Category: hike reports

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Aug 17

Treman SP on the FLT

This is one of our steepest hikes, and it can be a bit of a grind on the wrong morning  —  but it wasn’t hot or very sunny, and we had a great time.  I think the woods along this trail are more attractive than average, and the lighting is often really nice, as it was this time.

Official head count:  25H, three D

 

Saturday Aug 20

Potato Hill SF, Caroline

Woods extremely dark  —  I didn’t attempt any photos.  Here we are emerging on Blackman Hill Road:

Supposedly you can see Pennsylvania in the far distance in the background here.  Charlie’s pointing to a sundial that’s become a tourist stop

On the way back from walking in the second woods, which are also too dark for me to try any photos

The fields were full of grasshoppers  —  a pleasure to find the grass cut so short

Official head count:  24H, four D

You can see Annie’s photos here.

 

Sunday Aug 21

The Pinnacles look-out from the north leg of the Abbott Loop, Damby SF

We have pretty good luck at not getting rained on when there’s a storm coming at us, but our luck ran out this time  —  it started to rain fairly hard right after we turned back from the look-out, and it rained the whole way back.  Interestingly, it didn’t rain at all at the weather stations north of town before noon  —  we were just hiking on the wrong trail.  Fabulous atmospheric conditions on the first half of the hike, extremely dark and sultry.  Some of the hikers brought along rain gear but almost everyone walked back in their shirts  —  this was definitely a group that likes walking in the rain.

Official head count:  20H, two D

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With all the news from the Olympics wrapping up, it seems like a good time to mention that we have our own champion sprinter and long jumper who hikes with us almost every weekend, Tracey  —  “One of the best athletes in SUNY Cortland history,” according to her citation page at SUNY Cortland’s athletic hall of fame site  —  she still holds school records in five events 30 years after she graduated  —  if she’d attended Cornell or Binghamton, her best time in the outdoors 100m would put her in second place among all-time record holders at both those schools  —  in all, Tracey won five individual national titles and earned 13 All-America honors.  It’s really fun to have such a great athlete as a hiking companion  – —  she has wonderful energy and enthusiasm/

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Aug 10

Cornell natural areas walk  —  Cascadilla Gorge and Beebe Lake

I’m not sure walking around the Cornell campus officially qualifies as “hiking”*  —  but it made a nice change for our midweek hikers, and we all had a lot of fun

The Cascadilla gorge trail was closed for repair for a number of years, and some of our hikers hadn’t been on it since it reopened fairly recently.  A few of the repairs are a little heavy-handed, but in general the trail looks as good as ever.  It’s really just as nice in its own way as our other better-known gorge walks like Buttermilk or Treman

We had to cross the campus to get from Cascadilla gorge to Beebe Lake  —  the two natural areas both seem completely wild and it’s hard to believe there’s a highly developed infrastructure immediately around them.

Part of this walk was to get something delicious at Collegetown Bagels as we were finishing up  —  but then we stopped to look at the newly opened Klarman Hall on the arts quad  —  nice air conditioning  —  we had our snack there instead  —  discovered there’s a machine to get free ice water

Official head count:  22H, one D

More photos online:

Me

Annie

Jack V

 

Saturday Aug 13

Upper Buttermilk SP and La Tourelle

Sweatiest hike in quite a while, thanks to very high humidity  —  luckily it was just bearable in the shade, and most of this walk is shady

I don’t know if our hikers would be so high spirited if it was hot like this every weekend, but we all pretty much shrugged the heat off and had a great time

That’s not to say everyone put in the full two hours  —  two-thirds of the group called it quits early  —  here’s the group who persevered to the end

Official head count:  27H, one D

You can see Jack V’s online photos here

 

Sunday Aug 14

Monkey Run Natural Area, south side of Fall Creek (Varna)

Official head count:  32H, three D

Check out Jack V’s online photos here.

 

Hello Hikers!

 

Wednesday Aug 3

Black Diamond Trail south from Taughannock Creek

They’ve been working on this trail project it seems like forever  —  we decided to try it out last year one time when we were hiking nearby in Taughannock  —  horrible experience  —  the trail surface was unwalkable

They’ve made a lot of progress since then  —  the north end of the trail is actually delightful now, with a finely crushed stone surface and nice landscaping

Unfortunately, this lovely smooth surface stops quite soon and we had to spend most of the walk on small packed gravel  —  borderline uncomfortable after you’ve been on it for a while

We walked south for an hour  —  the trail takes you through some nice countryside, nothing spectacular but pleasant and generally not built up  —  there are several road crossings where you could probably park and do a walk (I didn’t actually verify this …. forgot to)

New bridge over Willow Creek, which is very attractive when you look over the edge at it

There are lots of fields on both sides of the trail along the way —  here’s what the three hikers above were looking at

Official head count:  26H, seven D

More photos:

Annie

Jack V

 

Saturday Aug 6

Connecticut Hill  —  Rowell Hill to Lloyd Stark, with Dave B

Very oppressive at 9 am in town  —  delightful out in the deep woods  —  a little breezy, still damp from the early rain, and not hot at all

