Report to Hikers: week of May 22-May 28

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday May 24

Willseyville Creek, Caroline

Official head count:  19H, four D

You can see Jack V’s photos here

 

Saturday May 27

Jim Schug Trail, Dryden

It wasn’t supposed to rain, but there it was, coming down quite hard as we drove out Route 13 toward Dryden  —  luckily it wasn’t raining at the meet-up

We only do this trail once a year, during hunting season in late November  —  it never occurred to me it would be a stunning place to look at gorgeous spring scenery

The whole area southeast of Dryden along the Route 38 corridor has a wonderful pastoral feeling  —  scattered farms and gently rolling fields and hills  —  the Schug trail runs right through the heart of it

I’m sure a lot of our hikers are really sick of the cloudy wet cool days we’ve been having  —  but some of our regulars actually prefer these atmospherics  —  I’d be happy myself if it was always like this

Official head count:  17H, five D

More photos:

Annie

Jack V

 

Sunday May 28

Shindagin Hollow Road to South Road on the FLT, Shindagin Hollow SF

Official head count:  35H, seven D

More photos:

Annie

Jack V

Report to Hikers: week of May 15-May 21

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday May 17

South Danby Road to the Tamarack Lean-to on the FLT

First hot-weather hike of the year  —  upper 70s when we shaped up, low 80s when we finished

With the return of bright sunny weather and the leaves now out on the trees, we’re into intense sun-and-shade effects in the woods

All of a sudden it clouded over for a few minutes and it seemed like it might rain  —  it’s interesting to see how drastically the cloudiness changes the lighting in the woods

I took a little poll of some people  —  were they feeling really hot or not?  —  half said they felt hot, the others not very hot

Official head count:  20H, two D

You can see Jack V’s photos here

 

Saturday May 20

Finger Lakes Trail and Abbott Loop between Bald Hill Road and Diane’s Crossing, Danby SF

Official head count:  22H, eight D

More photos:

Annie

Jack V

 

Sunday May 21

Finger Lakes trail from Braley Hill Road to Shindagin Hollow Road, Shindagin Hollow SF

Official head count:  25H, eight D

We were swarmed by small flies whenever we stopped  —  not bad as long as we kept moving

More photos:

Annie

Jack V

 

Who’s who in the Ithaca Hikers

I want to remind you  —  or maybe you never knew it to begin with  —  that we have an online page with photos and names attached of the people who’ve hiked with us at least semi-regularly over some period in the last five years.  This is a good place to ID someone you’ve talked to on the trail or seen in the photos but you don’t know their name.  Here’s a direct link to the ID page  —  you can also reach it at any time by going to the Home page of the hikers web site and scrolling down.  Speaking of ID photos  —  for those of you who complain I never use photos of myself in the hike reports  —  here’s a shot Tiger got of me on Saturday  —  I hope this will silence the complaints for a while

Report to Hikers: week of May 8-May 14

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday May 10

Fillmore Glen, Moravia

For years I never scheduled a walk in this dramatic gorge on the grounds it was too far away (it’s 31 minutes from our house).  Then about a year ago I abruptly realized it was ridiculous to ignore such a beautiful place because of an extra five minutes each way.  Now I feel bad about how narrow my old thinking was.  Anyway, Fillmore Glen is now in our hike rotation, and it’s definitely worth the trivial extra few miles driving.

There’s a typical CCC-era walkway along the stream for a good while  —  then the trail leaves the creek and becomes a rough narrow dirt path that zigzags up the wall of the gorge  —  dramatic, but too dark for photos.  We do have a video from Norm that he made when we were trying to decide how to proceed  —  here

Rather than retrace our steps, we came down on a snowmobile trail  —  very pleasant  —

We found a lovely old cemetery abutting the park grounds at the bottom  —  people buried there who were alive in the 1750s

Official head count:  17H, three D

 

Saturday May 13

Stevens Suspension Bridge to Cornell golf course and horse barns, Forest Home

Seemed like the early morning rain was fully over  —  then it started again just as we stepped off  —  but it ended for good a few minutes later and we had a great time  —  dark, damp, misty and 50 degrees  —  the best atmospherics for hiking IMO

The weather kept the golfers away  —  saw just two-three players and we didn’t have to worry at all about dodging stray balls or getting yelled at

Interesting to see how the lighting on the faces was affected by the color of the barn wall behind

Official head count:  14H, four D

You can see Jack V’s photos here

 

Sunday May 14

Hammond Hill SF  —  northeast trails with Jack V

Official head count:  33H, eight D

Jack was improvising our route through this unfamiliar part of the forest as we walked along, picking the next path to take from the confusing mishmash of trails based on how much time was left  —  somehow he managed to get us back to the cars in precisely two hours, almost to the second.

