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Report to Hikers — week of Jan 6-Jan 12

Hello Hikers!

Wed Jan 8

Owl Creek Trail, Buttermilk Falls SP

It’s a lot of fun to find a new trail in a familiar area that you never knew about before — it creates a very pleasing sense of novelty and anticipation.

I doubt many people are familiar with Owl Creek Trail, which runs through some very lovely scenery south of the park’s cabin area. It certainly doesn’t seem like the trail gets much use. I’m not sure there was even an official trail by that name until fairly recently.

You reach the trail head by walking up the access road toward the campground — this is closed to traffic in winter and it’s actually a nice walk. I especially appreciate that it offers stable footing, compared to the generally ragged and choppy condition of the more popular trails

Once you leave the access road you’re into a very picturesque area with some steep climbs, and a dramatic gorge carved by Owl Creek. Part of the trail is alarmingly close to the edge of the gorge for a while, but there is a work-around.

The trail ends in Kings Cemetery, which lies along the edge of upper Stone Quarry Road. Very nice place. Seems like a good place to be buried.

Official head count: 21H, one D

More photos:

Jack V

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Sat Jan 11

Danby SF — Michigan Hollow Road SE on the FLT to Hill Road and beyond

The FLT crosses Smiley Hill Road here — just a few minutes from the trail head. The road, which runs uphill pretty steeply from Michigan Hollow Road to Hill Road, is actually very picturesque and interesting in its own right

The FLT crosses Hill Road here, about 45 minutes into the walk

Curtis Road, our official turnaround spot

I decided to walk down Hill Road and Smiley Hill Road on the return leg, rather than go back down the FLT, which is quite steep in spots and was more slippery than I like. Hill Road had a thick coating of ice created by people driving on it, and it was a little tricky walking. It’s a much faster way back to the cars than returning through the woods. Tiger didn’t want to take the roads back but I more or less twisted her arm.

Official head count: 23H and two D

More photos:

Jack V

Cian

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Sun Jan 12

Roy H Park Preserve to Hammond Hill SF, Dryden

Official head count: 33H, four D

More photos:

Jack V

Cian

Report to Hikers — week of Dec 30-Jan 5

Hello Hikers!

Wed Jan 1

Bock Harvey Forest Preserve and Riemen Woods, Enfield

Official head count: 22H, five D

We have an additional nature photographer, Cian, who started hiking with us regularly in the fall. He’ll be posting his nature shots on Facebook, but he has it set up so you can see them without having to sign in or sign up. The link should take you to a page that says “See more of Cian” and then directs you to log in or create a new account. At the bottom it says, “Not now.” Just click this.

You can see Cian’s shots here

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Sat Jan 4

Lick Brook, from Town Line Road

Don’t be mislead by the brightness of this photo — I used the flash. It was actually very dark and raining a little briskly as we stood around waiting to set off

By the time we got down to the bottom of the steep hill, the rain had pretty much stopped.
We hadn’t seen such a volume of water going over the falls in a number of years.

Some of our group’s best adventures have come while trying to cross swollen creeks and streams. Roger, who studied engineering at Cornell and served in Vietnam building roads and bridges, always enjoys the challenge, but he couldn’t figure out a way across this time.

Two of our hikers, Hank and Eckhart, have unusually good balance, and they managed to cross the creek on a big fallen tree. But no one else wanted to follow them.

Back up at Town Line Road. The rain continued to hold off.

An upper stretch of the brook. Roger couldn’t come up with a way to get across here either.

Once again, we ended up not getting hit with the amount of rain predicted, and we had a great walk. Really wonderful atmospherics.

Official head count: 13H, three D

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Sun Jan 5

Shindagin Hollow SF — rim trail along Shindagin gorge

Official head count: 21H, four D

More photos:

Jack V

Cian

Report to Hikers — week of Dec 23-Dec 29

Hello Hikers!

Wed Dec 25

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

The meet-up spot was in deep shade — I always try to get a shot showing the hikers waiting to get moving, but it was just too dark — the only other way I can think to come up with a photo depicting the meet-up is to pose everyone strategically so there’s enough light so you can see their faces

While I was wrapping up the mug shots, the group dashed off down the road, leaving me behind. Normally I like to get a shot of the group bursting into action, like the start of a race …. *and they’re off and running* …. the road was really icy this time and I wasn’t able to catch up with the front-runners and get out ahead of them — I had to shout at them a number of times to wait for me ….

This was the first appearance of a new hiking dog, Lizzy, left, an eight-pound habanese

Some of the hikers chose to remain on Bald Hill Road rather than climb up to The Pinnacles

the official way to do this hike is to climb up to the look-out from the north and keep going back down to Bald Hill Road on the Abbott Loop —

At that point we turn around and climb back up to the look-out in the reverse direction — it’s a bit tiring

The sun started to come out near the end —- pleasing light

Official head count: 18H, four D

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Sat Dec 28

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

Several of the hikers suddenly noticed they had ticks crawling up their pants

Official head count: 31H, four D

More photos:

Jack V

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Sun Dec 29

South Danby Road east on the FLT to the Tamarack Lean-to, Danby SF

It was extremely dark as soon as we entered the woods, and I didn’t bother trying to take any photos — this is the first open area we come to, Travor Road, a narrow woods road. It starts and ends in the middle of nowhere but people clearly like to drive on it — it was completely iced in with a dense layer of ice caused by vehicles passing by

Tamarack Lean-to, our official turn-around point

I don’t think Luna the Dog wanted to get in the car and go back home.
It wasn’t supposed to start raining until maybe around 1 pm, but we hit a shower a few minutes after we started home

Official head count: 17H, four D

Report to Hikers — week of Dec 16-Dec 22

Hello Hikers!

Wed Dec 18

Upper Buttermilk Falls SP to upper Lick Brook, spur trail

Official head count: 17H

More photos:

Jack V

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Sat Dec 21

Finger Lakes National Forest — Potomac Road and Chicken Coop Road

Official head count: 15H, two D

More photos:

Jack V

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Sun Dec 22

Lindsay Parsons Preserve, West Danby

There was a wonderful mistiness hanging over everything when we arrived — it lingered the whole time — combined with the beautiful sunshine and the warming temperature, it made for some fabulous atmospherics

Official head count: 26H, five D

More photos:

Jack V

Report to Hikers — week of Dec 9-Dec 15

Hello Hikers!

Wed Dec 11

Ellis Hollow Nature Preserve

Official head count: 17H

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Sat Dec 14

Treman SP on the FLT west from Route 13

All four weather predicting services were saying it would rain while we were hiking — but it didn’t actually start until it began to sprinkle a little just as we got back to the cars. With all the stormy weather so close, we had fabulous atmospherics — fog, mist, beautiful dark light and a lovely dampness. Great walk

Official head count: 16H, one D

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Sun Dec 15

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

Two of our regular hikers turned 80 over the weekend. Saturday it was ***Linc,*** who’s wintering in Tucson. Sunday it was Good Dennis — sorry there’s a dried weed obscuring his face. That brings our over-80 group of regulars to five.

Hank — made it across without having to jump off — in rushing to get the shot, I failed to frame the photo so you could see the full length of the log, and the height above the ground

Official head count: 27H, four D