Bock Harvey Forest Preserve and Riemen Woods, Enfield
Official head count: 22H, five D
We have an additional nature photographer, Cian, who started hiking with us regularly in the fall. He’ll be posting his nature shots on Facebook, but he has it set up so you can see them without having to sign in or sign up. The link should take you to a page that says “See more of Cian” and then directs you to log in or create a new account. At the bottom it says, “Not now.” Just click this.
Don’t be mislead by the brightness of this photo — I used the flash. It was actually very dark and raining a little briskly as we stood around waiting to set offBy the time we got down to the bottom of the steep hill, the rain had pretty much stopped. We hadn’t seen such a volume of water going over the falls in a number of years.Some of our group’s best adventures have come while trying to cross swollen creeks and streams. Roger, who studied engineering at Cornell and served in Vietnam building roads and bridges, always enjoys the challenge, but he couldn’t figure out a way across this time. Two of our hikers, Hank and Eckhart, have unusually good balance, and they managed to cross the creek on a big fallen tree. But no one else wanted to follow them.Back up at Town Line Road. The rain continued to hold off.An upper stretch of the brook. Roger couldn’t come up with a way to get across here either.Once again, we ended up not getting hit with the amount of rain predicted, and we had a great walk. Really wonderful atmospherics.
Official head count: 13H, three D
************************
Sun Jan 5
Shindagin Hollow SF — rim trail along Shindagin gorge
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 facesWhile 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 ….…. and they’re off and running ….This was the first appearance of a new hiking dog, Lizzy, left, an eight-pound habaneseSome of the hikers chose to remain on Bald Hill Road rather than climb up to The Pinnaclesthe 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 tiringOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe sun started to come out near the end —- pleasing lightGood workout and nice morning
Official head count: 18H, four D
****************************************
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
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 byTamarack Lean-to, our official turn-around pointI 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
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
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
*****************************
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
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
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 shotEvery 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
