On Wednesday, October 8, 17 hikers and 1 dog assembled for a jaunt through the Finger Lakes National Forest. The paths take us through a combination of open grazing land, dramatic vistas, and lovely forested areas. Fall colors were just beginning to show. We began in sunshine on Picnic Area Road, and headed south on the Burnt Hill Trail. At the intersection of Interlokin Trail we headed back up north. By this time, the weather had turned, and the clouds moved in. We did get some light rain, but by this time we were back in the woods and hardly got wet. The hike finished 15 minutes before the 2 hour prescribed time.
Photos by Mark Sussman
Saturday, October 11
Connecticut Hill from the South End of Carter Creek Road, Newfield
Hike report by Nancy Lorr
10 people and 1 dog gathered near the South end of Carter creek road to Head for a trail that climbs 600 feet up to the ridge of Connecticut Hill. After cutting across to Cabin Road, we hiked down to some cascades on one of the branches of Carter Creek. On the way back to our cars, we stopped by the ruins of a dam built in 1935.
Twenty-one hikers and two dogs on leash met at the parking area past the last house on N. Shindagin Hollow Road for this lollypop-shaped hike. The route went down the road until it went east into the woods to go right along the rim of the hollow. Then it crossed the stream – which had flowing water in it after the previous night’s rain – and went back up to Gulf Rd. At that point, it was a road walk back to the cars.
Although the hilltops in the area were a bit past peak this weekend, I considered our Shindagin Hollow hike to be Week 4 of peak fall. This hike which is satisfying any season, were magical. We all arrived back in two hours and enjoyed having a visit at the end as we stood around the cars.
On a beautiful October 4, eleven hikers and one dog met at the corner of Sessions Hill Rd and Forbes Rd in Homer. The hike is a loop or more accurately a rectangle on very little travelled dirt roads. The hike offers stunning vistas of rural countryside, fields, woods, and streams, and at one point a sweeping view over I-81 and the small town of Preble. The hike around the loop takes one and half hours (about four miles) even with stops to enjoy the scenery, so five of us did an extension of half an hour. The hike is all on public roads and passes only two houses at one corner. During our hike we saw only two vehicles. The day started out chilly and sunny but everyone soon shed outer jackets. By 11:30 the weather was sunny, light wind, and 73 degrees. The main part of the hike is N on Vern King Rd from Sessions Hill Rd, to Maxson Rd. E on Maxson Rd and then S still on Maxson Rd to Sessions Hill Rd and W on Sessions Hill Rd to the intersections of Vern King Rd and Forbes Rd where the cars are parked. Alas the fall colors were not in their full glory yet, but the lovely shades of green and brown and rust of the leaves were still delightful. We even got to see the herd of cattle who viewed us with curious suspicion. Note the photo of Leigh Ann climbing on a fence rail to get a good shot of them.
Spur trail from upper Lick Brook/Townline Road to upper Buttermilk Falls SP/Yaple Road
Hike report by Leigh Ann
Twenty hikers met at the junction of Townline Rd. and Lick Brook for a hike up to Buttermilk Falls S. P. and back. I like to think of this weekend as Week 3 of peak fall. It was another stunningly pretty, clear day with rainbow colors everywhere: purple asters, blue sky, green everywhere, and yellow, orange and red leaves. Shadows were cut-out-of-cardboard sharp. The creek beds were almost dry, and normally sketchy stream crossings were easily walkable. There were fallen leaves where there would normally be little rapids. We crossed Buttermilk Creek just north of the ruins of the old stone bridge at one hour. With the complete lack of mud, the going was easy and almost everyone had arrived back to the cars in just under two hours.
On Wednesday, September 24, sixteen hikers and 3 dogs met at the Rice Hill parking lot for an explore of the Taughannock Park trails. After wandering down the Rice Hill trails, the group crossed 89, walked through the cabin area and along the beach. Most of the group had never been through this section of Taughannock.
We crossed 89 again, walked through the camping area and up the North Rim trail. At the top of the Rim trail we crossed Jacksonville road and looped through the Cataract trail. This trail was also new to most hikers. We were able to cross the final small stream on this occasion due to the dry weather.
We then hiked partway down the north rim trail, crossed the Park road and went back to our cars on the North Taughannock trails. We finished in a little over 2 hours.
Photos by Casey
Saturday, September 27
Cayuga Trail from Freese Rd.
Report by Jim
Thirteen hikers met at the Cornell Community Gardens on Freese Rd in the Town of Dryden for a trail maintenance day of our adopted section of the Cayuga Trail. The Ithaca Hikers currently maintain the Cayuga Trail between Freese Rd and Route 13 on the north side of the creek.
This was actually the first trail workday we’ve been able to do in 2025, as the first two days I scheduled were both rained out earlier in the year.
