Author: shesse

A Few Days Spent on the Finger Lakes Trail

September 14-18 2020

By Jim R

September 14,2020

Day 1

I had arranged with my next-door neighbor ( thanks Gail!) to have her drop me off on her way to work at the nearest FLT trailhead/ road crossing to our homes in Freeville; this turns out to be the intersection of State Rte 38 and Star Stanton Hill Rd.

So it was that in the early pre-dawn gloom on Monday I found myself with pack in hand and a handful of chocolate chip cookies that Gail had baked for me the night before ( thanks again, Gail!) on Star Stanton Hill Rd, watching the taillights of Gail’s Jeep recede in the distance.

I will admit that for a second, I asked myself what did I think I was getting myself into. Then I reminded myself that just a few minutes before, Gail’s husband had commented to me as we climbed into our respective vehicles that he wished he was me, able to go off for a few days and do what I was doing. I said to myself, “well, I *am* me, so let’s get going”. So on went the pack, and up the hill we started.

I’ll just point out now that during this trek I seemed to start every day by having to go up a hill. And often not just any hill, but the biggest hill in the immediate area.

I’ll also point out that Tompkins County seems to like its bigger hills. A whole lot.

When I was getting ready for this trip, I asked Nancy H what app she used in her phone to keep track of her daily walks. Based on her recommendation I had downloaded “Map My Walk”, and I now had that app running as I climbed Star Stanton Hill Rd towards Hammond Hill State Forest. The Map My Walk app and I came to have a love hate relationship over the course of the week. The app verbally announces each completed mile, and after multiple miles it announces split times per mile, total time, total miles, and it seemed to take pleasure in announcing that I wasn’t walking at all ( even when I was ). The program would audibly argue with itself about whether it was working or not. At one point the first day after several hours of not seeing another person, the voice of the app making a mileage announcement was enough to make me jump in my shoes.

That first morning, I was extremely disappointed when the Walk app announced that it had taken me a whole hour to travel the first mile up the hill. I had expected that I could set a pace somewhat faster than that.

Fairly soon I found myself cresting the hill and walking the familiar Hammond Hill red and yellow trails that share the FLT for a short time. The sun seemed to break through for a bit, but I also got a good amount of wind on the hilltop. As I left the crest and descended on the other side of Hammond Hill, the gloom returned.

Around 11 AM I crossed Harford Rd, and the sun finally seemed to break free of its cloud cover and stay out. It never seemed to achieve the status of a “warm day” on Monday, however. Always on the “crisp’ side.

Around Noon I reached the Kimmee Shelter area in the Robinson Hollow State Forest. On the FLT maps, Kimmee is noted for having a “reliable water source”. There was no running water in the creek bed, unlike my previous visits to that shelter with Lucy G and others.  This, in fact, was the extent of the water available in the streambed:

Thankfully, I had brought two separate means of filtering and purifying water, not including the longer option of boiling.

After a leisurely lunch and filling my water bladder from the water source above, I clawed my way up the hill from the shelter area to continue Westward on the FLT.

Soon enough I came to the edge of Robinson Hollow State Forest near Robinson Hollow Rd, and I had to consider a problem that would nag me throughout the week.

When I was planning this trip, Jack V gave me two pieces of advice from his own FLT through-hike.

Jack said that you had to consider water availability, and having public land to camp on, versus private land which is off limits to camping. I had brought the ability to carry more water; I couldn’t create public land upon which to camp. So on the very first day, with multiple hours still available for hiking, I found myself looking at my map and estimating that if I continued forward, the next public land on which I could camp would be Potato Hill State Forest, still potentially several hours of walking ahead of me if I were to continue on. If I pushed ahead that far on day one it would entail getting to Potato Hill and setting up camp in the dark, not something I was looking forward to the first day. So I set up camp on the edge of Robinson Hollow State Forest, with the intention of getting an early start towards Potato Hill State Forest on the morning.

Total mileage for day one, according to the Map app, was around 6.5 miles

I had not seen a single other person on the trail the entire day.

