Another case of, “Hey! it wasn’t supposed to rain until later!”
Official head count: 13H, one D
Get-together at Randy and Nancy’s
It started to rain pretty briskly as we drove from the trail head to Randy and Nancy’s, and I wondered if the bad weather would discourage people from coming to the get-together, but a number of people who hadn’t hiked showed up
Randy skipped the hike and stayed home creating a variety of fancy tapas-style hors d’oeuvres. Nancy made a cake and created some tapas-style vegetarian relishes. Everyone loved the food. It was drizzling outside and there was a fire inside and it was wonderfully cozy and fun.
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Sun Oct 13
Michigan Hollow Road southeast on the FLT to Hill Road and beyond, Danby SF
I decided we’d start out doing the very short first leg of the hike on the road, so Tiger could get a couple of photos. Once we stepped into the woods the light was impossible for taking photos — none that Tiger got was worth using, IMO
I decided to completely trust the weather forecasting services this time — they were predicting it would rain hard between 7 am and 9 am and then stop during hike time ….…. they turned out to be 100% right — the rain stopped right on time and we had wonderfully atmospheric conditions for our hike, damp, dark and sultryEveryone shown except one person (and me)
Official head count: 15H, one D
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Sat Oct 5
Texas Hollow SF, Bennettsburg
It was too dark in the woods to get any photos beyond this one, which is pretty murky, but, I hope, interestingly atmosphericThe first part of the trail, from the parking lot to the big field, is horribly challenging. Rather than struggle with it any longer, we decided from now on, we’ll use Texas Hollow Road for a few minutes to reach an alternative entrance to the field
This walk was a special request and a special occasion — regular hiker Tom was making his first return to the hiking trail since getting a knee replacement two months ago.He was in good spirits. This was actually his second new knee — he had the other one replaced a few years agoIn fact everyone was in good spirits — it was a gorgeous morning, with a wonderful feeling of fall in the airTom requested a walk where the trail surface would make for easy walking, and he could turn back early and be sure of finding his way back to the carsAs you can see from the close-up here, the trail surface is excellent, especially compared to our typical trail, which is a lot rougherThis is an excellent walk, realy pretty the whole way
Second hike in a row where a hiker rejoined us after an extended medical layoff — this time it was Casey, back after three months’ recuperation from major abdominal surgery — amazingly, he was able to do the complete hike at normal speedThis trail is always extremely dark, but there is one open spot where we can count on getting a photoI can’t say the hikers always love the experience of undergoing a group photoNot everyone made it into the portrait shot
Our snowbirds are starting to leave town. Mak and Tamara are planning to leave this week for their winter home in Florida. They’ll be gone until May. We’ll lose more hikers as winter gets closer.
Official head count: 21H, eight D
Ekhart’s 88th birthday get-together at Hopshire
A number of people who missed the hike turned out. We sat in the brewing room, which was open to the outdoors, and we had a number of yellowjackets buzzing peacefully around. The setting was oddly festive, and the get-together had a very lively vibe.It would be really fun if this photo was depicting a special envoy from the county sheriff’s office officially sent out to congratulate Eckhart for continuing to hike at such an advanced age — actually it’s just our regular hiker Jim, who was on duty and who swung by for a quick handshake. In fact, Jim was celebrating a milestone of his own — last day on the job after 32 years. This is the open doorway where the bees can come and go.There was lots of delicious food. Hand-made chocolate heart and photo of Eckhart by PJ
Our oldest hiker, Eckhart, turned 88 on Friday, so the group sang Happy Birthday to him before wee set off. We’re going to mark the birthday next Sunday with a stop at Hopshire Brewery after our morning hike.About halfway through the walk, my vision became disrupted by a periodic nerve problem I’ve been having recently, and I couldn’t see well enough to walk unaided through the woods. Luckily we were right near one of the deserted dirt roads that crisscross the area, and we were able to take it right back to the cars.Along the way, we passed this beautiful pond. We came upon a woman standing next to it who said she lives up the road and walks to the pond all the time hoping to get a view of a blue heron which lives there — but it always flies away before she can creep up on it.Dave wrote to me in the afternoon to report how the walk finished up. Here’s a screen shot of his stopwatch report on the total duration — pretty great!
Official head count: 20H, seven D
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Sun Sept 22
Layen Road to Bruce Hill Road and beyond, Jersey Hill, Danby
First real fall-like hike of the season — raining a bit off and on, cool, dark — fabulousThe woods were so dark when we first stepped off the road, I wondered if I would be able to see my way to walk — but it soon lightened up a little — then we were attacked by ground bees in two spots a short distance apart — four hikers got stung, one six times, one five timesWe decided to abandon the woods hike at once — we made our way back to the road and headed up Level Green Road. With the bees and the deep gloom and the dripping foliage, the forest trail seemed a bit depressing — but the open road was really satisfyingWe came to a lovely stretch of open fields blooming with goldenrodLevel Green Road runs through some deep countryside, and there’s really nothing around for quite a distance; I wouldn’t expect to see upscale houses dotted around, but they areSo it turned out to be an interesting morning
Eastman Hill Road on the Tioga County line in East Danby
This was a brand-new hike for us and there was a little more sense of excitement and curiosity than usual among the groupVery pleasant country setting at the meet-up — this house is right where the road turns into a dirt trackJim discovered this walk by accident one day when he was exploring another trail and he missed a turn and ended up here.
We started off down a one-lane old dirt road — it was easy waking at first, but then the surface became badly eroded, and it had been covered with small flat rocks — I began to slip and slide and lose my balance, so Tiger and I turned around. I don’t have any more photos from the hike too post, but you can see scenes from the trail in Jack V’s photo album from the walk.
Tiger and I happened to see three of the hikers plus Jim later in the day — the hikers said the hike was excellent, and Jim said a number of people complimented him on it. I’m thinking maybe I could handle the rough trail when it’s covered with enough snow to cover over all the slippery little rocks.
I asked Jim to write up a hike report — here it is:
Sundays
hike covered a looping figure 8 portion of the FLT running between
Eastman Hill Rd and Heisey Rd in the Town of Danby that we haven’t
previously had a chance to hike in my short time with the group.
With
the morning fog just burning off, hikers left the trailhead at the end of
the maintained portion of Eastman Hill Rd just inside the Tompkins County line.
The
hike route followed the seasonal one lane road through forested state DEC land
as it heads North towards Coddington Rd. As the road approaches the FLT
it passes through private land where the road is now abandoned, and as a result
the deteriorated walking surface was a bit of a challenge to traverse for some
hikers. I think that if we do this hike in the future, I will offer those
hikers who found the road surface today to be difficult a slightly
different hike option that will still allow them the opportunity to enjoy the
majority of the area we walked through.
Once
on the FLT, the hikers climbed through a series of steep uphill portions
interspersed with a few older and flatter logging roads that gave us a chance
to catch our breath. By this time the sun was out, temperatures were pleasant,
and the hikers were passing through a varied terrain as we headed towards
Heisey Rd.
Once at Heisey Rd, the group turned around and re-traced our steps to the nearest logging road that offered us a direct route back to Eastman Hill Rd and our vehicles.
