Wednesday, February 26
Dryden Rail Trail to East Hill Rec Way
Hike report by Jim
Thirteen hikers gathered on a sunny day with blue skies on Stevenson Rd in the Town of Dryden, where the Dryden Rail Trail crosses, for an out-and back very flat hike of a section of the Dryden Rail Trail and East Ithaca Rec Way.
This particular hike is not on our list of regular hike locations, although we have in the past met at this location to hike the Dryden Rail Trail in the opposite direction. The connection of the Dryden Rail Trail and East Ithaca Rec Way only officially opened a couple of years ago, but I hadn’t thought to have a group hike in that direction since the trails were officially connected.
After a quick photo the group crossed Stevenson Rd and walked the short section of Dryden Rail Trail to Game Farm Rd. This section of trail was actually quite icy, so the majority of hikers who hadn’t put on any form of foot traction had to pick their way along very carefully.
Crossing Game Farm Rd, we continued on the East Ithaca Rec Way, which was entirely ice and snow free. I believe that paved rec way not only gets plowed but salted in the winter.
While on the East Ithaca Rec Way we encountered a large assortment of dog walkers. This section of trail was quite popular, as the small parking lot at Game Farm Rd was full and cars lined both sides of the road in the area.
We walked the Rec Way, crossing over the former railroad bridge and walking the Rec Way along Pine Tree Rd. Turning onto Maple Avenue we walked a short distance where the East Ithaca Rec Way makes a southerly turn near Veterans Place. The group reached the street crossing on Mitchell Streety before turning around and re-tracing our route.
Warm welcome to Joe and Gill on their first hike with the group!
Saturday, March 1
Kennedy State Forest, Virgil
Hike report by Jim
Seven hikers braved some snowy conditions to meet on Daisy Hollow Rd for an out-and -back hike on the Finger Lakes Trail in James Kennedy State Forest.
in Cortland County today. This is hike # 40-4 on our list of regular hike locations: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-40
Today’s hike took place entirely on either FLT map sheets M19 or for more trail detail, the “International Loop”. I know that the International Loop maps were recently updated in both content and nomenclature after the recent opening of the last couple of trail loops, but I haven’t had a chance to put the new maps I ordered into service yet. Either way, the FLT map sheets are available for purchase in paper or electronic formats at: https://fingerlakestrail.org/store/maps-and-gps/purchase-individual-maps/. Sale of the maps helps to defray the on-going costs associated with FLT trail maintenance.
The skies were overcast as I left Freeville this morning, and by the time I arrived on Daisy Hollow Rd, the snow was coming down steadily. We had been forecast to get ” flurries”, but this was a little heavier than that, and it persisted through most of the hike.
Trail conditions on the FLT and Swedish Loop were tolerable; a narrow strip of compacted snow, with a lot of old fragile snow on either side that had a thick crust that was as the lead hiker easily broken through and a little difficult if you strayed from the narrow strip of trail, which I seemed to do often. The yellow blazed Stockholm Trail that links the other two trails was a different experience, with no compacted snow to speak of and a whole lot of that crusty stuff that had to be slogged through. Throughout the hike the falling snow gave a uniform thin layer of new snow that makes hikes much more enjoyable visually.
We ran into a significant blow down across the trail early in the hike; see photo. Trail conditions report to the FLTC and Trail maintainer made post-hike.
Stream crossings went well. The water volume flowing in the streams was strong but not particularly deep. Along the way during one of the three stream crossings, I gave up trying to find most of the rocks at the stream crossings and just plunged across, my winter boots providing enough protection from the water in such shallow depths.
Other than the blow downs, we had a bit of a wildlife run-in on the Stockholm shortcut, when I practically ran into an ill/ injured raccoon that was on the footpath at the stream crossing. I notified State DEC of the animal’s location and also made a note about it in the trail register on the return leg of the hike.
For those attempting to acquire a 2025 FLT50 or FLT100 patch, I’ll admit that both of us who normally track the FLT miles on our hikes forgot to turn on our devices until well into the hike. I estimate from a quick post-hike map review that the group did around 3.5 FLT miles today.
Sunday, March 2
Monkey Run from Hanshaw Road
Hike report by Jim
Nine hikers and one dog met on a cold morning at the junction of Hanshaw and Lower Creek Rds in the Town of Dryden for a hike of the orange and red blazed portions of the Cayuga Trail system.
This hike took place entirely on the Cayuga Trail. Trail maps of the Cayuga Trail in both paper and digital formats are available for purchase from the FLTC at: https://fingerlakestrail.org/store/maps-and-gps/. Sale of the maps assists in defraying the costs of trail maintenance.
This was a variation on hike 5-1 from our regular hikes list: https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-5. I say a variation, because while the morning was clear and sunny, there was a very cold wind blowing across the open fields along Hanshaw Rd that we would have been skirting for a good distance right around the middle of the hike. I hate cold windy field crossings, so we came up with a last-minute change to the hike route.
The hikers left the parking area and followed the red blazed trails through the trees, descending to water level as we hiked along the shores of Fall Creek. the creek was moving quite rapidly, the smaller ice chunks bobbing along in the current as larger sheets of ice lay thrown up against the shoreline in many places.
Leaving the creek behind us we climbed to the high bluffs via a switchback staircase. From the bluffs we switched to the orange blazed trail that took us past the Cornell pavilion. The hikers continued through the woods until we came to the first large field that we would have had to traverse in the high winds for a long distance.
Rather than subject the hikers to the wind, I opted to turn the group around and hike past the Cornell pavilion back to the red blazed entrance road. Once there we walked to the orange blazed trail section that included the new bridge built by the Cayuga Trail Club last summer. We took that section of trail to Route 13 before turning around and re-tracing our route back to our cars in the parking lot. We completed the hike several minutes early, but I believe that the woods hike was more enjoyable than being blasted by high winds in the open fields.
