Wednesday, March 5
Jim Schug Trail from Lake Road, Dryden
Hike report by Jim
Seven hikers met on Lake Rd in the Town of Dryden for an icy and wet out-and-back hike of part of the Jim Schug Trail. This is hike #34-2 on our list of regular hike locations: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-34.
The trail conditions were very icy, although with recent warmer temps the ice is breaking up and turning slushy. Ice covering Dryden Lake and the ponds surrounding the trail are losing their ice cover as well, and the water in the various streams is flowing vigorously.
Rain fell throughout the hike and increased in intensity in the second hour of the hike.
Saturday, March 8
Roy H Park Preserve to Hammond Hill State Forest, Dryden
Hike report by Jim
Sixteen hikers and three dogs met in the north parking lot of the Roy Park Preserve in the town of Dryden for a hike up the hill towards Hammond Hill State Forest. This is hike # 32 on our list of regular hike locations: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-32.
Temperatures were lower this morning, and a good amount of wind was blowing across the open spaces and through the treetops throughout the hike. A fresh layer of snow blanketed the trail, making it difficult in places to follow the course of the footpath except for the red discs on the trees.
The parking lot had a thick layer of ice under the fresh snow, and I should have taken that as a warning and been personally more prepared for conditions we found on the hillside. I failed to wear foot traction on the hike, and we found that much of the footpath on the hill was a layer of ice. The flat trail portions just beyond the wooden boardwalk were covered with a layer of crusty and uneven ice and made for a poor walking surface. Even the boardwalk was covered with a layer of ice that must have been the result of people walking along the boardwalk all winter.
It was a slow crawl up the hillside because of the ice, but everyone made it to Hammond Hill Rd, where we took the group photo. Some hikers opted to return to the parking area via a road walk instead of returning via the red-blazed trail, because of the icy conditions.
The majority of the group hiked into the yellow blazed Hammond Hill trail system for a few minutes before returning to the red blazed trail back to our cars.
If anyone in the group has any interest in leading future hikes, please make your interest known.
Sunday, March 9
Texas Hollow State Forest, Hector
Hike report by Jim
Seven hikers who remembered to change their clocks Saturday night met in Schuyler County for an out-and-back hike of the FLT through Texas Hollow State Forest led by Casey Creamer. This is hike #41 on our list of regular hike locations: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-41.
This hike took place entirely within FLT map sheet M15, which is available for purchase in electronic or paper formats at: https://fingerlakestrail.org/store/maps-and-gps/purchase-individual-maps/. Purchase of FLT maps helps to defray the on-going costs associated with trail maintenance.
The day was good. In fact, it was what I had expected on Saturday when we had a much more ” wintery” hike from the Park Preserve towards Hammond Hill. On this hike there was very little ice; the only meaningful ice I saw on today’s hike was at one stream crossing and on the various ponds we hiked past. We actually hiked through a couple of muddy spots on the trail where springs were active. The day was mostly sunny; while the winds were a little chilly, they were much more enjoyable than what we had the previous day.
I noticed that since our last hike here there have been a few sizeable blow downs which have been cleared from the FLT footpath. Thanks to all volunteer trail maintainers and Cayuga Trails Clubs David Priester who continue to maintain our trails so well!
Arriving at the first pond on our route we noticed that the winter melt has put the pond into its usual overflow condition. The puncheons were a great help in getting through that area, although I chose a looping route around the worst of the flooding by using a drier deer path or two to get back on the FLT.
Once back into the woods the group broke down into a few subsets of hikers. Casey advised me that the fastest group made it as far as Newtown Road before turning around.
On the return portion of the hike, we took the blue blazed loop trail. Theres been some obvious recent beaver activity around the smaller pond on that loop, and with the lack of foliage and leaves there were some good lines of sight across the forest floor.
Towards the end of the hike we ran into CTC hikers Tom and Lucy who were out enjoying the same section of FLT.
For those hikers who might be applying our FLT miles towards a 2025 FLT50 or FLT100 patch, today’s hike included 3.4 FLT miles.