September 15, 2020

Day 2

I woke up, broke camp, and left Robinson Hollow State Forest.

A short road walk on State Rte 79 brings you to the edge of Mallow Marsh, which until recently was flooded due to beaver activity. Thanks to the efforts of Dave Priester, that’s no longer the case.

Beyond Mallow Marsh lies a hill. I don’t care what the US Geological Survey people have as the official name for that hill; I have my own name for that hill. I call it the Hesse Hill from Hell. You see, the first time I climbed this hill with the group, the hill went up. And up. Up. Up. Up. The gazelles of the hiking group seemed to run ahead, the leaders eventually returning to the rest of us laboring up the hill to announce that there was a wonderful view at the top, and we could turn around now and return to our cars. I never did get to the top of the hill that day. I don’t think the group has returned to that hill for a hike since that day.

So on day 2 I found myself starting up from the marsh, recalling that earlier experience. The first tenth of a mile or so seemed fairly level, so I began to question the accuracy of my own memory. Then the real grades started to appear, and I realized that my memory hadn’t been wrong after all.

After a couple of hours of climbing I broke out onto the meadows that form the recent re-route of the trail in the Blackman Hill area. I quickly crossed the crest of Blackman Hill, over Blackman Hill Rd and then Level Green Rd. Once past Level Green Rd, I encountered the first water source since Kimmee shelter:

This was perfect timing, as I was down to the last few sips of water. Perfect spot for lunch and to refill my Camelbak. As you can see, there was a little more water in the stream this time. Standing water, but still, it was water.

I continued Westerly towards 76 Rd. Along the way there was the occasional bit of color; this was along the shoulder on the washed-out downwards slope approaching 76 Rd:

After crossing over 76 Rd, I had my one and only bee encounter of the entire trip.

Throughout the trip as I would come upon an area that I knew the hiking group members had reported recent bee activity, I would be concerned. It turned out that at none of those places did I encounter bees. No bees at Potato Hill State Forest. No bees at Curtis Rd, and so on.

Now, as I crossed 76 Rd and continued West, I suddenly heard that familiar thrummmmm. I stopped, looked around, and realized that I was literally standing next to the quintessential Berenstain Bears Bee Tree. In case you didn’t read that book series as a child, you missed a true literary classic. As I stood there and watched, the winged demons from hell started to disgorge themselves from the tree. I didn’t stick around. I didn’t bother taking any pictures for posterity. Here’s an exemplar image to give you an idea of the situation, though:

If that image wasn’t enough, here’s another. Run, Forest, Run:

I managed to escape, unscathed.

Shortly thereafter I cam upon Boyer Creek. This creek was the first water source I had encountered on my hike that had actual running water:

I was soon climbing the hill towards South Rd.

It was here, close to the end of day two, that I encountered my first person on the trail: a man running with his dog from the direction of South Rd.

I crossed South Rd, intending to spend the night at the Shindagin Shelter. I’d never approached the shelter from this direction, and came across interesting things such as this:

It was well into dusk and I was in the hollow expecting to see the shelter any second, when I suddenly realized that I was going uphill and away from the water. I retraced my steps to find the shelter. Somehow in the darkness I’d missed the side trail to the shelter. Because I was concerned about water I chose to sleep in the near-by bivouac area, which was situated closer to the stream. The privy, on the other hand, was a welcome accommodation. Not to mention, a real picnic table to sit at and eat. Total miles for the day was 10.76.

September 16, 2020

Day 3

I climbed up and out of Shindagin.

Note to the CTC People who might be reading this: the Town of Caroline has re-done the road section along Shindagin Hollow Rd where the FLT crosses. As a result, they’ve wiped out whatever signage existed to point hikers in the correct direction when having to walk down the road to start climbing up the hill. If I wasn’t familiar with the area, and had no map, it would have been difficult to find my way. This is the section in question, as it looked the day I was there:

I saw two bicyclists on the Shindagin bike trails.

I had lunch at the bivouac site just East of Braley Hill Rd; more “barely running” water in the stream there.

