Category: hike reports

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Chestnut Lean-to, Danby SF

 

Wednesday Feb 8

Work group to collect firewood and check out the lean-to for our cook-out

We brought in two fantastic labor-saving tools for the first time ever, a chainsaw and a log-splitting maul

It was wonderful to see how these two tools enabled us to collect a huge amount of firewood in an amazingly short time

We hid the big pile of cut and split wood under some pine boughs and dead leaves a little bit away from the lean-to so no one else would see it and burn it up before we got back on the weekend.

Official head count:  15H, three D

 

Saturday Feb 11

Cook-out

This year’s fire team decided to have a smaller fire than we did last year.  We also decided to have a second fire in back of the lean-to so people could sit on the log benches back there and stay warm

The firewood we’d collected was wetter than we realized

Lots of food  —  I ate a weird mix of things, like what an unsupervised child might do  —  great fun but then after I went to bed for the night I woke up with heartburn

The fire in the back of the lean-to never really got going well and it didn’t attract much of a crowd

A couple of hikers arrived quite late and some people who had been thinking of going home decided to stay around with the newcomers  —  there was a nice variety of liquor on hand and as Tiger and I left people were sitting staring into the fire and sipping the liquor.

Official head count:  30H, nine D

More photos:

Annie

Jack V

 

Sunday Feb 12

Hike cancelled  —  rain

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wed Feb 1

Abandoned road bed and adjacent fields, Mineah Road between Mount Pleasant Road and Route 13, Freeville

Official head count:  13H, three D

Impromptu roadside hair trim  —  Tiger worked for a while as a licensed hair cutter about 40 years ago  —  still remembers the basics

 

Sat Feb 4

Jim Schug Trail east into Cortland County on the FLT, Dryden

It’s 400′ from the base of this hill (where the open field ends) up to the top, as measured by Scott with a phone app.  As you can see just by looking, the distance in which you have to make this climb is pretty short, though there are switchbacks.  This is what gives rise to the grumbling.  The snow was a bit slippery this time, so it was actually a little tougher than usual.  A few of the hikers got part way up and then decided to turn back  —  they walked on the perfectly flat Jim Schug Trail instead.

The people on the left are a small group of local hikers we ran into in the home stretch  —  seems like they’d fit right in with us

Official head count:  18H, five D

 

Sunday Feb 5

Layen Road to Bruce Hill Road and beyond on the FLT, Danby

This is one of the hikes where I always like to stage a group lineup photo   —  I can’t resist the way the huge field curves away as a backdrop  —  a number of stragglers didn’t make it into the shot

Definitely one of our better scenic backgrounds ….

This is the infamous short killer uphill  —  the photo doesn’t do it justice  —  quite slippery so it was a real workout

Bruce Hill Road

Old quarry  —  interesting spot to stand around for about two minutes

Official head count:  23H, seven D

You can see Jack V’s photos here

 

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wed Jan 25

Road walk  —  Newtown Road and Fitzgerald Road, between Mecklenburg and Burdett

Back to the beautiful farm countryside in the gently rolling terrain west of town along Route 79

More fantastic atmospherics  —  dramatic grey sky, a little snow and sleet ….

Official head count:  12H, four D

You can see Jack V’s photos here

 

Sat Jan 28

Rim trail along Shindagin gorge, Shindagin Hollow SF

Official head count:  20H, eight D

You can see Jack V’s photos here

 

Sun Jan 29

Fischer Settlement Road east to Tamarack Lean-to on the FLT, South Danby

Official head count:  22H, six D.  Three other hikers traveling in one car turned around shortly before they reached South Danby Road because of concerns about the snow, which was coming down fairly hard.

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Jan 18

Road walk  —  Hill Road and Curtis Road, South Danby

Wonderful dark & atmospheric morning  —  drizzle and mist  —  even some thick fog on the way to and from the meet-up

Still snow and ice in the woods out here  —  we even hit some ice on these roads, which are regularly plowed and sanded quite heavily  — I wasn’t expecting it  —  almost went down once

Official head count:  14H, three D

You can see Jack V’s photos here

 

Saturday Jan 21

Rim Trail and Bear Trail, Buttermilk Falls SP

With so many hikers off marching against DJT, I decided to take the morning off from photo-taking myself  —  I was feeling lazy, and I normally have to hustle and scramble a bit to get photos that I regard as good enough.  So I goofed off and just ambled along, enjoying the warm temps and the bright sun.

This is the upper gorge trail on the other side of the creek from where we were walking  —  Tiger got the shot  — tremendous amounts of ice on the steps

On the way back down the rim trail we came upon three rugged-looking bow hunters dragging a dead deer uphill on a rope  —  it didn’t occur to me at the moment to get a photo  —  now I really wish I had  —  they were extremely picturesque

\When we got back to the lower parking lot it was filling up with people surging in to take advantage of the beautiful day

Official head count:  NineH, four D  (one hiker arrived too late for the group photo)

 

Sunday Jan 22

Monkey Run Natural Area, north side of Fall Creek

Official head count:  27H, nine D

You can see Jack V’s photos here

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In last week’s hike report, I failed to link to Jack V’s photos of the birthday party we had on Wednesday at Steve and Diane’s house.  Here they are.

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Jan 11

Road walk  —  Mount Pleasant Road and Mineah Road, Freeville

This is the wide open spaces road walk we were supposed to do last Sunday that I cancelled because of cold and high winds.  I’m really glad we waited  —  the volatile weather worked out just right  —  mid 40s and dazzling sun and a picturesque coating from the ice storm overnight

We learned about a way we can extend this walk for a long distance through these high fields  —  without any cars  —  stay tuned

If you look closely at the horizon you’ll see two tiny stick figures  —  one with arms outstretched dramatically, almost like he was posing ….

We had a get-together at Steve and Diane’s house nearby in Ellis Hollow afterwards  —  it was a hiker’s birthday  —  fantastic spread  and we had a great time

Official head count, walk and party combined:  23H, four D

You can see Annie’s photos here

 

Saturday Jan 14

The Wedge, Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area  —  with Dave B

Dave drove out here Friday morning to check the snow and ice status in several spots  —  it looked good to him  —  but he didn’t walk the entire trail, and as we got to the higher elevations, up around 2000 feet, we did find considerable snow cover and hard slippery ice

The trail became a bit tricky  —  I for one really enjoyed trying to avoid falling  —  a number of hikers did fall but nothing serious

We came back downhill on the road rather than attempt to navigate on a trail that might be icy

Dave B is definitely a master of pacing and timing our hikes to more or less exactly two hours  —  he was thrown off a little by the last-second change to the road  —  but we still finished up just three minutes early

Official head count:  20H, four D

More photos:

Annie

Jack V

 

Sunday Jan 15

Stevens Suspension Bridge to the Cornell horse fields and the Monkey Run bluffs, Forest Home

The snow was almost entirely gone but we still encountered patches of treacherous hard ice on the trail, often obscured by grass or leaves  —  I fell down backwards myself  —  landed on my arm and my ass  —  no damage  —  slipping and toppling backwards is generally not as dangerous as catching your foot in a snag and falling forward  —  you can really get hurt doing that

Official head count:  34H, nine D

More photos:

Annie

Jack V