Wednesday, March 13
FLT west from Logan Rd., Finger Lakes National Forest
Hike report by Casey
Eleven Hikers showed up at the trail head on Logan Road in Burdett (which by the way is no farther away from Ithaca than the Shindaigin hikes that we do) and headed west on the Finger Lakes Trail. The weather was exceptional for this time of year. The trail was still muddy in many places, but the views were spectacular.
We managed to get to the rail bed for our turn around and by the time we got back to the cars we had logged 5.04 miles with 789 feet of elevation gain.
Saturday, March 16
Lindsay Parsons Preserve, West Danby
(1) Hike report by Mark Sussman
17 hikers and 1 dog explored the various trails at the Lindsey-Parson’s Preserve. On this beautiful sunny day the group moved at a steady pace, and observed the various ponds surrounded by rolling hills.
The main hike finished about 20 minutes early so a group decided to do an extra loop on the red trail. Others decided to just head for their cars.
An additional 6 hikers did an alternate hike – the challenging scramble up to the Pinnacles.
(2) Hike report by Casey
There were two somewhat separate hikes starting at the same time from the same location. Mark Sussman led the regular Lindsay Parsons Hike while Casey started with 7 people for a more challenging hike that starts on the regular trails but eventually takes a turn for the steeper, where we do a bushwhacking climb off the beaten trail to make our way all the way to the Pinnacles that is on the Abbotts Loop trail. I think we managed to get to the Pinnacles in one hour.
On the way back we added a little to our hike by taking the purple blazed alternate trail off of the orange to get back to the railroad tracks crossing.
We managed to do the whole 4.39 miles, 971 feet of elevation gain, in 2 hours and 7 minutes without rushing.
Sunday, March 17
Ekroos/ Wheeling/State Land Rd.
Hike report by Mary W.
This St. Patrick’s Day morning, fifteen hikers met to walk Ekroos Road in the Town of Candor, Tioga County. Getting there is one of the rigors of this walk, gps and cell connection is unreliable in this area.
It rained lightly enroute to the hike, however once our walking began, the rain stopped. Hikers walked the rambling, rural road (having three different names) for about two miles eastward to 76 Road. It remained mostly cloudy and about 40F. As Casey pointed out, this was the first time in which every hiker reached 76 Rd and thus we were able to gather there for a group photo, cheers all!
Following the brief gathering, hikers turned around and walked back toward the cars. Many hikers continued walking beyond the cars to reach South Road and then back to the meet-up area in order to complete the full road distance.
No one mentioned the recent and tragic history regarding Ekroos Road, so I’ll leave it as a mystery and not sully the hike. Instead I’ll call it a rigorously pleasant rural road hike on which we met to stroll for a total of about 4.2 miles with a terrific bunch of walkers!
