Hello Hikers!
Harford-Slaterville Road north on the FLT into Hammond Hill SF, Tioga County
Official head count: 18H, five D
You can see Annie’s photos here
Norm shot a video
Woodard Road NW to Hines Road and beyond, Enfield
Official head count: 20H, six D
More photos:
Abbott Loop east from Michigan Hollow Road to Hill Road, Danby SF
Official head count: 21H, four D
More photos:
Hello Hikers!
Black Diamond Trail north from Cass Park
I was reluctant to schedule a hike on this new trail, which opened with some fanfare in January after years in the works — I thought it would be too tame for our group
But Tiger was eager to try it out — I wondered if anyone else would be interested, and I was surprised to see a big turnout at the parking lot
(Want to see what Norm was photographing?)
I thought I’d never been to this spot but as soon as we got on the trail and I saw the line of huge power line poles, I realized I’d walked here a little bit many years before
I tried to enjoy the new trail but I couldn’t shake off the looming presence of the huge poles — complete turn-off — Tiger told me after the walk that she hadn’t minded the poles at all
It takes 35 minutes of walking to get beyond the power line — the whole mood changes at that point and the trail becomes quite pleasant
There are a number of small gorges and creeks along the way, none particularly impressive, but nice
If I had to resume working I wouldn’t mind this job, cruising around on this cute little cart and chatting up the ladies.
The only good thing I can find to say about the power line poles is that they make a dramatic gateway to the attractive part of this trail. If you want to try this walk, start further out of town and avoid the beginning.
Official head count: 27H, six D
More photos:
Roy H Park Preserve into Hammond Hill SF, Dryden
I can never resist trying a group shot on this trail. Not everyone shown
Official head count: 20H, three D
More photos:
Mysterious animal sighting:
After we got home from the hike, I got this e-mail from Annie:
Hi! I had an interesting adventure this morning at the tail end of the hike that I thought you’d be interested in.
As usual, I found myself at the end of the group, taking photos. I eventually caught up to Brenda and Eckhart and their dogs, but they were slowed down by over enthusiastic pups racing after each other so I decided to pass them so my sister (always with the head of the pack) wouldn’t worry about where I was.
Eventually I was walking solo when, suddenly ahead of me, I saw a large, dark brown furry mammal leap across the trail and bound into the woods. It was too fast for me to get my camera in place but I’m sure it was a bear. My first thought was that I was glad the three dogs were not there and my second thought was that I didn’t want to be alone! I continued to walk slowly enough for Brenda and Eckhart to catch up and hear my tale.
Margaret was worried about me and called to find out how I was doing and was pretty astounded to hear the story. I regret that I didn’t capture this with my camera but I don’t regret not being a hungry bear’s breakfast!
Then, later in the afternoon, I got this e-mail from Bad Dennis:
Saw this on way back from “Park’s Preserve” walk:
Fisher cat. It was cautious of me but not fearful–about 50 yards away down hill to side from me.
Bald Hill Road to The Pinnacles, Danby SF
First insects of the year — very annoying gnats
This delightful view will soon be blocked by leaves until fall
Another obligatory group shot location — again, not everyone shown
Official head count: 21H, eight D
More photos:
It was warm bordering on hot in the last stretch of our walk, but it was breezy and very pleasant at Hobit’s — nice lazy vibe
Some of the people who hiked skipped the get-together, but other people who hadn’t hiked showed up and we had about the same size turn-out (I didn’t do an official head count)
I was happy to catch up with Hobit’s 16-year-old son Jake — maybe you remember he’s into tumbling — this time I used the burst mode on my camera in hopes I could follow his trajectory on a running leap and flip
Jake’s been growing but he can still pull this flying-through-the-air trick off nicely — you can see from his shadow on the grass that he’s a bit close to the ground throughout
Hello Hikers!
Road walk — Newtown Road and Halpin Road, Odessa
This was our third exploratory walk in the hills between Cayuta Lake and Texas Hollow in Schuyler County. As usual, I picked out the route not by checking it out beforehand but solely by studying the map.
I look for several things to make a country road walk successful — sweeping views, rolling terrain and bucolic rural scenery. At first this walk didn’t have any of these — it was nice enough but a bit pedestrian — I wondered if I’d messed up this time ….
