ithacahikers

Report to Hikers — week of Dec 23-Dec 29

Hello Hikers!

Wed Dec 25

Bald Hill Road and the Abbott Loop to The Pinnacles Look-out, Danby SF

The meet-up spot was in deep shade — I always try to get a shot showing the hikers waiting to get moving, but it was just too dark — the only other way I can think to come up with a photo depicting the meet-up is to pose everyone strategically so there’s enough light so you can see their faces

While I was wrapping up the mug shots, the group dashed off down the road, leaving me behind. Normally I like to get a shot of the group bursting into action, like the start of a race …. *and they’re off and running* …. the road was really icy this time and I wasn’t able to catch up with the front-runners and get out ahead of them — I had to shout at them a number of times to wait for me ….

This was the first appearance of a new hiking dog, Lizzy, left, an eight-pound habanese

Some of the hikers chose to remain on Bald Hill Road rather than climb up to The Pinnacles

the official way to do this hike is to climb up to the look-out from the north and keep going back down to Bald Hill Road on the Abbott Loop —

At that point we turn around and climb back up to the look-out in the reverse direction — it’s a bit tiring

The sun started to come out near the end —- pleasing light

Official head count: 18H, four D

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Sat Dec 28

Layen Road to Bruce Hill Road and beyond on the FLT, Jersey Hill, Danby

Several of the hikers suddenly noticed they had ticks crawling up their pants

Official head count: 31H, four D

More photos:

Jack V

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Sun Dec 29

South Danby Road east on the FLT to the Tamarack Lean-to, Danby SF

It was extremely dark as soon as we entered the woods, and I didn’t bother trying to take any photos — this is the first open area we come to, Travor Road, a narrow woods road. It starts and ends in the middle of nowhere but people clearly like to drive on it — it was completely iced in with a dense layer of ice caused by vehicles passing by

Tamarack Lean-to, our official turn-around point

I don’t think Luna the Dog wanted to get in the car and go back home.
It wasn’t supposed to start raining until maybe around 1 pm, but we hit a shower a few minutes after we started home

Official head count: 17H, four D

Report to Hikers — week of Dec 16-Dec 22

Hello Hikers!

Wed Dec 18

Upper Buttermilk Falls SP to upper Lick Brook, spur trail

Official head count: 17H

More photos:

Jack V

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Sat Dec 21

Finger Lakes National Forest — Potomac Road and Chicken Coop Road

Official head count: 15H, two D

More photos:

Jack V

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Sun Dec 22

Lindsay Parsons Preserve, West Danby

There was a wonderful mistiness hanging over everything when we arrived — it lingered the whole time — combined with the beautiful sunshine and the warming temperature, it made for some fabulous atmospherics

Official head count: 26H, five D

More photos:

Jack V

Report to Hikers — week of Dec 9-Dec 15

Hello Hikers!

Wed Dec 11

Ellis Hollow Nature Preserve

Official head count: 17H

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Sat Dec 14

Treman SP on the FLT west from Route 13

All four weather predicting services were saying it would rain while we were hiking — but it didn’t actually start until it began to sprinkle a little just as we got back to the cars. With all the stormy weather so close, we had fabulous atmospherics — fog, mist, beautiful dark light and a lovely dampness. Great walk

Official head count: 16H, one D

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Sun Dec 15

Monkey Run Natural Area, north side of Fall Creek at Hanshaw Road

Two of our regular hikers turned 80 over the weekend. Saturday it was ***Linc,*** who’s wintering in Tucson. Sunday it was Good Dennis — sorry there’s a dried weed obscuring his face. That brings our over-80 group of regulars to five.

Hank — made it across without having to jump off — in rushing to get the shot, I failed to frame the photo so you could see the full length of the log, and the height above the ground

Official head count: 27H, four D

Report to Hikers — week of Dec 2-Dec 8

Hello Hikers!

Mon Dec 2

Aftermath of the big Dec 1 snow and ice storm

First thing Monday morning, our nature photographer Jack V headed over to Taughannock Falls SP to get this shot of the falls before the snow and ice started falling off the trees and shrubs

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Wed Dec 4

Road walk — Curtis Road, South Danby

Official head count: 16H

More photos:

Jack V

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Sat Dec 7

Stevens Suspension Bridge, Forest Home — Cornell golf course and horse barns

Official head count: 15H

More photos:

Jack V

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Sun Dec 8

Stevens Suspension Bridge, Forest Home — Cornell big fields and across Freese Road into Monkey Run

Eight of the people who hiked with us on Saturday came out for the Sunday hike as well — no point to photograph them again — so I just got shots of those who only did the Sunday walk — two of them arrived too late for their mug shot

Every time we come here, it seems like the cliffs along the north side of Fall Creek in Monkey Run have eroded further. I’m too afraid to get near the edge and check it out — Jack V got this shot, and it clearly gives you an idea of what’s going on

Official head count: 20H

More photos:

Jack V

Report to Hikers: week of Nov 25-Dec 1

Hello Hikers!

Wed Nov 27

In-town walk — Cayuga Heights and Cornell Heights — look-outs and grand houses

Lake View Cemetery — West Hill and the lake (as advertised) in the background

*Mausoleum* — this is a nice building to look at, but I’d much rather be buried than stuck in one of these

Sunset Park — the Cayuga Heights DPW does a great job of keeping the view open and unobstructed

Cayuga Heights Road approaching Carl Sagan’s former house — fantastic views straight down into Fall Creek gorge

More fantastic views — Sagan’s house in the background — crossing this bridge in a car doesn’t give you anything like the same experience as walking across it

In the sprawling fraternity neighborhood — definitely the least impressive frat house we saw

The hikers were captivated by some sculptures of storks — and a large blue heron that flew up onto the roof of the big house

Heading down to gawk at the beautiful mansion of the late Roy Park

Official head count: 17H

More photos:

Annie

Jack V

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Thanksgiving Day

Get-together

Maybe you can see from the photos some of the food we had — though I’m not sure it’s recognizable — in any case, there was a good deal of it

I brought six cans of beer — once again, no one but me drank any so I brought it back home — our hikers just don’t drink beer — but they do love wine, as maybe you can tell from noticing the cluster of bottles here

And here’s something a bit different — Randy borrowed my camera for a few minutes and came back with some Andy Warhol-style flashbulb-type party shots — I didn’t crop any of the shots because I like the details in the backgrounds