Woods road walk through Danby SF — Curtis Road, South Danby
I managed to get everyone except one hikerIt can be tough to find a spot for photo-taking in summer where the light is not too harsh or too dark. I found some relatively clear light here, but it was a very small spot squeezed in at the edge of the road.Before Curtis Road heads into the woods, it passes two lovely farms — I’d love to live hereMost of the walk is in the shade, though there are some areas of recent logging that are now opened upCurtis Road ends at Fisher Settlement Road — it’s almost exactly an hour, and the perfect place to turn aroundIt was 82 by the time we got back to the cars, but it didn’t feel too bad — maybe it wasn’t that humid, or the road back wasn’t all that steep
Official head count: 16H, three D
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Sat July 13
Shindagin Hollow SF — FLT east from Shindagin Hollow Road to South Road and beyond
I didn’t have time to take all the photos before the hike started, so I had to take this shot after we got back. The light on the road had changed drastically. I don’t care for this sun-and-shade effect — but if you have wrinkles or signs of aging, they can’t really be seen in this type of lighting. There weere three additional hikers I wasn’t able to photograph.Tiger said she snapped this shot because she liked the way Randy and I were mirroring each other with our postures. As we hoped, there was almost no mud and it made a big difference — the walk is much better without it
Official head count: 18H, five D
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Sun July 14
Danby SF loop trail — Comfort Road to Diane’s Crossing and back
This is what the meet-up spot looked like as the hikers were arriving — terrible conditions for photo-taking — but I managed to find a spot along the edge of Bald Hill Road where the light was OK, provided the hikers faced in precisely the right directioinI didn’t work fast enough — had to skip four peopleThere was pretty much no mud on what can be a very muddy hike — but Bald Hill Road was very dry — this is dust raised by a car that passed. We met three more hiking waiting for us at the entrance to the trail — no question of taking photos of them — we were in high gear by thenIt was lovely in the woods, but too dark for the photos to work outBeautiful morning — not hot
Woods road walk — Smiley Hill Road and Hill Road, Danby SF
My latest attempt to get a shot of everyone just before we stepped off ended in failure once again. People kept darting in and out of the line-up, or from one end of the line to the other, some kept getting hidden by others (deliberate?), some some just arrived late.So the best I could do was this shot of some of the people who hikedIt was pretty warm and not much breezeWe went by Katharine’s house for a beer afterwards — she’d just had some kind of new cooling system installed using a technology I couldn’t grasp — it was working beautiful — there were two nurses and a physician sitting at this table — do you think their conversation was gory? (I was sitting near them.) Septic shock!
Hammond Hill SF — ski trails in the NE sector — with Jack V
I started out hoping to get clear close-up shots of all the hikers — that plan fell through — once again ….The walk begins with a fairly steep uphill in the full sun — and it was quite hot Very nice in the woodsJack V’s photo show at Hopshire. We had the place to ourselves for a change.
Official head count: 20H, four D
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Sun July 7
Doll Hill, Connecticut Hill WMA — with Dave B
Not everyone arrived in time for the group shotIf you know the hikers, you’ll be able to spot four more here who weren’t shown aboveAs soon as we stepped from the road into the woods, it was like entering a very dark roomExcellent hike!
