Report to Hikers: week of Aug 1-Aug 7

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Aug 3

Black Diamond Trail south from Taughannock Creek

R0102567 (2)They’ve been working on this trail project it seems like forever  —  we decided to try it out last year one time when we were hiking nearby in Taughannock  —  horrible experience  —  the trail surface was unwalkable

R0102637 (2)They’ve made a lot of progress since then  —  the north end of the trail is actually delightful now, with a finely crushed stone surface and nice landscaping

R0102647Unfortunately, this lovely smooth surface stops quite soon and we had to spend most of the walk on small packed gravel  —  borderline uncomfortable after you’ve been on it for a while

R0102670 (2)We walked south for an hour  —  the trail takes you through some nice countryside, nothing spectacular but pleasant and generally not built up  —  there are several road crossings where you could probably park and do a walk (I didn’t actually verify this …. forgot to)

R0102679 (2)New bridge over Willow Creek, which is very attractive when you look over the edge at it

R0102692 (2)There are lots of fields on both sides of the trail along the way —  here’s what the three hikers above were looking at

R0102695 (2)Official head count:  26H, seven D

More photos:

Annie

Jack V

 

Saturday Aug 6

Connecticut Hill  —  Rowell Hill to Lloyd Stark, with Dave B

R0102745 (2)R0102767 (2)Very oppressive at 9 am in town  —  delightful out in the deep woods  —  a little breezy, still damp from the early rain, and not hot at all

R0102772 (2)You’d never be able to guess it from the photos, but we spent most of the walk in deep shade under the trees  —  this is one of two look-outs where we were suddenly flooded with light

R0102781 (2)These floods of sunlight can be a little intense  —  check out the squinty faces on Tiger and June

R0102810 (2)R0102835 (3)R0102845 (3)R0102861 (2)Dave had warned us the hike might run a bit over two hours but he got us back to the cars in 1:58:46  —  one minute and 14 sec short of perfection  —  this guy is brilliant at hike-pacing, IMO  —  not the first time he’s timed one of these sprawling Conn Hill hikes so closely

R0102880 (2)Official head count:  16H, five D

 

Sunday Aug 7

Six Mile Creek, south side rim trail

R0102891 (2)Beautiful low-humidity morning

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R0103019 (2)When we got to the home stretch, I started to think maybe I could come even closer than Dave did the day before to wrapping the hike up in two hours precisely  —  alas, didn’t  —  we finished in 1:58, two minutes early.

R0103022 (2)Official head count:  28H, six D

Check out Annie’s photos online here.

Report to Hikers: week of July 25-July 31

 

Hello Hikers

 

Wednesday July 27

Harford-Slaterville Road, north on the FLT to Hammond Hill SF

R0102150 (2)You’ll probably never hike here  —  this is an obscure trail in the middle of nowhere  —  but if you ever do, be sure to stay behind the white line on the edge of the pavement

R0102171 (2)This is a high-speed stretch of road in the middle of a blind S-curve and the cars and pickups sometimes come through moving pretty fast

R0102179 (2)Luckily our hikers know the drill by now  —  some years back, we used to have a problem with hikers not staying out of the roadway

R0102185 (2)The business with the passing cars is always the only excitement here  —  otherwise it’s s straightforward country trail  —  shady. a bit steep on the outbound leg, some nice scenery

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R0102206 (2)Back at the cars  —  you can see everyone’s still staying behind the white line

R0102236 (2)Official head count:  18H, one D

More photos online:

Annie

Jack V

 

Saturday July 30

Treman SP on the FLT

As reported to me by Jack V:

Ten hikers shaped up in the parking lot  — started to rain and then pour just as they stepped off  —  they stopped immediately under the Route 13 bridge over Enfield Creek  —  stood there for about half an hour schmoozing and waiting for the rain to stop  —  when it didn’t, half of them went to Wegmans for coffee  —  the others went home.  You can see some of the hikers as they were shaping up in Jack’s online photo here.

