ithacahikers

Hello Hikers!

 

Thursday Oct 1

Willseyville Creek, Caroline

Finally, a genuine fall morning on the trail — mid 40s, hikers wearing gloves, beautiful gloomy lighting, a spritz of chilly rain on the windshield on the way to the meet-up — it felt great to finally put summer behind us

I pushed the hike off one day to Thursday to avoid the tail-end of the big storm — I always wonder whether doing this messes up people who would have come on the original day but couldn’t make the rescheduled hike — in hindsight, we could have hiked Wednesday as originally planned and barely gotten wet

This walk takes us along Willseyville Creek where it spreads out into a big pond and swamp, and it looked like everything survived the long dry spell nicely. The route passes through some noble woods but these were too dark for me to get any shots — there are also lots of raggedy, scruffy woods — these were brighter so I got a few photos.

I think maybe some people like to hike only when the scenery is first class — I love hiking because it reminds me of playing in the woods as a child, and I’m completely happy with overgrown jumbled up areas like those here.

Part of the trail runs through some large rolling fields that in the past have always been open and created some wonderful vistas — this time they were planted with corn that was mostly picked but not cut down and we couldn’t see much of anything.

Official head count: Eight hikers, three dogs.

You can see eight more photos by me online here.

 

Saturday Oct 3

Monkey Run Natural Area, north side of Fall Creek

More lovely cool grey weather — there was rain around but none of it hit us — we had a delightful hike — captured and returned a runaway dog …. plowed through some serious weeds …. a number of satisfying chats about illness and aging parents ….

This photo shows the first beach along Fall Creek — the weeds are extremely high and dense this fall and there was major griping from some hikers about having to take this route — “I hate this,” said one person — but we pushed on and it was soon over

You’ll get the impression from just looking at the photos that this walk is all out in the open — in fact, most of it is under the trees — but it was too dark as usual for me and I didn’t get any shots there

This is the edge of a big Cornell field just before you get back to the cars — it had been recently cut into a golf-course-quality carpet of green, and its lush sweep clearly energized our dogs — two of them put on a spectacular show of running for us, the bigger one chasing the smaller around and around in huge circles — they were pretty equally matched for speed but the smaller dog was nimbler and always dodged away at the last second — looked like they were having a fabulous time — but I suppose the smaller dog could have actually been running for its life ….

Official head count: 15 hikers, three dogs

You can see eight more photos by me online here.

 

Sunday Oct 4

Kennedy SF, Virgil

Great mild dazzling morning in Cortland County after a week of chilly grey days

This is yet one more hike where we’re in the shade 99% of the way — it starts literally as soon as you turn off Daisy Hollow Road from the cars toward the trail head —

Sometimes this walk can be so dark you can have a little trouble seeing — but the woods are very uncluttered and spacious for almost the whole time, and some leaves had already fallen, and maybe the sun was at a good angle — for whatever reason, enough light was filtering through on this morning and everything looked fabulous

Our group fractured a bit — a fast bunch shot ahead and a slower bunch fell back — but I didn’t get any bad reports so I guess everyone made it back OK. It certainly was a wonderful day to be out.

Official head count: 25 hikers, two dogs

You can see seven more photos by me here.

Still more photos:
By Annie — who’s been away a lot of the summer on an island in the St Lawrence River
By Hussain — too busy to hike with us much recently — he’s in the last 60 days of finishing his PhD

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Sept 23

Robinson Hollow SF, followed by lunch at Vicki’s, Tioga County

I’ve come to think this walk from the Route 79 valley up into Robinson Hollow SF is one of our toughest — there’s an extremely steep up, and then a steep down, in each direction — the path can be narrow and twisty with quite a treacherous surface — poor trail markings in spots — I’m not complaining — it’s a delightful hike through some beautiful woods, and I always enjoy it — it’s also very dark when the leaves are out, and I’ve generally given up trying to take hiker-in-action photos — luckily our hikers plopped down on this stone bench for a few minutes and I had time to fiddle the camera settings until I could get a shot.

If we hadn’t gone to Vicki’s house a few miles away for soup and salad after the hike, this would have been a short and poorly illustrated hike report. But her house was flooded with bright light, and I was able to get enough shots to have something to show you. This first scene is what you see as you drive up to her place, just the house and garage and an outbuilding against the sky.

