Hello Hikers!
Wednesday Sept 31
Stevens Suspension Bridge, Forest Home, east into Monkey Run Natural Area
A work crew from Cauuga Trails Club recently cut a new trail along Fall Creek east of Freese Road and we wanted to check it out
This required spending quite a bit of time walking along the edge of some big fields — since it was cloudy and not hot, this was pleasant
Completely by chance, we bumped into inactive hiker Laurie standing at the edge of the road with two grand chilldren (she lives right there) and she pointed us to the new trail head
Most of our dogs won’t walk on this open metal decking
Verdict on the new trail: Very nice. This opens up a third distinct walk for us that starts with the suspension bridge at Flat Rock. Entirely by coincidence, the newest walk took almost exactly two hours. Rained very lightly most of the way back — very lovely effect.
The suspension bridge has gotten more and more shaky to cross in the years we’ve been using it — when a group crosses at the same time now, it almost seems dangerous, We broke up into smaller groups for the crossing to play it safe.
Official head count: 25H, three D
You can see Jack V’s photos online here
Thursday Sept 1
Kayak and canoe outing, Cayuga Lake inlet
Beautiful sunny morning, but quite breezy — put in at Cass Park and paddled south down the inlet along Route 13A — wind at our back — I’d never done this stretch of water before and I found it a little boring, but Tiger liked it — came back around the other side of Inlet Island, past the Boatyard Grill — more interesting IMO — hit somewhat rough water paddling back into the wind — great fun all around.
We had eight kayaks and a canoe in our group. The most interesting kayak was Anne’s, which folds up and snaps together. Quite seaworthy once it’s assembled. The two canoe paddlers put in to Cascadilla Creek near Hickey’s music store and made their way out Linderman Creek to meet us.
Sunday Sept 4
Lindsay Parsons Preserve, W Danby
The goldenrod was stunted and only some of the plants were blooming, so we missed the peak display this year, but it was still satisfying
There are several lovely ponds here — water very low
A big part of this hike is in the woods — I can usually rely on our nature photographer Jack V to get some woodland shots but even he took a pass this time — these are delightful woods but I guess you need to join us if you want to see them
It started to warm up when we hit the last leg of the walk — I was out front and a couple of the dogs up front began to get stung, though the bees left the people alone as far as I know
Official head count: 37H, eight D
You can see Jack V’s photos online here
Monday Sept 5, Labor Day
Lick Brook, and mojito get-together at Hobit’s afterwards
Great relaxed and lazy vibe at Hobit’s, delightful way to wrap up our summer hiking program
No get-together at Hobit’s is complete without a display of tumbling by her son Jake
Official head count: 40H, thee D
Check out Jack V’s photos online here