Hello Hikers!
Wed March 18
Hill Road and Curtis Road, South Danby – road walk
More unfamiliar country roads — great rural scenery — delightful morning except for a raw wind blowing in our faces on much of the outbound leg
There was a NWS warning in effect for snow squalls and possible white-outs, but before the storm arrived it was gorgeous out, sunny with huge dramatic clouds and beautiful slanting light
The snow began on our way back to the cars, and the walk immediately turned moody and atmospheric — by the time we were in the home stretch, it felt like the dead of winter ….
and we actually did hit a white-out for a few minutes driving up 96B on the way back to town
This is the first winter we’ve done more than 1-2 road walks, and I’ve really enjoyed it — I love the rolling terrain and the feeling of openness and depth you can get, and the wonderful old farms, both the thriving ones and the decaying ones.
We passed two places with horses — in one, the horses came to the fence to watch us pass by — I hoped to get a cute shot of our guys interacting with them, but when Gary and Eckhart walked over the horses darted away (photo) and couldn’t be coaxed back.
Official head count: 12 hikers, two dogs
You can see nine online photos here.
Sat March 21
Yellow Barn SF, Dryden — snowmobile trail
Snowing hard on the drive out to the trail head …. Route 13 only partially cleared, and there were several cars resting in the ditch — Tehan Road so slippery three hikers’ cars couldn’t make it up the hill, and Wan had to go fetch them — one of our more exciting hike shape-ups ever.
As promised, we took the snowmobile trail north into unfamiliar territory, leaving the edge of Yellow Barn SF and dropping down into a huge open area with fantastic views into the rolling hills beyond Route 13
The snow stopped fairly soon but it was gusty and cold out in the fields, so we headed back up into the shelter of the forest — quite a tough climb back up — the snowmobile trail wasn’t groomed after all, it was a bit bumpy and there was 3-4 inches of fresh snow on top — a little grueling
We had a great time anyway — official head count: 12 hikers, one dog — no snowmobilers, no skiers
Click here to see nine more shots online.
Sunday Mar 22
Hike cancelled because of snow and bad driving conditions — but then not too long after I sent out the cancellation notice, the snow stopped and the sun came out ….