I crossed Braley Hill Rd and had another human encounter; a woman running her dog.

As I continued Westerly, I came down across White Church Rd and through the area the hikers had recently pruned back. Good job, all of you, from a hiker who appreciated the cleared path ; )

I stopped at the Ridgeway Rd parking area and ate at the picnic table where we usually park when doing group hikes. I had a dilemma. I had seen no water that was useable in some time. The duck pond water had a green slime on it so thick that I knew it would clog my filters immediately. I knew there would be no water on top of Eastman Hill, and no place to camp before the DEC land on Eastman Hill either. So, I put out a call for help to Cian, who lives nearby. Cian picked me up, took me to his place, gave me water and a place to pitch my tent for the night. Thanks again, Cian.

Per the phone app, 6.5 miles completed. Not great, and a lot of hiking hours lost.

September 17.2020

Day 4

Cian dropped me off at the base of Eastman Hill. You’ve all mostly hiked this one with me, you know just how much I dislike this particular hill as the trail worms its way up the hill.

I got up and over Eastman Hill, and road-walked Heisey Rd to State Rte 96B. A short road-walk up 96B puts you at the base of whatever hill it is that has the Tamarack Lean-to on it. Another hill that starts out nice and easy and then really lays the grade onto you.

By the time I made it to the shelter it was time for lunch.

I sat at the shelter and started to really plan out the rest of the week. It was clear that I wasn’t making the miles I had thought I would. I doubted that I would even make it out of the county in the remaining days I had planned to hike, let alone most or all of the way to Watkins. So I started making alternate plans about where to really end the hike, and where to get picked up and by whom. I now planned on hiking two more days, and having Katharine pick me up at Layen Rd at the end of Saturday.

As I sat at the shelter, a group of four backpackers arrived from the other direction; two father and adult sons from Rochester who were nearing the end of their own multi-day backpacking section hike of the FLT. They had a car staged at Braley Hill Rd, so I advised them of my observations of the trail between our location and Braley Hill Rd. They reported a similar lack of contact with anyone else on the trail, so it was nice to sit and talk with other people for a while. We were all somewhat worried about the forecast of rain, which eventually did materialize in the form of minor precipitation.

It turned out that one of the dads had helped to build that particular shelter ten years ago, so it was interesting hearing some of the stories he had to tell.

All of us chose to stay at the shelter for the night.

Mileage for the day was around 6 miles. I forgot to log the exact mileage by the time we all decided to spend the night at the shelter.

September 18, 2020

Day 5

Everyone took their time getting up and around, packing up and saying our good-byes.

My plan at this point was to walk the few miles to the Chestnut Lean-to, spend the night there, and then hike Saturday to the corner of Townline and Layen Rd where Katharine would pick me up. It would have been a full six days of hiking by that point. Had I tried to attempt to continue past Layen Rd at anything other than the start of a new hike day, I believe that I wouldn’t have made the next available public camping area in R.H. Treman State Park within a single hiking day. There was no public camping area near Layen Rd that the map indicated. So once again, the lack of available camping areas really dictated where I could plan to stop for a day, or even to end the hike.

I met one day-hiking couple as I crossed Smiley Rd

By the time I made the long descent to Michigan Hollow Rd it was pretty clear that there were a fair number of day hikers out for the day. I saw only a few of them in the area and had no conversations with any of them.

I arrived at the Chestnut lean-to to find it deserted. I laid out my stuff to prepare for the night.

Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. The lead element of one group of partiers from Binghamton arrived at the shelter. The guy basically walked up, threw a load of wood down, threw down an uninflated sleeping mat in the shelter and started asking distances to various places down trail. When I asked what his hiking pace was, he said that depended on how much he had to drink the night before. That’s when he popped the top on his first can. After a bit more conversation with the advance element guy, I had the small voice in my head saying that I needed to get out of there as soon as possible. I managed to get ahold of Nancy L to get me a ride from the road, re-packed my gear and literally bushwhacked my way to the road. Standing by the road waiting for my ride yet another group of partiers loaded down with party supplies started down the trail; they were unassociated with the first group ( I asked ), and so I warned them that these other guys were already staking out the shelter for themselves.

