a frigid month of many lucky breaks for us — by a little after nine, it was 2 above, the sun was shining brightly, the wind was calm, and we had a lovely hike.

This was the first time ever I’d been to Yellow Barn in winter — not as many pine trees as I generally like to see in a state forest — on the other hand, the quality of the snowmobile trails was superb, smooth hard surfaces, crisp edges, the main ones almost as wide as a small road

There was quite a bit of snowmobile traffic but I thought that was fun, not an annoyance, and most of the time we had the still woods to ourselves

Official head count: 11 hikers, two dogs.

By the time we got back to the cars it was 15 and everyone was toasty — so ended the coldest February on record for us, comfortably enough, and with another delightful walk under our belts.

Click here to see seven more photos online.

 

Sun Mar 1

Snowmobile trail, Fisher Settlement Road to Travor Road, Danby SF

Classic winter morning — gloomy grey light, snowy drive out to the trail, fresh powder, brooding snow-covered pines everywhere — fabulous!

Saturday’s snowmobile trail was jumping with action — Sunday’s was dead — the snow was packed down enough for us to walk pretty easily, but clearly this stretch through the eastern part of Danby SF doesn’t get much use, and there was a wonderful sense of stillness and peacefulness in the falling snow

It didn’t warm up as much as it was supposed to, and there was a little nagging breeze, but we had a great time

One notable thing about this trail is that we get to see two kinds of pines almost side by side, tall straight ones with very little greenery up at the top, and more squatty ones with heavy thick boughs that catch the snow — I’m sure they’re not really pines but I don’t care what the correct names are, I just love the way they look.

Official head count: 14 hikers, three dogs

You can see six more photos by me here.

You can see photos by Iris here.

Hello Hikers!

Wed Feb 4

Chestnut Lean-to, Danby SF

This was a work-group hike in to the lean-to to get it ready for Saturday’s hot dog cookout. Actually it was a lot of fun, not work — we were all in high spirits and the chores weren’t very hard and they didn’t take very long.

I’d say everyone else did more than me — I hate work and I always try to avoid it — at least I did a little. We had three saws with us and we sawed up and carried in a huge pile of wood for Saturday’s fire.

Part of our goal was to pack down the trail in to the lean-to by walking in with snowshoes. I’ve had a pair for some years but this was the first time I ever walked up and down steep slopes in them. I was a bit out of control and I fell a few times but not in a serious way. There was fresh snow on the trail and the scenery was extraordinary — if you want to see scenes like this the only way is by snowshoe or ski; the snow was much too deep for walking.

Official head count: 12 hikers, one dog

Click here to see six more photos by me online.

Click here to see photos by Jack V at our group photo sharing site.

 

Sat Feb 7

Hot Dog Cookout, Chestnut Lean-to, Danby SF

We managed to get a decent morning in what’s been a string of nasty ones, and our cookout was a great success. We had one last-minute false alarm — it started snowing pretty hard shortly before hike time, and the roads were starting to coat up — but it didn’t last long. When we arrived, the trampled path we’d created three days before was full of new snow, but a number of us had snow shoes, and the base we’d laid down underneath was very solid.

As promised, this year’s fire was fantastic — though a bit smoky at first, and then for a while so hot we had to vacate the log benches that circle it — there was certainly no way any one of us was cold.

Lots of hot dogs — little bottles of various kinds of firewater — a huge amount of desserts — enough food for 5X as many people as we had. Official head count: 20 hikers, two dogs.

Some of the group went off for a hike on snowshoes into the fresh powder while the fires burned down. I didn’t go myself but the report was that it was beautiful.

On the way home we passed the chili festival on the Commons, really jam-packed — I’ve been to the chili festival several times and our cookout was 10X more fun.

Click here to see nine more photos by me online.

Click here to see photos by Jack V on our online group photog web site.

 

Sun Feb 8

Stevens Suspension Bridge, Forest Home

Beautiful mild grey morning along Fall Creek — we were supposed to get hit by the leading edge of the big storm but it arrived later, and the light in the sky and the quality of the air as the bad weather approached was lovely.

I thought we’d need to break our own trail, and six of us had on snowshoes, but there was actually a nice network of paths broken in by skiers — good thing, the snow was exhaustingly deep where it wasn’t trampled down.

But for all the ski tracks, we saw only a very few skiers — this beauty looked like she’d just flown in from Vail — I wouldn’t mind getting a few babes like this into our group — we’d all need to get flashier, tighter outfits first — actually the young lady looks so incongruous against our plain-spun group you’d think I photoshopped her in (don’t know how).

