Hello Hikers!
Willseyville Creek, Caroline
Our newest hiking doig, Pooka — not super-eager to jump into the icy brook to get cleaned of mud ….
Official head count: 22H, six D
Six Mile Creek — south side rim trail
The photos don’t capture the great beauty of the scenery — it was really extraordinary
Official head count: 24H, seven D
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Bock Harvey Forest Preserve, Enfield, east to Hines Road
Official head count: 23H, seven D
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Hello Hikers!
Farm road walk — Red Mill Road, Malloryville
Fantastic morning — we caught the tail end of the two-day warm spell just as the cold front was coming at us
Upper 60s and a balmy wind from the south that started to shift while we were out on the road — beautiful pale sun as we set off ….
The walk covers the top of a large flat hill and it feels like you’re on top of the world when you’re up there. After a while it started to cloud up very dramatically
From our vantage point, we could watch the storm coming at us from the northwest
It stayed mild and gorgeous the whole time we were out. But by 1 pm, the temperature had fallen 20 degrees, and then it started to rain.
Official head count: 16H, three D
I got some extra photos that you see online here
Jim Schug Trail, Dryden
I’d hoped we could walk through the woods on the FLT, but when wee got to the trail head there was considerable snow on the ground, so we decided to do the Schug trail instead — it was mostly free of snow
Five hikers missing from the group shot on Dryden Lake
Our regular hiker Roger built this dam years ago when he was a young man doing flood control construction projects — dam still looks great
Official head count: 24H, three D
Hopshire Brewery — this is a delightful place to come after a hike — first time we dropped in on a Saturday — we had the big room to ourselves
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Woodard Road east into upper Treman SP on the FLT, Enfield
The storm that began overnight and was supposed to hit us veered off — we just got some great atmospherics …. dampness and gloom
I was surprised at how much ice and snow we ran into …. some of it was on the verge of being treacherous
This was the second time we used this upper route to get onto the FLT through the southern edge of the park — much easier than climbing up from Route 13 — it only took me and Tiger more than 13 years of hiking here to realize we could start from the top
Official head count: 18H, six D
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Hello Hikers!
This was an extra hike for us — I scheduled it in a mistaken belief Feb 12 was a national holiday
Yellow Barn SF, Freeville — snowmobile trails
Normally a snowmobile trail makes for an excellent walking surface when snow conditions are otherwise bad, but not this time. The surface was frozen solid and treacherously slippery, and full of little ruts and bumps; there were even frozen deep horse hoofprints.
The group was very fragmented by the end. Several people turned back early and others fell behind. We came upon this beautiful dark pine woods almost back at the cars and I couldn’t resist trying a group shot, even if the group was small.
Official head count: 14H, four D
Shindagin Hollow SF, Braley Hill Road — snowmobile trail heading west — followed by Valentine’s party at Steve and Diane’s in Ellis Hollow
The snowmobile trail was much more walkable two days later, softer on top and not so bumpy — we spent the whole walk in the thick woods — the scenery was slightly monotonous and bland, but very atmospheric
Here’s what passed for excitement:
I sent Gopi into the snow to get a shot of how deep it was — she began ragging on me and the hikers found it amusing
We detoured onto an active logging road for a while in hopes of seeing the site of the logging operation itself — this road surface was much worse — it turned into a bit of a grind so we turned back without reaching our goal.
One mishap — Vicki suddenly broke through the snow without any warning — she went sprawling but I didn’t choose to get a photo of that — here she is demonstrating the depth of the hole — probably could have hurt herself if she’d been unlucky
Nice walk, very low key and relaxed
Official hike head count: 16H, three D
We had a delightful Valentine’s party — I ate a very weird mix of things — my stomach was griping ominously after I got home
Toward the end of the get-together, there was an announcement that one of the couples was about to mark their 50th wedding anniversary. Everyone knew about this beforehand except the couple, who’d been kept uninformed.
PJ, who loves to bake, made a huge commemorative fudge (in a cake pan), and the hikers gave the couple a $300 gift card raised from the group.
This is the long-enduring couple:
Those in the know may recognize Tiger (and that’s her mom).