Normally I don’t care if people want to have a good time. After a few days with almost no human contact, and it being clear that this particular shelter being so close to the road turns into a not-so-backcountry party place on weekends, it was more than I wanted to deal with. This will be something I should take into consideration when planning for any future section hikes

Total miles for the day was around 4.

So that’s it folks. Seven or eight days as originally planned, that shrank to 6 and then to 5.

I hope that all of this verbiage can help any of you who may want to consider a similar effort of your own in the future.

Hello Hikers!

Wed Sept 16

This report was written by Nancy H

Monkey Run Natural Area, north side of Fall Creek at Hanshaw Road

Twelve hikers and two dogs gathered on Hanshaw Road to hike the Monkey Run natural area along the north side of Fall Creek. The morning was cool and sunny, perfect weather for tackling the hills we encounter on this hike.

After a quick detour to the beach to view Fall Creek, which was quite low, we returned to the trail. The little stream the trail crosses was totally dry.

Past the Cornell cookout shelter, some of the group decided to continue on the trail as it heads steeply down to the creek, while others opted to continue hiking along the fields.

After about half an hour, we met up again and returned to the cars a few minutes ahead of schedule.

By then, the day was warming up but still remarkably pleasant—a perfect late-summer day.

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Sat Sept 19

This report was written by Leigh Ann

Hammond Hill SF, ski trails

A pandemic record of 18 hikers and seven dogs met up at the parking lot on north Hammond Hill Road. The hike time was later than usual for a Saturday, 9:40 a.m., so we could end up at Hopshire at opening time to celebrate Eckert’s 89th birthday and those of many other hikers who are 80 or above.

Jack V. led this hike through the maze that is the Hammond Hill ski trails.

The world had noticeably tipped toward fall on this cool, clear morning. At the beginning of the hike, fingers of morning sunlight were coming in low through the trees and lounging liquidly on the trail. As the sun rose, the landscape looked like a child’s new paint box: bright blue sky, dark green trees, and intense reds and yellows in a few places. Very few leaves had fallen, and the trees were packed. We saw a few other people on the trails.

Steve is writing about the gathering at Hopshire, and I’ll congratulate Eckert on choosing a great time of year to get born. I always enjoy celebrating his birthday at Hopshire!

More photos:

Cian

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Our oldest active hiker, Eckhart, turns 89, and we head to Hopshire to salute him and the other six hikers in our group who are still on the trail after turning 80

Our nature photographer Annie created a special birthday card for Eckhart — ingenious and delightful!

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Sunday Sept 20

This report was written by Leigh Ann

Layen Road to Bruce Hill Road and beyond on the FLT, Jersey Hill, Danby

Thirteen hikers and seven dogs met up at the corner of Townline and Layen Roads to hike south on the Finger Lakes Trail (FLT).

The morning was cool, and the sky was covered with silvery mackerel clouds that slid away as the sun rose higher. This part of the FLT rewards with magnificent views down the steep valley to the south at any time of year. At this time of year, new bales of hay can make the first, biggest field look like an Andrew Wyeth painting.

The FLT is well marked on this stretch, and as often happens on this hike, the group took this opportunity to spread way out. As the sun rose higher, it looked golden and impressionist where it shown through changing leaves in the forest.

Out in the fields, the colors were child’s new paintbox again, like yesterday. Fall fruits were ripening on the trees, including some small pears and native grapes, and some of the previously spread-out hikers came back together to admire them near the cars.

This was an excellent choice of hike for the day and this time of year.

Best wishes,

Leigh Ann

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Coming tomorrow — a special report!

A Few Days Spent on the Finger Lakes Trail

September 14-18 2020

By Jim R

Hello Hikers!

Wed Sept 9

This report was written by Jim

Bob Cameron Loop, Connecticut Hill WMA

On Wednesday September 9^th six hikers and one dog met at the radio tower on  Tower Rd Town of Newfield for a hike of the Bob Cameron Loop. An additional hiker arrived late, but was unable to catch up to the group and did a solo hike of the same route.