 

Sunday July 31

Michigan Hollow Road SE on the FLT to Hill Road, Danby SF

R0102417 (2)Fantastically atmospheric morning  —  dark, wet and sultry

R0102442 (2)The first outbound leg of the walk goes through pine woods and it was really beautiful in the gloom  —  felt like a rain forest

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We decided to walk on Hill Road for the second part of the hike rather than stay on the FLT in the woods

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There was a good chance of rain but, alas, we didn’t get any

R0102546 (2)Official head count:  21H, two D

Jack V hiked but he forgot the memory card for his camera  —  so no photos from him.

Report to Hikers: 2016 cook-out at Roger’s

 

Hello Hikers!

R0102290 (3)A number of hikers who told us beforehand that they were coming didn’t show up  —  a number of people came late because they were waiting to see if the picnic would be cancelled  —  the swimming activity was subdued  —  but otherwise the rain didn’t faze us, and we had another great cook-out

R0102347 (2)In fact the drenching we got just before people started showing up made Roger’s property look unusually beautiful  —  his GF Gunilla is really turning it into a showplace

R0102243 (2)Our new chicken cook Randy (and Nancy) reported the Cornell chicken went over very well  —  moist, tender and flavorful  —  Randy said the customers liked it

R0102332 (2)It started to rain again after we’d been there for a while, but lightly, and everyone just took it in stride

R0102369 (2)I was just heading into the pond for a swim when our food coordinator Liz spotted me and rushed over insisting I needed to have an unposed photo taken by her showing the love handles and the stomach ….

R0102380 (2)…. luckily I’ve been sticking to my no-corn chips diet, so I feel like I’ve survived another ordeal-by-photo

Here’s another view of the pond  —  it really looked lovely in the dim lighting

R0102336 (2)Liz sent me a comment to use in this report:

WOW!

Thank you, everyone, who so generously contributed to the picnic fund.  Even with the lower-than-expected attendance, there was enough to pay for the chicken, all other food and beverages, AND the yearly cost of running the hiker’s website!!!  Up until now, Steven and Susan have been personally covering the website costs and some of us have been trying to figure out how to repay them.  Thanks to your generosity that is no longer an issue for this year.  Hopefully, in the future, the picnic will continue to cover the costs associated with managing our wild and wonderful group.

I actually have a little left over.  If you care to respond to me personally (elizkyle@gmail.com), I will conduct a survey as to what to do with it.  Some options are:

A) apply it toward food for one of our future gatherings (winter-cookout or thanksgiving get-together?).

B)  turn it into a gift certificate at one of Steven and Susan’s  favorite restaurants as a thank-you for all they do.

C) apply it to next year’s website fees

D) other – please specify

I had a lot of fun today, and I know many of you did too.  Thank you.

Liz

R0102314 (2)R0102310 (2)I didn’t get an official head count  —  I normally get the count from looking at the photos, but in this case I hadn’t photographed everyone  —  I’d say we had more than 60 people but definitely less than the 80+ who were supposed to come

R0102356 (2)A special thanks to Roger and Gunilla for all their efforts and for letting us get together every year in this wonderful, gorgeous spot

Jack V has photos online you can see here.

Report to Hikers: week of July 18-July 24

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday July 20

Shindagin Hollow SF  —  road walk on Shindagin Hollow Road

Aviary Photo_131135099790376463The most important thing that a road walk on a sunny day in summer needs  —

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R0101659 (2)Shade!

Notice the nice smooth road surface  —  it’s a real pleasure to be able to walk in a lovely setting without having to stare at your feet the whole time to avoid tripping

R0101697 (2)We drove down this road last Sunday for the hike to the Shindagin lean-to  —  noticed several areas of bright red flowers along the edge of the road  —  bee balm  — went over big with the hikers  —  I’m color blind and I could barely make them out

R0101724 (2)This grim-looking spot is normally a beautiful swamp that our nature photogs love to get shots of  —  looks very unappetizing now.

