Report to Hikers: week of May 6-May 12

Hello Hikers!

Wed May 8

Upper Buttermilk Falls SP and La Tourelle, from Yaple Road

Official head count: 16H, four D

More photos:

Jack V

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Sat May 11

Bald Hill Road and the Abbott Loop to The Pinnacles, Danby SF

This is one of the hikes where we always do a group shot
We had three photographers taking shots — me, Jack V and Tiger

Total head count (two hikes): 23H, six D —- fourH and five D stayed on Bald Hill Road the whole time, the rest went up the steep hill

More photos:

Jack V

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Sun May 12

Jim Schug Trail, Dryden

I don’t like to be too timid when I’m trying to decide if we should hike when it’s going to rain — on the other hand, I don’t want to see a group of hikers ride out to the trail head and then it pours. I thought I made a sensible decision about this hike based on how hard it was supposed to rain between 9 and noon. But then shortly after I sent out the “let’s do it” notice, it started to rain much harder. It was really coming down on our drive to the trail head. We wondered if other people would show up. In fact, we had a surprisingly good turnout, and everyone was energized by the fact trhat we were goig to hike in such heavy weather. It turned out the weather service very much underestimated the rainfall from 9 to noon in its prediction — we can know exactly how much rain fell because Cornell maintains a high-quality weather station just a few miles from where we hiked, in Harfard. In fact, we got 3X the amount of rain that was predicted. It didn’t matter — we had a great hike — the setting was just as lovely as I’d hoped.

I only took a few photos because I didn’t want to get my camera wet. Here’s a closer view of the hikers:
Leigh Ann, Haven, Norm, Kathy, Tiger, and Jim in front
Roger, Eckhart, Nancy, Joel, Wendy and Randy. One more hiker, Brenda, showed up to hike, but when she got out of the car to start the walk, she realized she’d left her hiking poles in the parking lot of Saturday’s hike, so she went off in hopes of finding them (she did). There were three dogs with us on the trail.
The rain slacked off briefly at one point and I got this shot.

One word of advice: Don’t wear cotton pants if you’ll be walking in the rain for two hours and it’s chilly out.