Temps were warm but not unreasonably so. Trail conditions were dry, and had none of the slippery surfaces that resulted in my early departure in May. The group completed the Loop in fairly quick time.

Hikers found not only the trail to be dry, but all water crossings as well.

After completing the Loop, hikers opted to round out the two hour hike time by following the FLT on the same side of Tower Rd instead of crossing to the opposite side as the group often does.

Upon reaching the more Northerly FLT  crossing on Tower RD, half of the group opted to re-trace their steps on the FLT, while the other half of the group chose to road-walk up Tower Rd back to the radio tower parking area.

This was a great end-of-summer hike.

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Sat Sept 12

This report was written by Jim

Curtis Road in South Danby south into Danby SF

On Saturday September 12, a total of 18 hikers and four dogs met at the intersection of Hill and Curtis Rds in the Town of Danby

These hikers were then joined by two additional hikers during the course of the hike.

This makes this the largest hiking group that the Ithaca Hikers have enjoyed on a single hike since the Covid pandemic started. Thanks to everyone for sticking around. It wouldn’t have been the same 2020 without you.

Hikers proceeded down Curtis Rd, propelled by a slightly chilly and blustery wind.

Despite the wind, I heard no complaints from anyone in the group. If anything, the weather seemed to be perfect hiking weather. I actually heard comments from some people that they for once weren’t having to shed or add layers to remain comfortable

After the usual stop along the fenceline of the Karenville B & B to admire and feed the pony there, the group continued South on Curtis Rd.

At the FLT crossing the group split into roughly halves, with one half proceeding down the FLT, and the reminder continuing the roadwalk on Curtis Rd.

I hiked with the roadwalk group but spoke to the FLT group at the end of their hike; they reported several group members sustaining bee stings on their hike near the new bridge.

The roadwalk group did an out-and-back hike, finding a small amount of mud and puddles along Curtis RD but nothing to slow us down or detract from what was a great day hike in Danby. The trees are really starting to show some color change, although nothing of any brilliance yet.

More photos:

Cian

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Sun Sept 13

This report is by Jim

Lindsay Parsons Preserve, West Danby

Thirteen hikers and 5 dogs met in the parking lot of Lindsey Parsons preserve on the Town of Danby. The group was fairly dispersed throughout the hike, with a few of the dogs and a couple of the hikers who had opted to hike in the normal route rejoining the group only at the end of the hike.

A highlight of this hike this time of the year is the goldenrod that thrives in the first field or two we generally walk through, if it hasn’t been mowed down yet. I had originally planned on doing this hike a month ago; Leigh Ann had checked out the Preserve  for me in anticipation of an earlier hike. At that time the goldenrod was not fully grown, and so we delayed the hike until the middle of September.

Hikers who arrived early today scouted the fields for me and reported back that the fields of goldenrod  had been mowed. To compensate for this loss, I led the group initially around an observation loop for Coleman Lake that starts at the southerly end of the parking lot. The group hasn’t done this loop in the past, but I scouted it out briefly this morning and found that the goldenrod was NOT mowed in that area.

After doing that very brief loop, I led the group to the trailhead we normally launch our hikes from, but opted to reverse  our normal hiking direction as a way to vary the hike.

First we stopped by an observation point for the beaver ponds that we haven’t regularly stopped at in the past. This provided a very pastoral overview of the mown fields, the beaver ponds and near-by forested areas. After that we bushwhacked across the mown fields and commenced our reverse loops of trails. We hiked red, yellow, orange, blue and purple trails over the course of the hike.

There are a number of fairly newer looking  signs indicating various observation or other points of interest within the preserve or also private property lines, and it seems that part of the path is a re-route around private land that we hadn’t seen previously.

Towards the end of the hike we stopped at the end of Coleman Lake, something we normally do in the beginning of our hikes in the Preserve. We found that a considerable amount of work has been done filling in around the end of the lake and improving access roads to the lake. Water levels seemed lower than normal, and the array of tree trunks in the lake were visible.

