ithacahikers

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Sept 14

Upper Treman SP, mixed woods walk and road walk

Official head count:  19H, two D

Review of the walk from Sabine:  “Ten out of 10!”

You can see Jack V’s online photos here

 

Saturday Sept 17

Connecticut Hill WMA with Dave B  —  The Wedge

Another great walk in this big wilderness area  —  some of the time, there didn’t seem to be any discernible footpath at all and it seemed like we were just walking through trackless woods  —  but it turned out Dave did have a plan and we had a delightful time

Very shady under the trees and I didn’t bother trying to get any shots in the woods

Somehow I managed to get this chiaroscuro shot on one of he dirt roads  —  I like the drama of it, and the variety of expressions

As some of you know, I like to wrap up our hikes in two hours  —  precisely, if possible  —  this has given me a little bit of a reputation as a cuckoo but I don’t care  —  Dave is on board with this concept in general and I’m always curious to see how close he can come on these Connecticut Hill walks  —  it’s a great challenge in timing and pacing because his hikes are always loops, not in and out

…..  One hour 58 minutes and 15 seconds

Official head count:  21H, six D

 

Sunday Sept 18

Six Mile Creek, north side, Mulhollard Wildflower Preserve to Potter’s Falls

Official head count:  32H, four D

I felt some pressure to get back to the cars very close to two hours in light of Dave’s great hike timing performance the day before  —  made it back in 1:58:45  —  but most of the group chose to push on beyond Potter’s Falls, our regular turn-around point, and walk up the very exciting narrow cliff-face trail to the upper dam  —  no way to do that and finish the hike in two hours.

You can see eight more photos by me online here

You can see Jack V’s online photos here

You can see Annie’s online photos here

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Sept 7

Railroad right-of-way from Dryden to Freeville  —  road walk

We tried out a new walk, northwest from downtown Dryden toward Freeville on an abandoned railroad right-of-way

Very pleasant and interesting overall, though it was a little warm to be out in the sun

Lots of good scenes off the the side along the way, and we made a couple of brief side trips

Norm got a new camera the day before and he resumed his habit of shooting video of us as we shuffled along  —  you can see his latest here (it’s the item on the far right)

Official head count:  18H, two D

You can see Jack V’s online photos here

 

Saturday Sept 10

Shindagin Hollow SF, rim trail along Shindagion gorge

Fantastic dark and sultry morning …  a little rain on the windshield driving to the trail head, rain nearby showing on the doppler radar  —  these are ideal conditions for hiking along this picturesque trail, but it was much too dark for photos in the woods

So here we are on our way back to the cars  —  it turned sunny at the very end

We had the first appearance of a dog who will become a new super-regular, Sophie

I thought it was time for us to check in with Norm’s very extravagant beard ….

Official head count:  16H, two D

You can see Jack V’s photos online here

 

Sunday Sept 11

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

Official head count:  33H, six D

You can see Jack V’s online photos here

 

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Jack V recently took a trip to Kentucky.  You can see his photos online here

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Sept 31

Stevens Suspension Bridge, Forest Home, east into Monkey Run Natural Area

A work crew from Cauuga Trails Club recently cut a new trail along Fall Creek east of Freese Road and we wanted to check it out

This required spending quite a bit of time walking along the edge of some big fields  —  since it was cloudy and not hot, this was pleasant

Completely by chance, we bumped into inactive hiker Laurie standing at the edge of the road with two grand chilldren (she lives right there) and she pointed us to the new trail head

Most of our dogs won’t walk on this open metal decking

Verdict on the new trail:  Very nice.  This opens up a third distinct walk for us that starts with the suspension bridge at Flat Rock.  Entirely by coincidence, the newest walk took almost exactly two hours.  Rained very lightly most of the way back  —  very lovely effect.

The suspension bridge has gotten more and more shaky to cross in the years we’ve been using it  —  when a group crosses at the same time now, it almost seems dangerous,  We broke up into smaller groups for the crossing to play it safe.

Official head count:  25H, three D

You can see Jack V’s photos online here

 

Thursday Sept 1

Kayak and canoe outing, Cayuga Lake inlet

Beautiful sunny morning, but quite breezy  —  put in at Cass Park and paddled south down the inlet along Route 13A   —  wind at our back  —  I’d never done this stretch of water before and I found it a little boring, but Tiger liked it  —  came back around the other side of Inlet Island, past the Boatyard Grill  —  more interesting IMO  —  hit somewhat rough water paddling back into the wind  —  great fun all around.