Then the terrain started to fall away and we saw some horse and cows …. they began to run along down the road with us behind their electric fence …
It got very amusing as the herd kept up with us for maybe a half mile — meanwhile the scenery opened up more and more into a gorgeous valley
The animals seemed to enjoy us as much as we did them — I doubt they get many groups of walkers to look at
We turned up a dirt road that looked like a driveway — it kept going deeper and deeper into the woods and we turned around after a half-hour of walking on it wondering where it actually went to
So many wonderful animals to look at this time — there was a background smell of manure in the air but it was mixed with the sweet smell of hay so it wasn’t bad at all
Two policemen stopped us (a first), this sheriff’s deputy and an off-duty state highway patrolman in his personal car — both warned us walking on Newtown Road could be dangerous because drivers routinely go very fast, and there’s no visibility at several spots where you drive up to the crest of a hill and you couldn’t see if there were people in the road right over the crest
I know some of our hikers don’t like these farm-type road walks in principle — they only want to walk in the woods — I can understand that feeling, but I’m going to keep scheduling these rural road walks anyway — they provide a lot of variety and novelty to our roster of walks — it’s much easier to look around and talk on them — in the woods we’re often forced into a single-file line, and you often have to pay really close attention to the trail because of roots and rocks and uneven surface — the farm walks give a sense of openness and wide open horizons we almost never can find in the woods — and I love beautiful pastoral scenes with fields and farms and patches of woods
Official head count: 18H, five D
You can see Jack V’s photos here
Road walk: Marsh, Hornbrook and Durfee Hill Road, Danby
Beautiful sunny morning after two days of rain — but we shaped up at the edge of a big field on a hillside and there was a fierce cold wind really blasting us when we got out of the cars
We headed out at high speed to try and warm up — the wind kept blowing strongly at our backs for quite a while and I was thinking, This could be horrible on the way back — luckily, the wind calmed down after a while and it was very pleasant out then
There was some very nice farmhouse scenery, but for much of the way, any farming activity was in the past — we saw lots of tasteful new houses on large lots tucked discreetly in the woods
Official head count: 15H, five D
You can see Annie’s photos here
Taughannock Falls SP
Finally, a gorgeous mild morning — the gorge trail and the look-out and the parking lots were more crowded than we’ve ever seen on one of our hikes here — felt a little like being in Central Park on a beautiful day
KathArine and KathErine — I don’t think many common names have more variants — CathArine, CathErine — anyway, I like the pattern made by the shadows on the pavement
The creek was really roaring from all the rain, and there was fresh erosion along the gorge trail.
And for those who gripe that I never use photos of myself in these hike reports — Randy said he liked the effect of my shades, so he took this shot with my camera
Official head count: 30H, nine D
More photos:
Hello Hikers!
Monkey Run Natural Area, south side of Fall Creek – Varna
Five Susans!
Official head count: 25H, five D
Michigan Hollow Road to Hill Road on the FLT, Danby SF
Another pretty unappetizing day for a hike — we had a cold drizzle the whole time, though the two hourly forecast sites I checked ahead of time both said there was no chance of rain at all
On the other hand, it was tremendously atmospheric, with fog and mist and a great gloomy lighting, so it was really fun to be out
As I hoped, there was very little mud — no way to know if it was because the trail was so steep — but there was a good deal of standing water in the first part of the walk, and then on Hill Road
The group was quite small at the official start time but a number of people trickled in late and caught up with us, and we ended up as a normal-sized hike. That’s Randy in front — just back from 2 1/2 months at his second home in Southern California, where he did a lot of hiking
We almost never encounter ATVs — I like the novelty
I hadn’t worn a rain jacket and my coat was soaked when we got back to the cars — but it’s synthetic and it really was still warm even when wet, as advertised
Official head count: 18H, five D
You can see Jack V’s photos here
Robert Treman SP on the FLT
The parking lot was congested like I’d never seen before — a number of big pickups parked there when we arrived — then I remembered … day no. 2 of trout season
A partial group shot …. more than half the group not shown — they’d already fallen behind on the first steep uphills
Almost no mud or standing water
Official head count: 31H, seven D
More photos:
Hello Hikers!
Road walk — Fischer Settlement Road south, Danby SF
Seems like we’ve had an unusually large number of bad-weather mornings this year on the days when we’re scheduled to hike — this one was especially nasty — low teens, wind blowing hard and snowing fiercely as we drove down 96B on the way to the trail head — I took this photo out the car window as we sped along — not a whiteout but felt like it was verging on one
Felt a bit grim at the trail head too as we first got out of the car.
But as usual, we all soon perked up
Two hikers arrived too late to be in the official group shot
It kept snowing for most of the walk but the trees were blocking most of the wind. Near the end, the sun came out for a while — really beautiful
Official head count: 10H, three D
You can see Annie’s photos here
Road walk — Brown Road and Bruce Hill Road, West Danby
This was a new walk for pretty much all of us, and I was very curious about what we’d see
For the first 10 minutes or so it felt like a slightly downscale suburb, and there was some grumbling — then we came to a number of very upscale houses — then it turned quite countryish
By this time the walk had become extremely satisfying
It was an extremely dark day, with a dull grey sky and mist hanging on all the hills
This was the start of Bruce Hill Road, which climbs steeply from the inlet valley along 34-96 up to the top of the Danby hills
It got very strenuous immediately but our guys just blasted up the hill
It had been raining before the hike and there was rain in the area and the scenery was tremendously atmospheric
We passed a number of really interesting houses and barns — spoke to several people outside their homes, who said they’d never seen a big group of walkers on their street before.
Got some raindrops on the windshield on the drive home — soon, it began to rain and it rained steadily for a few hours in Fall Creek — we lucked out once again
Official head count: 18H, five D
More photos:
Road walk — Woodard Road to Burge Hill Road, Enfield and Newfield
Talking about bad weather when it’s time to hike …. it was raining at 9 am at four of the five official rainfall loggers in the county …. you really needed to be an optimist to think it would stop soon — but it wasn’t raining any more by the time we got to the trail head
This was another walk on mainly new roads for me — so much fun to check new sights like these out
We’re supposed to have a rule that says we should always walk facing traffic — but when there’s no traffic the rule is completely ignored ….
For those of us who don’t mind this kind of damp dark weather, it was a great morning
Official head count: 24H, eight D
You can see Jack V’s photos here