The weather held out for us today; there was supposed to be rain, but that didn’t start until after the hike had concluded. Temperatures during the hike were warm enough that many hikers were shedding layers very early in the hike.

There were a few other hikers encountered along the route, but overall contact with other people was extremely minimal.

This was a great hiking day and location.

More photos:

Cian

Hello Hikers!

Wed Sept 2

This report was written by Jim

Rural roads in east Danby — Marsh, Deputron Hollow and Olsefsky roads

On September 02 2020, ten hikers and four dogs met at the corner of East Miller and Marsh Roads for a hike of the seasonal portion of Deputron Hollow Rd.

The weather overall was cool; the outbound leg of the hike saw steady periods of sunshine which was particularly appealing as it created alternating pools of sunlit road and stretches of relative dimness . We also saw the first fal leaves of the season.

Having grown up on the edge of one of Ithaca’s gorges, I always find hike locations that proceed along the edges of plunging gorges to be particularly appealing; this hike  is one such example of that.

The past damage to the surrounding hillsides and road surface from logging operations is largely corrected or minimized from what I had observed in past summer hikes of the area. Many of the fallen trees have been cleared out, although some trees and limbs remain. The road surface is no longer the maze of churned mud and pools of water that it was at its worst

The group continued along the seasonal portion of Deputron Hollow Rd, turning around shortly after reaching the maintained paved portion of the road.

While re-ascending the hill, part of the group chose to take a side road to extend their hike time. Sporadic rainfall that was starting at around this time convinced a smaller portion of the group to make a beeline directly back to our cars .

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Sat Sept 5

West Hill walk on lands belonging to the YMCA, Cornell (Coy Glen) and EcoVillage

Fantastic morning, cool, relatively dry and intensely sunny

The first half of the walk is in deep shade, starting even before you get out of the parking lot on Route 79

There’s pretty much no shade at all on the second part of the walk — miserable when it’s hot out, but perfect on a mild morning with the goldenrod blooming

Much of the walk here is on a maze of branching and forking trails, completely baffling the first few times you try to find your way

This trail is a genuine loop with no overlaps. There’s a brief last leg in the YMCA woods.

14 hikers

six dogs

More photos:

Cian

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Sun Sept 6

We have two reports for this hike, because of confusion about where the group was supposed to meet up

South Danby — FLT east to the Tamarack Lean-to

Report #1, by Leigh Ann

Hi, everyone.

Sixteen hikers and five dogs met up on the Finger Lakes Trail between Fisher Settlement Road and Tamarack Lean-to. Three hikers parked on Fisher Settlement Road, where a recent group hike toward the west started two weeks ago, and the rest parked on South Danby Road, where the Google pin for the hike description was. After some texting back and forth to figure out what was happening, everyone agreed to head east.

By the time we got to the lean-to, we had all met up.

Amazingly, there were people camping at the lean-to. They must have been surprised at their campsite being invaded, but they were good-natured about it. We might have woken them up, because they were stretching, but we were talking loudly enough that they would have heard us when we were several minutes away.

The morning was softly cloudy. It had rained the night before, and the temperature never rose out of the high 60s all through the hike. So, although it was humid, it was never oppressive. The trail was springy rather than muddy. Sunlight started coming in about halfway through the hike, and it cast fuzzy, leopard-print shadows on the trees and forest floor. The air looked peach-colored, but this may have been because I was craving a peach.

Best wishes,

Leigh Ann

****

Here’s report #2, written by Jim

On Sunday September 6^th three members of the Ithaca Hikers met on Fisher Settlement Rd where the FLT crosses.

The group had recently hiked West on the FLT from this road crossing, and I’ve wanted to get a good hike in an Easterly direction while we have good fall weather.

It had rained the previous evening, and hikers found that temps were cool but enjoyable once we got moving.