You can see his photos here

Report to Hikers: week of May 1-May 7

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday May 3

Ellis Hollow Nature Preserve

Raining vigorously when we left the house  —  as we drove past the sweeping open fields beyond Game Farm Road where the state raises pheasants, we could see the back edge of the storm  —  by the time we reached the trail head, the rain was over

We have two videos showing stream crossings this time:

Norm

Schwartzie

This is a delightful walk, very picturesque and lively  —  but it’s very short  —  a single turn around the trail takes just 45 minutes  —  we go around twice but we still come up very short of two hours  —  we can extend the walk by going across the street, but a lot of the hikers refuse to do this because they think the area across the street is full of ticks  —  too bad  —  they miss out on some lovely scenery

Official head count:  15H, three D

You can see Jack V’s photos here

 

Saturday May 6

Shindagin Hollow Road  —  rim trail and trillium display

Wet start  —  rained steadily on the ride to the trail and for the first 20 minutes of the walk

Then a pale sun came out just as we were walking along the hugely atmospheric rim of the gorge  —  it was fantastic  —  the trail was brimming with water, the little streams and rivulets gushing, some mist rising from the gorge

There were huge masses of trilliums blooming along the lower stretch of Shindagin Hollow Road  —  everyone said it was an unusually good year

The last few times we did this walk, the beautiful swamp at the bottom of the hill has been parched and depressing  —  so delightful to see an abundance of water this time

We really lucked out with the weather  —  in some parts of the county, it rained steadily all morning long

One negative:  We were plagued by swarms of black flies off and on  —  they weren’t biting but they were really irritating

Official head count:  18H, five D

You can see Annie’s photos here

Schwartzie made a video

 

Sunday May 7

Malloryville  —  unmarked private trails with Bob Beck

I took this shot while we were standing on a former railroad trestle over Fall Creek  —  there’s no way to know how interesting a structure it is unless you walk down to the creek bank and look up, like Jack V did

Part of this walk involves crossing a big beaver dam  —  it was possible to cross without wetting your shoes on Thursday morning when Bob checked  —  but the rain since then pushed the water level up several inches so there was no way to cross without stepping in water over your ankles  —  more than half the group decided not to soak their shoes, so they turned back and retraced their steps  —   I stuck with the group that waded across  —  lots of fun!

Stephanie, like Bob and Roger, grew up here, and she spent her childhood playing in these woods and fields  —  seems like paradise to have been a child here, IMO

Inside the bog  —  a wonderfully atmospheric place  —  those are pitcher plants Bob’s pointing at

We lucked out with the weather again  —  all the weather sites were predicting rain but it held off until we were half way home and we hit a rain squall near NYSEG

Official head count:  21H, six D

You can see Jack V’s photos here

Report to Hikers: week of April 24-April 30

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday April 26

Robinson Hollow SF, Tioga County

We were swarmed by small flies as soon as we stepped out of the cars  —  several hikers said they were black flies that had recently hatched and hadn’t reached the biting stage yet  —  a couple of us had insect head nets in the car and you’ll see some in the photos

If you ever get invited to do this walk, be aware it opens with a very steep uphilll that lasts for 12 minutes  —  we once had a hiker become seriously overstressed on the climb  —  could have been serious but luckily someone was carrying an energy bar and that did the trick

There’s a lovely lean-to right off the FLT that’s named in honor of the late daughter of one of our regular hikers, Lucy  —  she died as a very young child many years ago

Official head count:  19H, five D

Schwartzie shot a very short video  —  starring Lucy

You can see Jack V’s photos here

 

 

Saturday April 29

Travor Road and the Tamarack Lean-to, South Danby

There’s a beautiful spring a few minutes’ walk beyond the Tamarack Lean-to where you can drink from a hose if you’re bold enough  —  a number of our hikers took the drink this time  —  Annie got some shots

Here’s what the spring area looks like  —  you can see the hose

One of the goals of this hike was for people to learn how to use a compass to make their way out of the woods  —  two groups set out from the lean-to to find the way through the woods to a six-pack of craft beer hidden along Travor Road  —  success  –  I wasn’t with either group but Jack V was and he got the shot:

Official head count:  25H, seven D

More photos:

Annie

Jack V

Schwartzie took a video of people at the site of the spring, and then when they found the beer

 

Sunday April 30

Lindsay Parsons Biodiversity Preserve, West Danby

Official head count:  26H, seven D

More photos:

Annie

Jack V