Today’s work project was a re-route of a trail section that ran along the creek bank, and which was quickly eroding away into nothingness, creating a severe hike hazard for hikers and trail runners.
A re-route around that section of footpath was previously marked with engineer tape by Ithaca Hiker Steve Eaton and CTC Trails chair David Priester. The re-route takes hikers away from the creek and the associated views of that area into a more forested area, but it could not be helped as the creek shoreline along the eroding section of footpath is lined with thick bramble.
Many hands made for short work today, with the hikers equipped with weed eaters and hand saws and nippers made relatively short work of creating a new footpath. There are a couple of larger blow down trees that still need to be chain sawed to be removed from the new footpath, but the CTC sawyers have been advised of that work.
The re-route is temporarily marked by orange engineer’s tape. We will eventually get another work crew back into the area to properly blaze the new trail section.
As the work crew returned to our cars, some of those with weed eaters who still had working batteries managed to trim back some of the undergrowth along the trail closer to Freese RD.
A post work detail gathering at Hopshire was well-attended.
For those on today’s work crew, I left the sign in sheet for today’s event at home; see me on hikes over the next week or so in order to complete the sign in sheets I need to send to Cornell.
Speaking of Cornell, I’ll cut and paste their recent email to me about the upcoming trail volunteer’s appreciation day in October. Anyone wishing to attend their event will need to RSVP. See the following:
Greetings, Cornell Botanic Gardens Volunteers,
You are invited to our annual Volunteer Appreciation Event on Friday, October 17, from 1 – 3 pm. As in years past, this is our way of saying thank you for your hard work and dedication towards all our endeavors! We’ll gather in the Nevin Welcome Center’s Ten Eyck room for light refreshments, service recognitions, and opportunities to connect with each other and staff. Join us!
25 hikers and two dogs met along Stone House Road in Enfield on a stunning day – sunny with temperatures rising into the 70s during our hike – for the fun and diverse hike that LeighAnn and Jim dubbed “The Chunks” hike due to the variety of terrains and landscapes we traversed.
The initial walk was a 1.2 mile easy, wooded loop trail known as “Margaret’s Woods,” for the late property owner Margaret Bald, who had donated the land to the Finger Lakes Land Trust in 2022.
From there we walked a connector trail leading through meadows full of senescing goldenrods and purple asters at their peak, and then through a lovely hardwood forecast down to catch the FLT. The FLT’s Rim Trail took us along a pretty, winding path that eventually overlooked Robert Treman State Park’s Gorge Trail, giving us glimpses of the river and some of the falls below.
After crossing the upper parking lot of the Park, we made our way back to the cars along the CCC trail that followed the stream for about a half mile, and finally retraced our steps through the connector trail back to the cars.
This hike features 2 diametrically opposed options. Six of us and one dog chose the more challenging option of going up and over Havington Hill. Of all of the times I have done this hike, this was the first time ever that the meadow that leads to the hill was not under water, or wet in any way. No flippers or scuba gear needed today.
We went up the hill, down the other side, and across the creek to hike the trail a bit in what is normally quite a muddy area, but again no moisture or mud to be found. This is always a great hike, but I have to say that the current drought conditions really make this hike that much more enjoyable.
We managed to get 4.4 miles within our 2 hour time frame. We even encountered a couple of fellows who were doing an out and back hike from road to road starting from Daisy Hollow Road and heading to Lake Road and back. They were from the Shindaigan Hollow area and were looking for hikes with good climbs because they were training to do a section hike of the Appalachian Trail fairly soon.
As usual, the views on this hike were magnificent due to the perfect hiking weather.
Hike report by Margaret F
9 hikers and 1 dog met at the intersection of Lake Rd. and the Jim Schug Trail in Dryden, NY. The group included 2 new hikers: Jim and Tina. Two hikes originate from this point. A hilly hike along the Finger Lakes Trail and a flatter walk along the Jim Schug Trail. The group divided according to their preference with Casey leading the hill climbers and Margaret leading along the Jim Schug Trail. Both groups reported a beautiful walk enjoying early fall scenery.
Photo by Margaret F
Saturday, September 20
Alex & Michele Gonzalez Hiking Sanctuary & Preserve, Virgil
Hike report by John D.
Today, on this penultimate full day of summer,15 hikers and 1 dog gathered for a hike of color blazed trails in the Alex and Michele Gonzalez Hiking Sanctuary & Preserve. This is Ithaca Hikers hike #36. We started out under mostly clear skies with temperatures in the 50s but rising through the course of the hike. The hike was initially uphill following the Jose, Irvin and Spanish trails, gaining about 500 feet in elevation. We occasionally had to stop to locate the next blaze or backtrack to a missed turn. We continued on the Spanish trail down to Adams Rd. We did a road walk along Adams Rd. and Owego Hill Rd. until the turn-around time. Then back up the hill and around to Cristina Spring and back down to Daisy Hollow along the more northern trails. We traversed 4.3 miles in 2 hours.