This section of the FLT, to South Danby Rd and beyond is notable for the distance of pine forest that the trail traverses. The damp ground and pine needles combined with the modest terrain elevation changes over the length of the route  made for a pleasant hike today; the recent rain and changes in sunlight and shadows really caused the colors of the undergrowth to visually “pop” as we progressed through the forest.

The trail traversed through some interesting sections of both open areas and green tunnel effect.

Our small  group crossed South Danby Rd and continued on the FLT, eventually catching up to the larger group of Ithaca Hikers who had set out from the South Danby Rd FLT crossing. That group was already on its way back from the shelter the group normally uses as  a turn-around point. The return trip to the cars was uneventful.

More photos by Cian

Hello Hikers!

Wed Aug 26

This report was written by Jim

Snowmobile and ski trails, Yellow Barn SF, Dryden

8 hikers and 1 dog met on Signal Tower Rd for a walk through the Yellow Barn Forest area.

The walk through the seasonal road/ snowmobile trail part of the walk was uneventful. Conditions have been so dry for such an extended time that water levels and muddy conditions normally encountered on this area of the hike were greatly reduced or non-existent.

Evidence of yesterdays recent wind and storm activity, in the form of freshly broken tree limbs, were often encountered.

Hikers entered the equestrian fields we normally cross on this hike and found the grass to be around ankle height.

Weather conditions were sunny with a slight breeze throughout most of the open field portion of the hike.

By the time hikers reached the cross country ski loop on the southerly end of the equestrian fields, about half the group decided to turn around and head for their cars. The remainder chose to forge ahead, completing a circuit of the ski trail and getting back to their cars only a few minutes later than normal.

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Sat Aug 29

Hike cancelled because of predicted rain and thunderstorms

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Sun Aug 30

This report was written by Jim

Roy H Park Preserve into Hammond Hill SF, Dryden

Nine hikers and six dogs met at the North parking lot of the Roy park preserve. A tenth hiker arrived later.

Upon arrival at the trailhead the first hikers were met with darkening skies and cooler  temperatures than in recent days,

As the remainder of the group arrived, winds pushed the dark clouds from overhead, bringing with them bluer skies and the promise of good hiking weather.

The group set off across the wooden boardwalk; within minutes of entering the forest we were feeling the first misty drops of water falling from the skies through the forest canopy. As we climbed the hills towards Hammond Hill Rd, the level of precipitation grew, never to a level of great discomfort or inundation thanks in part to the overhead leafy cover.

The usual muddy spots on the climb were found to be bone dry today, although the roots and rocks on the trail were increasingly slick from rain.

The group, which had splintered during the quick thirty minute climb, reconvened on Hammond Hill Rd to assess our next steps. The Hammond Hill parking lot was found to be about half full, and the group could see a mix of equestrians, bicyclists and hikers flowing from the Hammond Hill multi-use trailhead. Our small group of hikers opted to risk running into more trail users and began the climb up the Hammond Hill yellow trail system. Luck held with us and we did not encounter a single user of the trail not associated with our group.

Notable for this section of trail were the many recent felled trees, so freshly fallen that they still bore their full compliment of green leaves. Some of these trees had fallen across the trail and been pushed back. None appeared to have been cleared through normal trail maintenance efforts. I can only assume that these were fatalities of high winds in the last day or two.

Hikers turned around at the first trail intersection and began our descent back towards the Hammond Hill parking lot. As we were running ahead of schedule, we opted to explore a side trail the group normally doesn’t take. That trail led us to the area opposite Camp Earth Connections. Returning to the parking area via the seasonal portion of Hammond Hill RD, Ithaca Hikers began a quick descent and return to the Roy Park Preserve North parking lot.

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Meanwhile ….

…. Three more of our super-regulars were out on the Abbott Loop in Danby as part of another event. This hike was organized by the Finger Lakes Chapter of American Pilgrims on the Camino for people interested in the Camino de Santiago to get together.. One of our regulars, Jana, was simultaneously training for an upcoming FLT hike. Some Ithaca Hikers will be repeating this hike next week to help Jana prepare for her September hike. (Info provided by Nancy H)