Woods road walk — Bald Hill Road from Station Road to Michigan Hollow Road, Danby SF
Bit warm in the sun, but very nice in the shade — there was a lovely breeze blowing in our faces on the outbound leg, and birds singing away in the sun-dappled woods — very pretty morning!There is just one spot on the whole walk where you can get a decent group shot on a bright sunny day — where we parkedFive hikers arrived too late to make the shootThe group was in a pretty cheerful mood as we headed off down the roadThe temperature had climbed to 79 at the thermometers around the county by 11, and the breeze was at our backs as we walked back, so it was a little bit of a slog — but bearable
Official head count: 24H, three D
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Sat June 29
Roy H Park Preserve into Hammond Hill SF, Dryden
Official head count: 25H, one D
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Sun June 30
Woodard Road southeast into upper Tremann SP on the CCC Trail and the FLT, Enfield
This walk was coordinated and led by Nancy L, who wrote the hike report and took the photos (except as indicated otherwise)
Here’s who hiked:
Katharine, Steve S, Dennis R, Joel & Jane, Dick, Mary, Jim, Vicki, Leigh Ann, Eckhart, and IreneNancy L
The weather was good even though the forecast did not promise it. We headed up the North Rim trail passing by some workmen who were repairing the steps and graciously stepped aside. The trail was wide and the forest was shady and open with the grandeur of an old forest. Everyone gathered at a junction near the top of the North Rim trail where a trail down to the gorge was found. This is where we took our group picture showing the 11 hikers and 4 dogs (there was also me, the photographer). We proceeded down a steep trail to the gorge where there was a bridge across to the South Rim trail. On the other side of the gorge there was a nice lean-to and we stopped to talk to another group of workmen who were preparing to reconstruct the bridge below this one that was closed. It was our first chance to see the rushing water of the gorge. Next we climbed up to the South Rim trail and followed it all the way down to a picnic area with a pavilion on the South side of the gorge that is a short distance (5 minutes) from where we parked. A trail along the gorge starts from there. Several hikers headed that way. The rest of us went on down the South Rim trail (quite steeply on a series of treacherous steps). At the bottom we headed up a short trail to the “Cowshed” which is in accompanying picture. What I found was a beautiful waterfall. Everyone returned safely to their cars, on schedule.
The CowshedPhoto by Mary
Official head count: 13H, four D
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Fri June 21
Special out-of-town hike with Steve S — Green Lake SP
Here are some pictures from our outing to Green Lakes State
Park. Me, Mark and Ellie, Mark’s friend Harvey, Norm, Irene and Leo and
Nelson, Dennis R, Joel and Jane Leff. It was a super beautiful day and
the area around Green Lake was crowded with school kids on class outings.
Norm was wonderful finding all sorts of interesting things and identifying the
various ferns and trees. He found a small garter snake as a class was
passing us. He showed it to the kids which at first created quite a
hilarious panic and soon the kids were very interested and vied to see who
would get to release it. The outing took over three hours.
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Sat June 22
Six Mile Creek, south side rim trail starting at Crescent Place, South Hill
I knew this trail would be extremely dark, so I tried to get a clear shot of the hikers before we left the meet-up spot. But it didn’t work out for several different reasons — so here’s the best I could get — some of the group but not all ….From this point in the walk on, it’s basically all in the shade ….
Official head count: 21H, three D
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Sun June 23
Michigan Hollow Road at Diane’s Crossing southeast on the FLT to Hill Road and beyond, Danby SF
It was quite wet and muddy in a few spots, and the mud was extremely slippery and sticky. On the last big downhill stretch on the way back to the cars, I suddenly skidded on a very muddy patch and toppled sideways. I went down a little hard and my head hit the ground, but my bicycle helmet completely absorbed the blow. My pants were thickly coated with the sticky mud in my right hip and thigh area where Linda is pointing.The muddy pants would have made a horrible mess in the car, but I always wear long underwear on the trail and it was easy to pull off the muddy pants and ride home in the longjohns.
Official head count: 21H, seven D
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Left behind at the Spanish food get-together
Woman’s XS blue JJill pullover sweater. If it’s yours, contact me.
Wonderful get-together — massive amounts of food — gorgeous day in a beautiful setting When I said there was a lot of work involved in preparing this year’s Spanish specialties, I wasn’t exaggerating. Helping with the final prep are Linda in the background, Robin in white top, and Katharine You can see Jack’s paella in the round pan in the foreground — he was having a discussion about the subtleties of Spanish cooking with Nancy H, who walked through part of Spain on the CaminoThe scene from the far side of the pondThere wasn’t a huge amount of shade once you left the shadow of the house — luckily, it’s wasn’t hotThe pond from the upper deck of the house — by 2 pm, only two people had gone in swimmingI don’t have an official head count — Sandy said 50 people RSVP’d — by the time Tiger and I left just before 2, the head count had climbed to the middle 40s and people were arriving steadily — Sandy and Jack cooked enough food for 60 people just to play it safe.
Our official nature photographer Annie was at the party and taking shots, but when she got home she discovered a problem:
“My photos were horrible and I finally figured out why. I looked at the lens and it was covered with some kind of “goo”. I couldn’t tell looking through the view finder but I sure can tell after downloading on the computer. Hopefully, lens cleaning did the trick. Sorry I can’t contribute to the hike report.
“As usual, that sure was a nice party at Sandy and Jack’s. They sure are generous people! We took some things home with us and will have them for appetizers.”