Thanks to Leigh Ann and Jim for helping me prepare to lead this hike! We didn’t get lost and the timing was perfect.
This was another beginning-of-peak, beautiful, dry fall day for a hike. By my count, there were 21 hikers and two dogs on leash who headed out west from South Danby or Fisher Settlement Road. Between these roads, there’s a short (150-foot) section of trail that could use trimming, and then there’s another short section just west of Fisher Settlement that also could use trimming. Otherwise, this section of trail was lovely. Just over half of the group made it all the way to Hill Rd. before returning to the cars. This was about 4.25 miles and almost 1000 feet of elevation gain. Everyone made it back to the cars by two hours from the start of the hike.
Thirteen hikers and one dog met on Comfort Rd for an out and back hike on the Finger Lakes Trail from Comfort Rd towards Bruce Hill Rd. This is hike # 17-2 on our list of regular hikes: https://www.ithacahikers.com/17-2.
This section of the FLT has been closed to hikers since July 2024 due to storm damage. As soon as I heard recently that the section was re-opened, I scheduled todays hike. This section will be closed to hikers again in a couple of months due to hunting season closures, so I didn’t want to wait long to hike here.
The day was sunny and warm. This section of trail is often quite muddy during the rainy part sof the year. As this summer has been quite dry, we had no mud at all, other than a very small patch of trail that I suspect gets runoff from a spring. All water crossings were bone dry.
Once in the forest there it was a patchwork of shadow and light on the forest floor. Some of the hikers commented that they could tell that the trail hadn;t been hiked much due to the weedy overgrowth on the footpath. It doesnt take long for nature to start reclaiming a trail once left alone.
The outbound leg of this hike is generally a gentle downhill walk, with the return leg obviously being a gentle uphill. The footpath leads through many nice stands of pines and along open fields where the round hay bales were in abundence as we passed by
Various hikers walked at their own comfortable pace, so the group soon stretched out through the woods. Everyone turned around at the hour mark and re-traced their route.
For those hikers who are tracking their FLT miles to apply towards an FLT50 or FLT100 patch, I believe that todays FLT miles totaled around 4 miles.
Warm welcome to Savanna who joined the group today for her first hike!
Photo by Jim
Saturday, September 13
FLT: Schuyler County Veterans Park to Gulf Road and beyond Hike #66
Hike report by John D.
17 hikers and two dogs gathered at the Schuyler County Veterans Park.
The day began with partly sunny skies which would turn cloudy over the course of the hike. The temperature was in the 60s. We hopped onto the FLT off of S. Pine Rd. heading south.
I note that there is a spot about 0.1 miles in where the trail is easily lost. As you approach the edge of a field the trail becomes overgrown. You enter the field and make an immediate left back into the woods though there is no blaze visible.
We followed the trail until we reached County Rd. 6, followed the road for a tenth of a mile to Gulf Rd., and then rejoined the trail off of Gulf Rd. The trail runs along Cayuta Creek which we followed for about a mile and one half. We turned around at the one hour mark with Casey and Mary continuing on a little further.
Travelling back along the creek we ran into Zoe and Rogelio and their canine companions who were delayed by being detoured through an alternate dimension. (New total 19 people + 4 dogs)
The creek-side trails hosts various flora. I saw woodland goldenrods, Spikenard, American Cranberry Bush, Cardinal Flower and more.
Hikers on the creek-side trailOur turn around pointA portion of the Schuyler Veterans Memorial Photos by John D.Photos by Leigh Ann
Sixteen hikers and two dogs on leash met where the FLT crosses Texas Hollow Road for an easterly out-and-back hike. Mark Sussman told me he and David Priester had been doing some heavy trail maintenance there over the past week and it showed – trail conditions were excellent, and there was no hint that the portions of the trail had been almost impassable a week before.
These were the best trail conditions I’ve ever seen on this section of the FLT and on the blue trail that loops out scenicly to the north. Instead to staying entirely on the FLT, we took the blue trail loop both ways because of the views it gives of large and small ponds in the valley floor. These are lovely any time of the year, but on this hike, the ferns that line the shores had turned orange and looked like they were on fire. That is, fire with little white flowers scattered all through it.
Once past the blue trail going east, the FLT heads steeply uphill toward Newtown Road. We didn’t reach Newtown Road because we took the blue trail (which is fine, because Newtown Road is not very interesting in itself). Even so, the maximum elevation gain hikers some hikers got was almost 1000 feet. This was in approximately 4.75 miles, round-trip, which we all finished in two hours.
