Hello Hikers!
I hope you marked down the date of our summer cook-out like I urged you to the other day. It really is the best and biggest event of our year — I’m not exaggerating — we had more than 80 people last summer, and it was definitely a blast — see for yourself. The date is Saturday July 25. You don’t want to miss it.
Now here’s our regular report on the week’s hikes:
Wednesday April 22
Shindagin Hollow State Forest, blue and yellow mountain bike trails
Dilemma: It’s supposed to rain, but not until hours later — then, just as you leave for the hike, it starts to come down unpleasantly hard — what should you do?
Answer: Drive on — meet all your hiking pals at the trail head as scheduled — have a great hike!
I think maybe we’ve all been toughened up by the constant bad weather we had all winter — as we drove to this hike with the rain spattering on the windshield, Tiger and I figured no one else would ever show ….
…. but all the regulars drove up like it was nothing, and we had a wonderful time. It rained the whole time — quite muddy — but on the plus side, this was the first time we didn’t get lost doing this hike,
Official head count: 16 hikers, two dogs.
Saturday April 25
Six Mile Creek, south side, rim trail
Gorgeous cool morning along the creek, mid 30s with a light breeze — the woods were bathed in a most beautiful light
There’s lots of great pine-tree action along this trail and I managed to work the pines into a few shots, providing some green color
…. otherwise it’s still all brown in the woods and no signs of spring yet — I really like the muted look myself but it probably seems just drab to some people
This trail provides just the right amount of exercise, in my opinion — a few lively ups and downs, a couple of stream crossings, a good knife-edge ridge with views of the reservoir — but in general it’s not that hard.
Official head count: 24 hikers, eight dogs
Click here to see nine more shots online.
Sunday April 26
Jim Schug Trail east into Cortland County on the FLT
Make that two great mornings in a row for hiking — pretty much the same lovely weather and beautiful light in the woods we had the day before.
The thing that makes this hike stand out is the sheer number of sweeping long views we get. This shot shows you the one hill on this trail segment, which we go up and over
There was a bit of grumbling on the uphill that the climb was a lot steeper than I described in the notice of the hike — so keep that in mind the next time we come out here — not that I’m going to change the strenuousness rating just for a few complainers ….
For the second weekend in a row, we had a limbo contest under a big fallen tree — a lot more people were able to get under the log this time without bracing themselves on the ground — that’s new hiker Annie — even someone exactly my age managed it — but I realized afterwards people were bracing themselves against the log over them, so maybe it wasn’t as hard as I first thought.
What I really love about this hike are the long and picturesque views everywhere, from start to finish — this is just after we stepped off from the cars — and here’s a delightful farm we pass coming and going,
Official head count: 28 hikers, seven dogs
You can see 11 more photos online here.
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Here are some photos from our beautiful hike along the east shore of the lake in King Ferry on April 18 — taken by Scott, who organized the event so masterfully — click here.