I initially thought we’d walk in the upper horse fields but when we got there, the woods seemed more attractive, so we headed right back under the trees after milling around for a minute while I got a few shots.

I’ve never walked for two hours in snowshoes before — I expected to feel tired after but I didn’t, and it was really fun.

Official head count: 13 hikers, three dogs.

Click here to see six more photos by me online.

Hello Hikers!

 Sun Jan 4

Lick Brook

Beautiful warm, dark and wet morning along Lick Brook  —  supposed to rain but it didn’t  —  some hikers wore their YakTrax for fear of left-over ice from last week, but there was almost none  —  the big problem was mud, it was super-slick in spots and a number of people fell down

Lick Brook was too full of water for us to cross for the first time that we’ve been here in a few years  —  luckily there’s a work-around by using the railroad tracks  —  I grew up along a train track as a kid and I love walking on ties, but it makes a lot of people nervous

It was fantastic to be out on such a warm day in January  —  even more fun knowing a cold wave was bearing down on us and the spring-like mood was going to be snatched away.

Official head count:  24 hikers, five dogs

I find I never get tired of this hike, it’s just so varied and beautiful.

Clcik here to see seven more photos online

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We’ll have a social get-together at Iris’s house in Fall Creek after next Sunday’s hike.  Iris likes to make soup and she’ll have two kinds, both vegan, a lentil soup and a vegetable soup.  Details in Thursday’s weekemd hike announcement.

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I urge you to consider joining the Cayuga Trails Club.  They do a great job of maintaining and improving the trails we use, and of promoting hiking to the public.

Hello Hikers!

It’s no secret I sometimes stage photos and try to make them look candid  —  but this one really was spontaneous, the hikers’ idea, not mine  —  I hope we’re all going into 2015 in pretty good spirits ….

and here’s to lots of great hikes ahead

Curious who fell into the little stream this year while trying to jump across it?

no one  —  but a number of hikers chose to follow Tiger up the alternative path rather than give the stream a try

Report on the tailgate party

fabulous!

Report on the food

judge for yourself ….

This was a perfect morning to see this great walk at its wintery best, not too cold, not windy in the woods, slightly sunny

Official head count:  30 hikers, four dogs

Click here to see 10 more photos on line

Click here to see 20 photos by Jack V on our online group photo-sharing site

Hello Hikers!

Beautiful cool gloomy morning on a fantastic new trail on Connecticut Hill — raw and blustery at the trail head, but lovely once we got into the shelter of the woods. The hike was a huge success — except for one very alarming mishap.

Near the end, one of our small dogs, Yoda, stepped onto an animal trap that was staked out not more than a foot off the trail. While the dog was screaming with pain, the people with him tried but failed to pry the jaws of the trap open. Luckily, we had a new hiker with us, Jan, at far right in the photo above, whose hand strength was powerful enough to loosen the trap jaws. We were also lucky to have with us our regular hiker John, a retired professor at the vet school, who immediately checked over Yoda’s foot for damage. Verdict: Somehow the foot wasn’t seriously hurt, and Yoda was able to walk out without evident discomfort.

Otherwise, we had a wonderful time. Here we are looking at a huge beaver dam across a gorgeous pond — couldn’t manage to show everything in the photo, but you can see the hikers were impressed by the sight.

Official head count: 27 hikers, six dogs.

I’ve felt for quite a while that Connecticut Hill is full of great new hikes for our group  —  the problem’s been that we haven’t had anyone who knows the area well enough to lead us around  —  there are many ski trails that make for fantastic hiking but they’re very hard to follow  —  anyway, now we have new regular hiker Dave B  —  he said there are three more trails he can take us around.  He definitely has the right skills  —  Dave said he knows which direction he’s heading in the woods 99% of the time  —  and he wrapped up this hike in two hours, 1 minute and 54 seconds  —  outstanding job of pacing.  (Always knowing the right direction isn’t all that common:  Sixteen of us got completely turned around and disoriented on our midweek hike Wed in Shindagin Hollow SF.)

The Carter Creek trail has a wonderful mix of everything  —  much of it takes you along narrow old woods roads, which are much easier walking that the usual path full of roots and snags to trip you up

Everyone agreed this is a splendid new hike, and we all want to come back.

Click here to see 10 more shots online.

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We had four other photogs shooting photos of this hike  —  two of them, Iris and Jack V, already have albums up at our group photo-sharing web site HikePix2  — check them out here.