Hello Hikers!
Wednesday May 10
Fillmore Glen, Moravia
For years I never scheduled a walk in this dramatic gorge on the grounds it was too far away (it’s 31 minutes from our house). Then about a year ago I abruptly realized it was ridiculous to ignore such a beautiful place because of an extra five minutes each way. Now I feel bad about how narrow my old thinking was. Anyway, Fillmore Glen is now in our hike rotation, and it’s definitely worth the trivial extra few miles driving.
There’s a typical CCC-era walkway along the stream for a good while — then the trail leaves the creek and becomes a rough narrow dirt path that zigzags up the wall of the gorge — dramatic, but too dark for photos. We do have a video from Norm that he made when we were trying to decide how to proceed — here
Rather than retrace our steps, we came down on a snowmobile trail — very pleasant —
We found a lovely old cemetery abutting the park grounds at the bottom — people buried there who were alive in the 1750s
Official head count: 17H, three D
Saturday May 13
Stevens Suspension Bridge to Cornell golf course and horse barns, Forest Home
Seemed like the early morning rain was fully over — then it started again just as we stepped off — but it ended for good a few minutes later and we had a great time — dark, damp, misty and 50 degrees — the best atmospherics for hiking IMO
The weather kept the golfers away — saw just two-three players and we didn’t have to worry at all about dodging stray balls or getting yelled at
Interesting to see how the lighting on the faces was affected by the color of the barn wall behind
Official head count: 14H, four D
You can see Jack V’s photos here
Sunday May 14
Hammond Hill SF — northeast trails with Jack V
Official head count: 33H, eight D
Jack was improvising our route through this unfamiliar part of the forest as we walked along, picking the next path to take from the confusing mishmash of trails based on how much time was left — somehow he managed to get us back to the cars in precisely two hours, almost to the second.
You can see his photos here