Here’s the view looking south just a few steps from her back deck — that’s her husband Bernd and regular hikers Katharine and Scott.

Vicki made the famous Moosewood item West African peanut soup — very tasty — and we celebrated Eckhart’s 84th birthday.

Official head count: 15 hikers, two dogs

You can see seven more shots by me online here.

You can see shots by Jack V online here.

 

 

Saturday Sept 26

Ellis Hollow Nature Preserve

I don’t know if the shortage of rain this month is doing any serious damage, but it sure has made for some fantastic hiking conditions — the air’s had a wonderful dry smell and feel to it and the ground seems more fun to walk on — there’s no evidence left over from the big downpour a week ago — I don’t mind mud on the trail but there’s none to be seen now and that’s really pleasant

The walk through the Ellis Hollow nature preserve is always very dark — once in a while a nice scene that might be bright enough for a photo will suddenly appear, but then the group has moved on even before I can pull out my camera — here’s one shot when everyone was standing still ….

We’ve now expanded this hike into an area across the street that’s open to the public where the are some big fields — I love overgrown fields but I realize not everyone shares my enthusiasm — “Just looks like a bunch of weeds to me,” said one hiker

A point of curiosity: Our super-regular hikers Dennis and Elizabeth, who live near the preserve, told me they walked exactly where I took this shot on their wedding day 35 years ago — they look pretty cheerful in the photo so I guess it went OK

Official head count: 15 hikers, seven dogs

You can see six more photos by me online here.

 

 

Sunday Sept 27

Six Mile Creek from Juniper Drive to the upper reservoir

Another gorgeous morning — a tiny bit of chill in the air and some of the hikers who came out without jackets started to grumble and get antsy standing around waiting to start — sounds like the end of the unseasonably mild days is coming up — supposed to be 10 degrees cooler next weekend

The water level in the creek bed we walk down was low but I was a little surprised to see any water at all — other streams we’ve crossed on our recent hikes have been completely dry — it’s much easier to navigate this stream during a dry spell but I still managed to soak one foot

The steep hill we have to climb somehow managed to be still a little wet too, and I had a few brief sensations I was about to slide backwards — had to go up on my hands and knees in several spots — it can be a bit stressful at the moment, but once you’ve finished the ascent it’s all downhill and the scenery is fantastic

Our route took us through another big overgrown field — doesn’t seem like many people use this path and the weeds were over my head in spots — some grumbling by hikers behind me but I thought it was lots of fun

Official head count: 21 hikers, eight dogs

Six of our more rugged hikers decided to look for a different way back from the upper reservoir, along the edge of Six Mile Creek if possible — they followed some deer trails and climbed another steep hill — about 70% of the time, they were bushwhacking, according to Roger. The rest of us did the last leg of the hike along the South Hill Rec Way — a little tame, but always very pretty.

You can see seven more photos by me online here.

Hello Hikers!

 

 

Wednesday Sept 9

Stevens Suspension Bridge and Cornell fields, Forest Home

10th day of the great September heat wave** …. forecast to hit 89, and it did, in the afternoon

We set off early to beat the worst of the heat  —  followed just about the easiest trail we could.

We loafed along Fall Creek at the beginning and end, taking a very leisurely pace

Had to do one brief uphill climb — spent the rest of the hike in the big Cornell fields up on the bluffs along the north side of the creek

The heat-beating strategy paid off surprisingly well (it also helped a lot that the sun was out very weakly) and we had a lot of fun and didn’t overheat

Official head count: 11 hikers, three dogs

**The average temperature for Sept 1-Sept 10 was 11 degrees above normal  —  the highest for Ithaca for the first 10 days of the month since record-keeping began (source: “Daily Data,” the Ithaca Climate Page)

You can see eight more photos by me online here.

 

 

Saturday Sept 12

Comfort Road to Smiley Hill Road, Danby

Great atmospheric morning in Danby SF, mild, damp and grey, with a rain storm right over the horizon that was predicted to hit us

Normally we don’t see anyone else on the trail, or at most two-three people — this time we hit two big groups, these young men sleeping out under the trees, and a group of primarily young women from Cornell who camped at the Chestnut Lean-to and shared a bit of the walk with us down to Michigan Hollow Road. Seeing the guys spread out under the trees brought back memories, and reinforced my intention never to sleep out in the woods again,

This trail takes us over Michigan Creek at Diane’s Crossing — as I say in the boilerplate description of this hike online, I always imagine jumping into the water here and and gliding blissfully around through the picturesque tall grasses — forget that — the water level was extremely low from the drought, and the creek was revealed to be only a few inches deep.

