Wednesday, January 22
Ellis Hollow Nature Preserve
This hike was cancelled due to severe weather.
Saturday, January 25
Cayuga Trail South Loop
Hike report by Jim
Nineteen hikers and two dogs met on Forest Home Drive in the Town of Ithaca for an out-and-back hike on a combination of the Cayuga Trail South Loop and the Monkey Run trail systems. This is hike # 4-2 on our list of regular hike locations: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-04.
While the Cayuga Trail itself is a frequent location for our hikes, the South Loop hasn’t been a recent hike for the group. I had recently done a hike here with the Cayuga Trails Club and thought that it was worth bringing the Ithaca Hikers along this route today.
After crossing the suspension bridge the group took a right turn and continued to bear to the right at the next two trail junctions. This kept us walking along the northerly shore of Fall Creek, which was very enjoyable as it was nearly entirely covered in ice for much of the area immediately around the suspension bridge.
Soon the orange blazed Cayuga Trail enters a couple of open fields. The” Trail” here morphs into a service road for a couple of Cornell fields. The orange blazes are few and far between, but the change to an actual dirt road allows hikers to walk side by side as they talk during the hike.
Soon the route brings hikers out to Freese Rd at the long-closed Freese Rd bridge, which seems to finally be making progress towards being replaced in the coming years: https://tompkinsweekly.com/…/town-of-dryden-gets…/
Crossing the bridge the Cayuga Trail makes a sharp left and follows the southern side of Fall Creek, passing through some minor woods areas before coming out on more Cornell agricultural fields. The winds were a little strong blowing across these open fields, but I enjoy following the bluffs above Fall Creek here as the waterway winds through several twists and turns. We encountered the only other hikers we saw all morning on this portion of the hike.
Soon enough the Cayuga Trail comes to an intersection with the red blazed Monkey Run trail system. Our group took the red blazed trail, while the Cayuga Trail turned to circle around the fields. Re-entering the woods, the Monkey Run trail is never far from the water, and at several points offers a nice viewing location of the Creek at stream level as well as the high Varna bluffs on the opposite bank of the Creek.
We set a better pace than I expected; I had planned on the group being a little slower than it was today, and so we got to my planned turn-around point a full ten minutes sooner than I had planned. Had we continued further on the trail it would have taken us into more open fields.
Turning around, the group was led for the return leg of the hike by Leigh Ann. We did stop at a couple of the viewing locations to check out the bluffs and the Creek and managed to still make it back to our cars with ten minutes to spare.
Thanks to all who came out to hike today!
Sunday, January 26
Finger Lakes Trail in Danby State Forest
Hike report by Jim
Twenty-one hikers and three dogs met on South Danby Rd in the Town of Danby, for an out-and-back hike of the FLT in Danby State Forest to the Tamarack Lean-To. This is hike 23-1 on our list of regular hike locations: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-23.
Today’s hike was entirely on the Finger Lakes Trail, depicted on map sheet M17, available for purchase in paper or electronic formats at: https://fingerlakestrail.org/…/purchase-individual-maps/. Sale of the maps helps to defray the on-going costs associated with trail maintenance.
While I say that this is on our list of regular hike locations, we actually haven’t done this particular hike in about a year, and I’m not sure why I haven’t scheduled it sooner. We’ve more recently hiked to the Tamarack Lean-to from the other direction (State Route 96B) on the FLT, but for whatever reason I’ve slipped up on having us hike to it from South Danby Rd. I’ll have to do better to get it in the rotation more often, as this is a nice hike.
Leaving South Danby Rd, the FLT begin a steady climb that lasts for much of the outbound leg of the hike. The footpath weaves in and out of the trees as it climbs the hillside, repeatedly crossing a snowmobile trail along the way. There are a few short flat sections on this uphill climb, and the climb isn’t really steeply pitched, it’s just more or less a continuous climb.
There are some trail sections along the way that are fairly muddy in the summer months. Today those sections had a fragile crust of frozen mud and ice, resulting in hikers in the lead of the group repeatedly crushing through the thin shell. Most of the footpath was in good condition, with a firm footing of snow. I do suspect that we put more boots on the trail on this section today than it’s seen in a few weeks.
There was a steady breeze blowing through the treetops, which consisted of stands of pines and several large deciduous tree species, as well as the Tamaracks that the lean-to takes its name from. The day was sunny, the blue sky full of clouds a good day to be on the trail. The sun broke through the trees in long beams of sunlight, contrasting sharply with the shadows deeper in the treeline around us.
The FLT crosses seasonal Travor Rd as it gets closer to the lean-to.
The faster hikers, led by Leigh Ann, arrived at the lean-to and took a short break before starting the return leg of the hike and picking up the slower hikers on the return portion of the hike. The group was back at the cars more or less exactly on time. Good job Leigh Ann!
For those hikers tracking their FLT miles for the 2025 FLT 50 or FLT100 patches, todays FLT miles total was 3.8 FLT miles.