You’d never be able to guess it from the photos, but we spent most of the walk in deep shade under the trees  —  this is one of two look-outs where we were suddenly flooded with light

These floods of sunlight can be a little intense  —  check out the squinty faces on Tiger and June

Dave had warned us the hike might run a bit over two hours but he got us back to the cars in 1:58:46  —  one minute and 14 sec short of perfection  —  this guy is brilliant at hike-pacing, IMO  —  not the first time he’s timed one of these sprawling Conn Hill hikes so closely

Official head count:  16H, five D

 

Sunday Aug 7

Six Mile Creek, south side rim trail

Beautiful low-humidity morning

When we got to the home stretch, I started to think maybe I could come even closer than Dave did the day before to wrapping the hike up in two hours precisely  —  alas, didn’t  —  we finished in 1:58, two minutes early.

Official head count:  28H, six D

Check out Annie’s photos online here.

 

Hello Hikers

 

Wednesday July 27

Harford-Slaterville Road, north on the FLT to Hammond Hill SF

You’ll probably never hike here  —  this is an obscure trail in the middle of nowhere  —  but if you ever do, be sure to stay behind the white line on the edge of the pavement

This is a high-speed stretch of road in the middle of a blind S-curve and the cars and pickups sometimes come through moving pretty fast

Luckily our hikers know the drill by now  —  some years back, we used to have a problem with hikers not staying out of the roadway

The business with the passing cars is always the only excitement here  —  otherwise it’s s straightforward country trail  —  shady. a bit steep on the outbound leg, some nice scenery

Back at the cars  —  you can see everyone’s still staying behind the white line

Official head count:  18H, one D

More photos online:

Annie

Jack V

 

Saturday July 30

Treman SP on the FLT

As reported to me by Jack V:

Ten hikers shaped up in the parking lot  — started to rain and then pour just as they stepped off  —  they stopped immediately under the Route 13 bridge over Enfield Creek  —  stood there for about half an hour schmoozing and waiting for the rain to stop  —  when it didn’t, half of them went to Wegmans for coffee  —  the others went home.  You can see some of the hikers as they were shaping up in Jack’s online photo here.

 

Sunday July 31

Michigan Hollow Road SE on the FLT to Hill Road, Danby SF

Fantastically atmospheric morning  —  dark, wet and sultry

The first outbound leg of the walk goes through pine woods and it was really beautiful in the gloom  —  felt like a rain forest

We decided to walk on Hill Road for the second part of the hike rather than stay on the FLT in the woods

There was a good chance of rain but, alas, we didn’t get any

Official head count:  21H, two D

Jack V hiked but he forgot the memory card for his camera  —  so no photos from him.

 

Hello Hikers!

A number of hikers who told us beforehand that they were coming didn’t show up  —  a number of people came late because they were waiting to see if the picnic would be cancelled  —  the swimming activity was subdued  —  but otherwise the rain didn’t faze us, and we had another great cook-out

In fact the drenching we got just before people started showing up made Roger’s property look unusually beautiful  —  his GF Gunilla is really turning it into a showplace

Our new chicken cook Randy (and Nancy) reported the Cornell chicken went over very well  —  moist, tender and flavorful  —  Randy said the customers liked it

It started to rain again after we’d been there for a while, but lightly, and everyone just took it in stride

I was just heading into the pond for a swim when our food coordinator Liz spotted me and rushed over insisting I needed to have an unposed photo taken by her showing the love handles and the stomach ….

…. luckily I’ve been sticking to my no-corn chips diet, so I feel like I’ve survived another ordeal-by-photo

Here’s another view of the pond  —  it really looked lovely in the dim lighting

Liz sent me a comment to use in this report:

WOW!

Thank you, everyone, who so generously contributed to the picnic fund.  Even with the lower-than-expected attendance, there was enough to pay for the chicken, all other food and beverages, AND the yearly cost of running the hiker’s website!!!  Up until now, Steven and Susan have been personally covering the website costs and some of us have been trying to figure out how to repay them.  Thanks to your generosity that is no longer an issue for this year.  Hopefully, in the future, the picnic will continue to cover the costs associated with managing our wild and wonderful group.

I actually have a little left over.  If you care to respond to me personally (elizkyle@gmail.com), I will conduct a survey as to what to do with it.  Some options are:

A) apply it toward food for one of our future gatherings (winter-cookout or thanksgiving get-together?).

B)  turn it into a gift certificate at one of Steven and Susan’s  favorite restaurants as a thank-you for all they do.

C) apply it to next year’s website fees

D) other – please specify

I had a lot of fun today, and I know many of you did too.  Thank you.

Liz

I didn’t get an official head count  —  I normally get the count from looking at the photos, but in this case I hadn’t photographed everyone  —  I’d say we had more than 60 people but definitely less than the 80+ who were supposed to come

A special thanks to Roger and Gunilla for all their efforts and for letting us get together every year in this wonderful, gorgeous spot

Jack V has photos online you can see here.