There’s been major logging by the state DEC along this route recently, and the crews don’t make any effort to beautify the results — I know many hikers don’t like to see this — our occasional Wednesday hiker Gary M led one of his Tuesday evening hikes for Cayuga Trails Club here recently and lamented the destruction they saw in his hike report:

“The loggers have been active here; we saw a pretty wide swath of clear cut, and the logger’s roads into and out of their work area. The aftermath of logging is devastating to the forest, with all the mature trees down or gone, and it is a hard reality for those of us who question its necessity. Our state forests are not parks and “recreation,” (hiking) is secondary to harvesting resources like timber.”

I actually don’t mind this logging activity myself — for one thing, it thins out the woods and lets in some light — a bit like a fire, I think

It started to rain very lightly about five minutes before we got back to the cars.

Official head count: 14 hikes, five dogs

You can see six more photos by me online here

 

 

Sunday Sept 13

Jim Schug Trail eastward into Cortland County on the FLT

Our good luck with the weather held for another day, and the rain that was falling in the area missed us again (it did rain during hike-time closer to town, at the airport and Cornell’s Game Farm Road weather station)

Instead we had another great fall-like morning, cool, damp and atmospheric — a lot of the hikers wore jackets — Norm had on yellow lobster-fisherman overalls to go with his usual yellow boots, a very cheerful touch — in fact, the huge field wasn’t all that wet

I love everything about this hike — so many great vistas and picturesque scenes — this one is on the back side of the hill we have to cross — the valley always feels so wonderfully peaceful to me — of course I realize that’s just romantic projection on my part

A good part of this hike is in the woods, but they’re generally quite dark and not conducive to photos except for people standing around …. a little of this goes a long way

Here’s a shot of where we meet up — you can see some of the horses who live there in the background — there’s also goats

Official head count: 19 hikers, three dogs

You can see eight more photos by me online here.

Hello Hikers!

 

 

Wednesday Sept 2

Upper Treman SP, mixed woods, roads and streams walk

This is a hike we pieced together a few years back one day when we got lost in the back part of upper Treman.  It’s a hodgepodge of sections with no real rhyme or reason, but it’s lots of fun and it gets us into areas that aren’t used much.  Above is the meet-up on Woodard Road.

First leg of the walk:  Heading down Butternut Creek Road from the parking spot.  The Google Maps page will make you believe this is a live working road unless you pay very close attention.

Crossing Fishkill Creek.  There used to be a nice bridge, but it was destroyed in a storm.  It’s possible to cross in low water like we had this time  —  though I still managed to soak both feet and to fall over  —  no damage to me or my camera.

Van Ostrand Road  —  lovely rural feeling, no cars

Thomas Road  —  pretty much completely deserted

Finger Lakes Trail on the edge of the park  —  some fantastic woodland scenery but a little too dark for good photos under the trees  —

Normally I don’t like to go on the trails where everyone in the county brings everyone who comes to visit, but the park was quite deserted and the chance to visit this fabulous gorge area was too much to pass up on.

Official head count:  11 hikers, two dogs

You can see eight more photos by me online here.

You can see Jack V’s online photos here.

 

 

Saturday Sept 5

Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area

Another great walk with Dave on a poorly marked ski trail in this beautiful wild part of the county

This was our first hike with leaves on the trees  on this particular trail, officially known as Connecticut Hill Hike #3  —  it’ll take me a few more times here to get any kind of a grip on what we saw, but my first impression was that it’s exceptionally pretty

Everyone else seemed happy too, so I’ll declare this walk a big success

Lots of gorgeous woodland scenes ….  almost all in the shade so it was very pleasant even though it was pretty warm out in the sun

We had a special hiker with us, Boomer (far left), making his second walk with our group  —  he’s famous for having fallen off the high bluff at Monkey Run where we hiked the Sunday before, with no ill effects  —  he clearly loves to be out in the woods and it was really fun to have him along.

Dave seems to have a real knack for pacing these Connecticut Hill hikes  —  he brought us back to the cars in almost precisely two hours for the second time in a row  —  this guy is good.

