Author: shesse

Report to Hikers: week of May 28-June 2

Hello Hikers!

Wed May 29

Robinson Hollow SF, Tioga County

I love it when a hike takes out into the deep countryside, someplace I would never otherwise have any reason to go. It’s a great chance to do a little looking around and satisfy my curiosity
Robinson Hollow Road, where this trail segment starts, has an interesting vibe, IMO. It starts out seeming a little down at the heels when you turn in from Route 79, but very peaceful, and surrounded by beautiful hills. There’s a bunch of mobile homes but they’re pretty much clustered on the corner, and as you drive up the narrow road, the houses thin out and become more substantial, though still colorfully unpretentious.
This barn and farm house are just down the street from the trail head. The property is bordered by a very lively brook.
This place is right across the street from the trail parking lot. Notice the street sign name.
I find the overall mood of this neighborhood very pleasing.
……..
Anyway, back to our walk ….

Official head count: 21H, one D

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Sat June 1

Michigan Hollow Road east on the Abbott Loop to Hill Road and beyond

The hiker with the beard is Allen Q — I mention him because he took a series of photos that I’ve linked to right below — Crossing the big stream — it was very dark and Allen was using an older camera so the image quality is a little soft — but it’s a fun set of shots

You can see Allen’s photos here

Official head count: 17H, four D

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Sun June 2

Four-mile loop, Connecticut Hill WMA, with Dave G

I’m so glad I wasn’t spooked into cancelling this walk by all the bad weather predictions. It was raining on the way to the trail head , and I was wondering if I’d made a bad call and if anyone would show up except our small super-hard core group. We did get a little light rain during the walk but the leaves pretty much completely shielded us. As usual when there’s stormy weather in the vicinity of our walk, the atmospherics were fabulous, and we had a wonderful hike.

Official head count: 19H, four D

Report to Hikers: week of May 20-May 27

Hello Hikers!

Wed May 22

Harford-Slaterville Road north on the FLT into Hammond Hill SF, Dryden

This trail head is in a lovely country setting out in the middle of nowhere — at first glance it looks very idyllic — but in fact it’s a bad place to shape up, and it makes everyone nervous. As you can see, the road is very narrow, and the hikers’ cars aren’t more than a few inches out of the driving lane. It’s impossible to get any further off the pavement because the ground drops away quite abruptly into a pond right on the other side of the cars. The hike meet-up area in in a short straight stretch between two blind curves, and the speed limit is pretty high.
Steve S, Jim (across the road), Casey, Joel and Jack V
If you click on this shot and enlarge it, you can see Katharine in the far left demonstrating her special method of carrying two dogs — quite a trick IMO
Tiger was waiting just up the trail as the group sprang into action — she took all the rest of the shots in this report. You can see another shot of Katharine carrying the dogs — she’s really good at it
The trail itself is very attractive — makes up for the bad parking situation

Official head count: 14H, three D. Two more hikers set out to join us but they missed a turn and drove way out of the way asnd never managed to find us.

More photos:

Jack V

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Thursday May 23

Special out-of-town hike organized and led by Steve S — Labrador Pond, Tinkers Falls and Hang Glide Hill, Tully

The hike report and photos are by Steve S

IthacaHikers Splinter Group hike guided by Steve S to Labrador Pond, Tinkers Falls, and Hang Glide Hill.  After we all managed to gather at Labrador Pond we admired the serene lake and walked the boardwalk through the boreal forest.  Warm and pleasant at Lab Pond, then rain at Tinkers Falls.  Several hikers did the walk behind the falls and met the rest of the group at the junction with the trail up Hang Glide Hill.  The rain stopped by the time we made it up the long hill to the summit.  Spectacular view, snacks, a bit of hang out in the damp air, but the view was very atmospheric.  Afterwards we drove to Tully where we had coffee at Bloom Cup Cafe–a very pleasant comfortable coffee shop. 

Sorry for the poor quality of the shot of the falls but it was soaking rain.  I think the context etc makes it ok to publish.  It’s especially neat to see Irene and Nelson behind the falls and Norm at the base.  We all had a great time despite the weather.

Official head count: SevenH, one D

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Sat May 25

South Danby Road west on the FLT to Curtis Road and Hill Road, Danby SF

There was mud, as expected — it was very sticky, and very slippery. Luckily the muddy segments were fairly limited
The chance of rain was very low — but within just a few minutes after we started the drive home, we ran into a real cloudburst along 96B in Danby that would have drenched us if it hit a little earlier. The storm seemed to be confined to Danby — it wasn’t raining as we got closer to town.

Official head count: 27H, seven D

More photos:

Jack V

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Mon May 27

Finger Lakes National Forest — Logan Road to the Burnt Hill lean-to on the FLT

Grist Iron Brewery, Route 414 — a short drive from our trail head
This was the biggest turnout we’ve ever had for a brewery after a hike — we had two tables full of hikers at Grist Iron
The brewery is in a great setting overlooking Seneca Lake — it was a gorgeous day, really beautiful and not hot

Official head count: 33H, four D

More photos:

Jack V

Report to Hikers: week of May 13-May 19

Hello Hikers!

