Report to Hikers: week of Sept 11-Sept 17

Hello Hikers!

Wednesday Sept 13

Road walk: Southern Newfield at the Tioga County line

Brand new territory for all of us — this was another rural road walk discovered by Scott while he was riding his bike

We soon came upon a small herd of jet black cattle — it seemed clear they were intrigued by the sight of a group of people walking by — they ran around in an amusing fashion and seemed to be really enjoying themselves

Our walk was shaping up to be very attractive when two highway department trucks pulled up and said the road we were on was about to be closed for resurfacing. We went back to the cars and drove to a new spot on a different road.

I wasn’t sure where we had gone — very deserted setting

As the person who conceived and plotted out this walk, Scott was a little concerned that the group might be disappointed or irritated by the unexpected road work. But everyone took it completely in stride. Scott wrote to me afterwards:

Wanted to pass on my appreciation that when things got screwed up nobody pissed or moaned, bitched or whined. A tribute to the group!

I had a great time myself. I find it so interesting to go out into these picturesque rural neighborhoods I’d never otherwise get to — and walking is an ideal way to check them out.

Official head count: 16H, five D

You can see Jack V’s shots here

Saturday Sept 16

Layen Road to Bruce Hill Road and beyond, Danby

The owner of the quarry has walled it off from the hiking trail by piling up a big mound of dirt — we sent a scouting party over the top to investigate — nothing exciting to report

There’s a couple of nice fields south of Bruce Hill Road that we can just reach before it’s time to turn around — this one is usually planted in corn, except that Tiger said, oddly, this time there were no corn cobs on the plants

There are at least three kinds of apples growing along the side of the big field at the start of the hike, according to Tiger. A number of hikers tried them — very tasty though a bit hard, according to Tiger