Official head count:  21 hikers, five dogs

You can see nine more photos by me online here.

You can see Jack V’s online photos here.

 

 

Sunday September 6

Lindsay Parsons Biodiversity Preserve

Goldenrod in full bloom just like I hoped  — fabulous effect  —  even better, there was a complex fragrance of goldenrod in the air, with a subtle but delightful sour note, that I never noticed before  —  loved it!

The huge fields are the prime attraction here but there are a number of other good sights to see  —  the big beaver pond on the yellow trail is always striking but it was really weird this time, probably because of the long dry period we’ve had  —  Reyer always hikes in Tevas so it was nothing for him to pull off his shoes so I could get this shot  —  ground gooey, he reported

There are also two beautiful back-to-back ponds that have been hit really hard by the drought  —  the water level was extremely low

There’s a good deal of lovely woods on this hike that can get overshadowed by the other sights  —  nothing spectacular, but very nice

There was a good deal of fog or mist hanging on the hilltops on both sides of the road when we shaped up  —  great atmospheric touch  —  some hikers told me beforehand they weren’t going to do this hike because they were afraid it would be too hot  —  in fact it was a bit warm but it didn’t actually get uncomfortable, and I thought it was a great morning.

Two hikers got stung.

Official head count:  23 hikers, two dogs

You can see 10 more photos by me online here.

You can see Jack V’s photos online here.

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We now have photos up on our hike photo web page from Bud and Scott’s Montana fishing adventure  —  click here.

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Aug 26

Bald Hill Road to Thatcher’s Pinnacles, Danby SF

This walk is the lazy hiker’s way to get up to The Pinnacles look-out  —  you start two-thirds of the way up the long hill from the valley below, and by the time you get up to the top, you’re barely even breathing hard

For half the year, The Pinnacles is a wonderful place with a fantastic view into the inlet valley and out across West Hill  —  the other half year, when the leaves are out, it’s a bit of a dud

I always take a group shot to mark the occasion, but it really lacks drama with all the trees blocking the view and covering the distant hill.  The state DEC has just done a good bit of logging along this trail segment  —  they need to do some serious cutting right behind where our guys are posing.

One thing I really like about this hike is that it gives us the chance to walk back and forth through one of my favorite pine woods of all, along the southern leg of the trail between the look-out and Bald Hill Road  —  I love to come here, and doing it the lazy way, without a big huffing-and-puffing climb, is especially fun.

Official head count:  14 hikers, five dogs.

You can see seven more photos by me online here.

You can see Jack V’s photos online here.

 

 

Saturday Aug 29

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

Fantastic morning on a great pine trail

Nothing notable to report on  —  just a wonderful hike.  A lot of the trail is underlain by a thick carpet of pine needles  —  makes for delightfully springy walking, especially during a long dry spell like we’ve been having

Tamarack trees at the lean-to

The drinkable spring just beyond the lean-to

Travor Road crossing

Official head count:  20 hikers, seven dogs

You can see eight more photos by me online here.

 

 

Sunday Aug 30

Monkey Run Natural Area, south side of Fall Creek, Varna

I’d never want to suggest that our hikes are ever remotely exciting  —  but neither are they all trudging quietly through the woods looking at wildflowers and mushrooms  —  we do have lively moments from time to time  —  here we were about to step off when a huge dog suddenly emerged from the woods, barely restrained by its powerfully built young owner, and got into a wild barking match with our newest hiking dog, tiny 10-pound Gonzo, who looks to be a breed known for fearless behavior  —  very amusing spectacle.

This is the point on the trail where we first emerge from the deep woods and abruptly find ourselves a few feet away from a spectacular section of the Fall Creek gorge  —  there’s a sheer drop-off of 100 feet or more straight down  —  I’ve never been able to capture the full scene in a photo

Here’s what the edge of the gorge looks like  —  Eckhart’s less than a foot from the edge and his dog Tori is only inches away  —  the pale overly bright area between Eckhart and Tori is the stream far below  —  fabulous spot, but terrifying for those of us afraid of heights.

One bee sting  —  visiting hiker got it in the leg  —  aside from that, great morning

Official head count:  31 hikers, four dogs

You can see six more photos by me online here.

You can see Jack V’s online photos here  —  including Gonzo.