Hello Hikers!
Wednesday June 3
Three obscure side trails, upper Treman State Park
There’s lots more to see at upper Treman than just Lucifer Falls — there are three delightful side trails that take you into some wonderfully varied and beautiful settings — but I’ve never gotten the impression many other people are aware of this — everyone’s just dazzled and satisfied to see the roaring waterfalls and then call it quits.
Our gain — we always have the side trails to ourselves, even when the upper parking lot is jumping — and you always get the feeling of being off in some isolated part of the county instead of right next to one of the top three tourist attractions in town.
We caught a really lovely morning, low 50s, fog hanging on the hillsides on the way to the trail head
Official head count: 16 hikers, four dogs
You can see six more photos by me online here.
You can see Annie’s photos online here.
Saturday June 6
Shindagin Hollow Road east to South Road and beyond, Caroline
Gorgeous dark cool foggy morning in Shindagin Hollow State Forest — it evidently poured overnight when the cold wave came through, and the trail was running with water a lot of the way — this is always one of our darkest, most atmospheric walks, and the effect was really intense this time
A couple of the hikers had been to the Olympic rain forest in Washington, and they said it felt similar on this trail, especially right around the lean-to, which was built in one of the best pine groves I’ve been to — (don’t look too closely at the photo; the lighting was so dim, the photo quality is poor — it’s more or less in focus, I think, but terribly pixelated)
There’s only a few spots along this entire walk where there’s really enough light to take a decent photo — one is this crossing of South Road — you can see the fog in the distance — I got another photo op when we veered off the trail for a minute to check out this big field, which is actually a very high quality and productive one, according to Jim (far left), who studied crop science at Cornell for some years.
A lot of our hikers rate this trail very highly, and it was exceptionally picturesque this time. One drawback — lots of roots and a rough surface on the path, you really need to watch your step.
Official head count: 16 hikers, four dogs
You can see 10 more shots by me online here — including this year’s version of the big cairn — not the best I’ve ever seen — last year’s version was much better.
Sunday June 7
Six Mile Creek from the wildflower preserve to Potter’s Falls
Another great morning on the hiking trail, 10 degrees warmer than Saturday but still delightfully nice
The creek was quite muddy from Friday night’s storms — otherwise, picture-postcard conditions, and it’s really wonderful to have the creek in sight for so much of the way on this walk
We had several very good adventures — I led one contingent of hikers into the overgrown flood plain upstream from the lower reservoir — trying to get to Potter’s Falls by walking the whole way along the creek edge — lost my way in the maze of faint trails and marsh grass, hit an un-crossable stretch of water, had to turn back — we did some lively creek-jumping in the process — one hiker didn’t quite make it across cleanly, got a little wet, all in fun
Then a big contingent of hikers, the dare-devil crowd, kept going after we reached Potter’s Falls, where we always turn around — they walked forward along the narrow trail cut into the sheer cliff face of the north gorge wall up to the high dam — I foolishly did this trail once myself some years ago — most terrifying experience of my adult life.
Official head count: 32 hikers, five dogs.
You can see nine more shots online by me here.