Wed May 15

Connecticut Hill WMA — loop trail on the FLT and Ridge Road south of Boylan Road

This is a new trail for us that Nancy L worked out while she was exploring this part of Connecticut Hill. It was pretty much unfamiliar territory for all of us
We had one stream crossing with steep high banks — a bit of a challenge — everyone else had to climb down and then back up the other side — Eckhart is 87

Official head count: 17H, three D

More photos:

Annie

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Sat May 18

Road walk — Beck Farm, Red Mill Road, West Malloryville

We came upon a very large area of trilliums in full bloom — not as striking as the trilliums we recently saw at our official trillium viewing site on lower Shindagin Hollow Road, which spread far up the side of a deep ravine, but very impressive

Official head count: 19H, three D

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Sun May 19

Upper Black Diamond Trail and south rim trail, Taughannock Falls SP

It was sunnier and hotter than predicted — our car thermometer read 85 as we headed home — there was no shade on part of the Black Diamond Trail and I was starting to feel a little punchy on the return leg
We have several regular hikers who often arrive late but have a great ability to find us — it’s always fun to suddenly see them pop up — this is Katharine, our main party hostess

Official head count: 23H, five D

More photos:

Jack V

Report to Hikers: week of May 6-May 12

Hello Hikers!

Wed May 8

Upper Buttermilk Falls SP and La Tourelle, from Yaple Road

Official head count: 16H, four D

More photos:

Jack V

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Sat May 11

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

This is one of the hikes where we always do a group shot
We had three photographers taking shots — me, Jack V and Tiger

Total head count (two hikes): 23H, six D —- fourH and five D stayed on Bald Hill Road the whole time, the rest went up the steep hill

More photos:

Jack V

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Sun May 12

Jim Schug Trail, Dryden

I don’t like to be too timid when I’m trying to decide if we should hike when it’s going to rain — on the other hand, I don’t want to see a group of hikers ride out to the trail head and then it pours. I thought I made a sensible decision about this hike based on how hard it was supposed to rain between 9 and noon. But then shortly after I sent out the “let’s do it” notice, it started to rain much harder. It was really coming down on our drive to the trail head. We wondered if other people would show up. In fact, we had a surprisingly good turnout, and everyone was energized by the fact trhat we were goig to hike in such heavy weather. It turned out the weather service very much underestimated the rainfall from 9 to noon in its prediction — we can know exactly how much rain fell because Cornell maintains a high-quality weather station just a few miles from where we hiked, in Harfard. In fact, we got 3X the amount of rain that was predicted. It didn’t matter — we had a great hike — the setting was just as lovely as I’d hoped.

I only took a few photos because I didn’t want to get my camera wet. Here’s a closer view of the hikers:
Leigh Ann, Haven, Norm, Kathy, Tiger, and Jim in front
Roger, Eckhart, Nancy, Joel, Wendy and Randy. One more hiker, Brenda, showed up to hike, but when she got out of the car to start the walk, she realized she’d left her hiking poles in the parking lot of Saturday’s hike, so she went off in hopes of finding them (she did). There were three dogs with us on the trail.
The rain slacked off briefly at one point and I got this shot.

One word of advice: Don’t wear cotton pants if you’ll be walking in the rain for two hours and it’s chilly out.

Report to Hikers: week of April 29-May 5

Hello Hikers!

Wed May 1

Lands belonging to the YMCA and Ecovillage, West Hill

Official head count: 15H, one D

More photos:

Jack V

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Sat May 4

Wildflower walk, Shindagin Hollow Road, Brooktondale

It rained overnight and the rim trail was extremely wet and muddy — I slipped at one point and fell sideways against a tree stump which had a stub sticking out that jabbed into my side pretty hard — sore and bruised the next morning
There were indeed a lot of trilliums and other wild flowers along the lower stretch of the road just as Annie said in her preview report — but the rain that fell overnight caused them to sag and droop, so the flowers weren’t as visible as usual.

Official head count: 29H, six D

More photos:

Jack V

You can see Annie’s preview photos here

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Sun May 5

Malloryville countryside with Bob B

It was raining a bit on the drive to the hike — no rain while we were walking — started raining again on the drive home ….. the damp cloudy atmospherics were fantastic
The high point of this hike is walking across a large beaver dam. I think it’s great fun but it makes some of the hikers nervous; they’re concerned it might give way. This photo was taken by Norm, who was wearing high rubber boots and who waded out into the water just downstream of the dam to get the shot
This is what the dam crossing looks like from up at the level of the dam
This is one of a series of eskers we walk on — there’s a pretty big drop off to both sides
The old railroad right-of-way — view from one of the high trestles down to Fall Creek
Inside the Malloryville bog
This normally isn’t a hike where we do a group shot, but we had a visiting hiker, Adnan K (in pants #46), who asked for a photo with everyone — for the second time in a row, all the hikers made it into the portrait.

Official head count: 22H, four D