R0101734 (2)Speaking of unappetizing  —  part of Shindagin Hollow Road runs right along the edge of a very high sheer drop, and we often can smell a rotten smell as we walk along, probably dead deer  —  this time the smell was about 4X stronger than I’ve ever smelled before, really dreadful

R0101749Official head count:  19H, one D

Both our nature photographers were back on the trail with us:

Annie

Jack V

 

Saturday July 23

Malloryville hike along Fall Creek with Bob B

Aviary Photo_131137708079243865Our first hike here  —  huge success  —  a number of hikers said I should put this one in our Top 5

R0101859 (3)The hike was put together by Bob B, who grew up here and lives here now  —  it included some private property and limited access property, so it’s not a walk the general public can do

R0101874 (2)Part of the walk took us along an abandoned railroad line running next to Fall Creek  —  I took this shot from the trestle crossing the creek  —  Annie has photos showing the trestle support structure, which looks very old fashioned

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There are a number of unusual geological features that we saw  —  too technical for me to remember

R0101902 (2)Norm walked across the whole length of this fallen tree  —  he said he wasn’t nervous because the drop was so slight  —  but I think he could theoretically have fallen onto a sharp stick and done some serious damage

R0101916 (2)We saw a large and interesting beaver dam and a beautiful pond  —  Annie got some photos

R0101939 (2)Much more variety of scenery than normal for us  —  really fun.

One mishap  —  one of the dogs, Griffin, got stung  —  on his penis

Very warm morning but it was extremely pleasant in the woods

R0101966 (2)Official head count:  25H, seven D

You can see Annie’s photos online here.

 

Sunday July 24

So Danby Road east to the Tamarack Lean-to on the FLT

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R0102117 (2)Official head count:  19H, two D

You can see Annie’s online photos here.

Report to Hikers: Week of July 11-July 17

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Thursday July 14

Ellis Hollow Nature Pr4eserve

R0101153 (2)There were a couple of strikes against this walk going into it:

  1. I had to push it off from a nice day to the next day, when it was supposed to storm, so I could have an emergency eye exam (which turned out OK)
  2. We had a report that a hiker had been here a few weeks earlier and found it hideously infested with flies, almost as bad as the Adirondacks in black fly season
  3. It was 81 and steamy when we shaped up at the trail head

R0101167 (2)I always try to stay optimistic when we set off on a hike  —  but as soon as we got into the shrubbery just beyond the cars I was mobbed by flies all over my head  —  thankfully they backed off when I got my hat on, and they weren’t bad from then on.  Shampoo?

R0101175 (2)This is a very shady walk and it was bearable under the trees  —  though it’s possible to bail out of this walk after an hour, and half the group chose to quit and go home then.

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Tiger and I walked on with the remaining hikers  —  a few minutes after we left for home it started to rain somewhat hard.

Official head count:  11H, one D

 

Saturday July 16

Roy H Park Preserve into Hammond Hill SF, Dryden

R0101201 (2)R0101233 (3)R0101257 (2)R0101277 (2)R0101364 (2)R0101380 (2)R0101397 (2)R0101408 (2)Lovely morning, great hike

Official head count:  24H, seven D

 

Sunday July 17

Shindagin Hollow SF, FLT to the lean-to and beyond

Aviary Photo_131132552012583167Another delightful morning, nice temps, still damp in the woods after the rain overnight

Aviary Photo_131133005023591590This trail is one of the 3-4 darkest and shadiest we do  —  only a few brief spots where any light penetrates, and that’s often very harsh  —  great on a sunny summer day when you want to stay cool, but very poor for photos

R0101546 (2)A lot of this trail is full of roots and snags and small flat rocks, and everything was a little slick from the rain  —  one hiker reported he slipped or tripped, couldn’t catch himself and fell flat on his face

R0101575 (2)This is one of the main arguments for using hiking sticks  —  I use two and there’s not a hike where I don’t trip at least once and then save myself from crashing down thanks to the sticks.

R0101587 (2)R0101596 (2)For the second Sunday in a row, we had children with us  —  this trail isn’t conducive to running back and forth or fooling around the way last week’s was, the children were younger than last week’s rambunctious kids, there was only two of them, and they were a little more serious  —  the 10-year-old boy had visited the Cornell synchrotron and then met with two physics professors his grandad knows  —  he wants to be a particle physicist  —  this is how successful scientists get started, I think ….

R0101618 (2)Still only 70 when we got back to the cars  —  very nice!

Official head count:  27H, six D  —  including a mother-son pair  —  not clear if they know they’re related, and there’s a little bit of disconnect in their interactions.