Michigan Hollow Road east to Hill Road and beyond on the Abbott Loop, Danby SF
Did you notice Norm standing on the fallen tee trunk?It wasn’t a very promising day for a hike — good chance of rain, and it was supposed to be very gusty — in fact, we got just a little rain on the way back to the cars, and the wind wasn’t noticeable under the trees — the snow was quite slippery and this gave all of us a great workout on the many steep parts of the walk. Delightful morning for those who like bleak winter scenery and gloomy atmospherics.
Potato Hill SF, east toward Blackman Hill Road and beyond on the FLT
The trail surface was on the borderline of being unwalkable — scattered frozen footprints — very hard on the ankles. But we decided to push on anyway. There was a stiff crust on the unbroken snow and I chose to walk on thatA lot of this woods is pretty scrubby, but it has a certain subtle charmThis is Blackman Hill Road — the scenery changes dramaticallyYou can supposedly see into Pennsylvania from this stretchIt was really fantastic to stand around in this huge open area in the gorgeous sunshineBy the time we headed back, the trail was nicely trampled down and it was much easier walking. We made it back to the cars almost 15 minutes faster than we did on the outbound leg of the walk. We were also sped along by something I never noticed before — I always thought this trail was flat, but actually there’s a bit of a rise going outbound
I realized I haven’t gotten photos of our newest regular hikers in a while for our photo ID page, which you can always access through the Home page of our web site. This is Jim, who joined us a year ago. He’s become our most rugged hiker, regularly going out in all kinds of horrible weather.
We hoped to go across the Stevens suspension bridge into the woods — but the trail was so rough we had to fall back to Plan B and head into the arboretuIt was quite cold — 9 at the meet-up — but it didn’t feel cold and it actually seemed very nice outLike so many other places we hike, the arboretum’s at its best on a snowy morning, IMOHalf way through the hike, Dave announced it was his 70th birthdayStarted to snow — we headed east into the natural areas maintained by money left by the late media mogul Roy H Park — here’s the commemorative photo for Dave’s birthdayAnother morning of great winter atmospherics
Official head count: eightH
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Sat Feb 2
Road walk in Danby: Comfort Road from Bald Hill Road to Gunderman Road
Not our most appealing morning for a walk — at 8 am it was still just 4 degrees, and I suspect some hikers decided to skip this one — though it did warm up to 13 by 9 aThe real action was with the work crew that walked in to the Chestnut Lean-to to get ready for Sunday’s cook-out — Tiger worked on packing down the access trail with snowshoes; Gopi brought her splitting maul. Jack V was part of this group — you can see his photos by following the link belowThere’s a lot of nice scenery along Comfort Road but it’s a bit subtle, and I didn’t feel like trying to make the effort to capture it in photos. I especially like the open areasOur hiking group is often weighted toward people with higher education, but I think this hike may have taken the prize — there were six of us …. one MD, three PhDs and two masters degrees — but you shouldn’t assume we talk about egg-head topics as a resultI love this bleak look. It hit 20 degrees as we wrapped up, but the wind was blowing a little briskly right in our faces.
Official head count for the road walk: 6H
Official head count for the work group: 8H, three D
The weather forecast got it exactly right this time — the long cold wave ended abruptly Saturday and we had a lovely mild morning for our cookoutWe didn’t have a whole lot of time to get this ready, since no one was willing to walk in and handle all the prep even as late as Friday, because of the horrible cold. But everything worked out great despite the last-minute rushWe were able to collect enough wood in a rush for probably three cookoutsThe people in the work crew felt the wood looked decent when they gathered it in freezing weather the day before, but it had thawed by the time they started to light the fires, and they realized the wood was actually very wetIt was such a pleasure to stand around in 40-degree temperatureThis was our sixth winter cookout. For the last few times, we had a very successful second fire going in the rear of the lean-to, and a number of people sat around on the log benches and sipped drinks. This time the fire wouldn’t really get going, apparently because of the wet wood, and the hikers stayed up in the front area. I helped smash the iron-like ice coating off the benches, and I was a little disappointed no one sat on themThe sun came out after a while and it was really lovely — 45 when Tiger and I got back to the carOne of the hikers arrived late and tried to save time by parking right at the trail head, but she didn’t realize there was a very deep ditch and her car slid into itWe tried repeatedly pushing from the front and the back — no luck — AAA came out and pulled the car right out in less than a minute
I was happy to see we were able to have such a good time even with such a short lead time. For the last four years attendance has been steady in the low 30s, which I think is pretty decent given the somewhat rugged setting. This time it was 32H and seven D
Fisher Settlement Road west toward Curtis Road on the FLT, Danby SF
The snow on the FLT was a bit rough and choppy, but we decided to try it out, rather than just walk on the roadThis trail is at its best in winter, when you can clearly appreciate the rolling terrain and the interesting plantingsAfter a while, I decided the trail surface was actually not that much fun — it was very slow going, and for those of us with hip or knee or ankle problems, a challenge. It took us a long time to reach this stream — we didn’t want to attempt a crossing, so we turned back even though it was earlyGot back to the cars 20 minutes early, decided to walk down Fisher Settlement Road a bitA great classic country-road look — rolling terrain, the road meandering a little, dark brooding woods along the edge — love itThere are almost no buildings along the length of Fisher Settlement Road as it passes through Danby SF, but those few that have been built have a surprisingly upscale feellng — this is not some backwoods country area
Official head count: 15H, one D. One additional hiker drove out but went to the wrong spot and so missed the hike.
It was in the low 30s and it snowed vigorously a few times, but it felt surprisingly mild anyway — you can see that Casey (shirt and suspenders) shed his bright yellow coat
Official head count: 20H, one D. We saw one bow hunter, at the meet-up, who promised not to shoot at any of us