We had eight kayaks and a canoe in our group.  The most interesting kayak was Anne’s, which folds up and snaps together.  Quite seaworthy once it’s assembled.  The two canoe paddlers put in to Cascadilla Creek near Hickey’s music store and made their way out Linderman Creek to meet us.

 

Sunday Sept 4

Lindsay Parsons Preserve, W Danby

The goldenrod was stunted and only some of the plants were blooming, so we missed the peak display this year, but it was still satisfying

There are several lovely ponds here  —  water very low

A big part of this hike is in the woods  —  I can usually rely on our nature photographer Jack V to get some woodland shots but even he took a pass this time  —  these are delightful woods but I guess you need to join us if you want to see them

It started to warm up when we hit the last leg of the walk  —  I was out front and a couple of the dogs up front began to get stung, though the bees left the people alone as far as I know

Official head count:  37H, eight D

You can see Jack V’s photos online here

 

Monday Sept 5, Labor Day

Lick Brook, and mojito get-together at Hobit’s afterwards

Great relaxed and lazy vibe at Hobit’s, delightful way to wrap up our summer hiking program

No get-together at Hobit’s is complete without a display of tumbling by her son Jake

Official head count:  40H, thee D

Check out Jack V’s photos online here

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Aug 24

Bald Hill Road, Danby SF  —  road walk

Even people who don’t like road walks in general really like this one.  It runs through Danby SF the whole time  —  never any traffic, decent walking surface, excellent scenery, beautiful lighting in the woods when it’s sunny

Official head count:  16H, one D

You can see Jack V’s photos online here

 

Saturday Aug 27

Taughannock Falls SP  —  hike, swim and hot dog cook-out

Here we are at the renovated falls look-out (very little water).  If the young woman on the left with twin braids and short shorts looks out of place, you’re right, she wasn’t with us.  But in fact our hiking ladies looked like this themselves 45-50 years ago  —  we circulated old photos of our active hikers earlier in the year and everyone looked very cute and great.

It was lovely at the lake-front under the trees, not hot at all, and almost no one went swimming

Official head count:  37H, four D

 

Sunday Aug 28

Hammond Hill SF north of Star Stanton Road, with Jack V

Warm morning but this trail is exceptionally shady and dark and there was a little breeze, so we didn’t get too hot

Canaan Road crossing  —  one of the few spots with any sunlight

Back at the cars  —  you can get an idea of the gloom under the trees from the background.

Official head count:  24H, four D

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Aug 17

Treman SP on the FLT

This is one of our steepest hikes, and it can be a bit of a grind on the wrong morning  —  but it wasn’t hot or very sunny, and we had a great time.  I think the woods along this trail are more attractive than average, and the lighting is often really nice, as it was this time.

Official head count:  25H, three D

 

Saturday Aug 20

Potato Hill SF, Caroline

Woods extremely dark  —  I didn’t attempt any photos.  Here we are emerging on Blackman Hill Road:

Supposedly you can see Pennsylvania in the far distance in the background here.  Charlie’s pointing to a sundial that’s become a tourist stop

On the way back from walking in the second woods, which are also too dark for me to try any photos

The fields were full of grasshoppers  —  a pleasure to find the grass cut so short

Official head count:  24H, four D

You can see Annie’s photos here.

 

Sunday Aug 21

The Pinnacles look-out from the north leg of the Abbott Loop, Damby SF

We have pretty good luck at not getting rained on when there’s a storm coming at us, but our luck ran out this time  —  it started to rain fairly hard right after we turned back from the look-out, and it rained the whole way back.  Interestingly, it didn’t rain at all at the weather stations north of town before noon  —  we were just hiking on the wrong trail.  Fabulous atmospheric conditions on the first half of the hike, extremely dark and sultry.  Some of the hikers brought along rain gear but almost everyone walked back in their shirts  —  this was definitely a group that likes walking in the rain.

Official head count:  20H, two D

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With all the news from the Olympics wrapping up, it seems like a good time to mention that we have our own champion sprinter and long jumper who hikes with us almost every weekend, Tracey  —  “One of the best athletes in SUNY Cortland history,” according to her citation page at SUNY Cortland’s athletic hall of fame site  —  she still holds school records in five events 30 years after she graduated  —  if she’d attended Cornell or Binghamton, her best time in the outdoors 100m would put her in second place among all-time record holders at both those schools  —  in all, Tracey won five individual national titles and earned 13 All-America honors.  It’s really fun to have such a great athlete as a hiking companion  – —  she has wonderful energy and enthusiasm/