Thanks so much to all the hikers who put money into the gift — it was much too generous. We were very very touched
Official head count at the party: 22
Road walk — Hosenfeld Road and Carley Road, Odessa, Schuyler County
Official head count: 20H, three D
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Farm road walk — Fairfield Road and Barden Road, Candor, Tioga County
We didn’t manage to escape slippery walking conditions after all. The road at the meet-up hadn’t been plowed clean of the overnight snow — the Candor town crew threw down cinders instead of salt — there were lots of slick spots — one hiker who got a knee replacement in the fall turned back immediately out of caution — another hiker fell, but in a slow, controlled and graceful way and there was no damage
Bleak atmospherics but quite beautiful IMO
When we got back to the cars I walked into the woods for a pit stop — there was a solid sheet of ice with about two inches of soft powder on top — didn’t feel very stable
Later in the day I saw an e-mail on the nordic ski list-serv — near Kennedy SF in Virgil, one of our best hikes, there was 2″-4″ of new snow on top of 4″-6″ old snow — we’ll need to see a lot of melting this week before we can get back out into the deep woods.
Official head count: 22H, eight D
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Hello Hikers!
Upper Lick Brook to Upper Buttermilk at Yaple Road on the spur trail, Danby
Official head count: 13H, three D
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Bald Hill Road and upper Abbott Loop to The Pinnacles look-out, Danby SF
I was taken by surprise this time — I just assumed someone would have come in and broken a trail in the three days since the heavy snow fell — but we immediately hit deep and slick conditions that were really tiring
I suggested we could change our plan and do a plowed road walk down Station Road instead but everyone wanted to keep going toward The Pinnacles, a much more exciting hike
By the time we reached the look-out, the group had shrunk — one hiker turned back with a knee problem, another had to turn back because his dog was having a problem, and a number of people had fallen far behind
The look-out had gotten badly obscured by overgrowth in recent years but the state sent a crew in last fall and did extensive cutting and pruning — the result was a dramatic improvement
Some of us were wearing microspikes — these developed big uncomfortable ice balls toward the end so it was like having a club foot must be — you can see an ice ball on Tiger’s spike right next to her left ankle
On the last leg, we were able to walk in the track we’d laid down on the outbound walk, but the snow was bumpy and this caused twisting in my ankles and knees that was very unpleasant
I found out later that the hikers who initially fell behind also made it up to the look-out, in two groups — here’s the larger bunch, who got a group shot
Sorry, this is an iPhone 5 shot by Nancy L and I don’t know how to get it to display properly — but you can twist your head and make it out
Official head count: 18H, five D
This was our most tiring hike in quite a while
I was very happy that only a couple of hikers failed to get my last-second hike cancellation notice and drove out to the trail head — I didn’t like waiting so long to make a final call, but I kept expecting the temperature would rise above freezing like it was predicted to do — in fact, it ended up still being 32 at 11 am at the airport, where the Ithaca weather readings are taken.
I now realize Feb 12 is not a holiday as I claimed yesterday, so I’ll include our Feb 12 hike in next week’s hike report
Hello Hikers!
Farm-road walk — Hill Road and Curtis Road, South Danby
There are places around town where, if I stand in the right spot on a snowy day, I can photograph the hikers in an all-white setting like this — I really enjoy the effect — for some reason, makes me think of a group of the elect heading up into paradise — especially when there’s a bright glow in the sky like here.
Below is the same view from the other direction — nice scene but doesn’t look like paradise ….
We tried to walk on part of Curtis that’s not maintained – too icy
This is Hill Road, on a section that’s plowed ….
If you’re paying attention, you should notice this photo is blue. And this one:
Here’s what happened:
I have an extremely small camera — including small buttons used to change settings — when it’s cold (it was in the low teens), I work the buttons wearing gloves — this is very clumsy and I inadvertently changed the settings so all the photos came out blue — without realizing it
Even though the color is weird, you can still appreciate the beautiful scenery, I think
Official head count: NineH, three D
We now have a new Google Group that I use to send out details of our midweek hikes — out of the blue, Cornell blocked 13 hikers who have Cornell e-mail accounts from receiving this hike announcement — probably reduced the turnout a bit
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Layen Road to Bruce Hill Road, Jersey Hill, Danby
Not everyone made it on time for the obligatory group shot at the start of the huge field
Eckhart thought this might be the largest oak tree in the county — he brought a cord to measure the trunk — 17 feet 9 inches around about five feet up from the ground
Two scenes from the quarry:
Steve S (top photo) regards this as our best hike — though he’s not as wild about the quarry itself as I am
Official head count: 21H, seven D
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Monkey Run Natural Area, north side of Fall Creek
Official head count: 19H, five D
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