ithacahikers

Hello Hikers!

 

 

Monday August 10

Special exploration hike — Newfield State Forest

I first noticed this forest on a map some years ago, but I never heard any of our fellow hikers mention it, even people who are very knowledgeable about other trails — I started to ask around — most people had never heard of it, and no one I talked to had ever been there. I was curious because I’m always looking for new trails for our hikes.

Tiger and I checked it out with two of our regulars who live in Newfield, June and Liz. First we had breakfast at Freddy’s Diner in downtown Newfield, where we had a lively discussion about skin cancer surgeries. The forest is five miles south, off Route 13. I knew enough from the scant information online not to expect much. In fact, unless you’re satisfied with simply walking through thick woods on a gravel road, this place hasn’t much to offer. There are no trails and the woods aren’t the type you’d ever want to bushwhack through. June, who doesn’t like to apply insect spray, was immediately bitten by a black fly, and she turned on her heels and went home. We other three kept walking on the road for a while but we were all swarmed by mosquitoes the whole time, so we soon called it quits.

 

 

Wednesday August 12

Shindagin Hollow State Forest, bike trails along Braley Hill Road

This hike takes us on a maze of mountain bike trails through some delightful woods It’s a wonderful walk except that we always get lost, even though we’ve now done this hike a number of times. Actually we did manage to find our way smoothly once, but then the next time we reverted to getting lost. In any case, we definitely lost our way again this time.

We’re never actually truly lost because we have Braley Hill Road as a spine, and it’s always theoretically possible to bushwhack over to it and find it eventually. Our chronic problem is that we end up walking in the wrong direction as we try and make our way back to the cars.

This walk takes us through a fantastic dark pine forest — it’s not very extensive and I’m always sorry when it ends.

Lost of dramatic sun-n-shade lighting in these woods — I like this particular photo because Sandra (wearing the earrings) is in focus — you can click the photo twice and check out her bangs to see what I mean.

Official head count: 13 hikers, two dogs

We encountered one lone mountain biker.  He was completely lost  —  on the other hand, he was able to cover ground to where he wanted to be a lot faster than us.

You can see six more photos by me online here.

 

 

Saturday August 15

Roy H Park Preserve into Hammond Hill SF, Dryden

Lovely morning

We had a brief moment of excitement on an otherwise quiet hike  —  we don’t often encounter horses so it’s always an event for me  —  you can’t tell from the horses’-ass view here but this batch of riders was atypical  —  usually they’re pretty rustic; this group looked like babes to me  —  you can see more shots of the horse group by me and Annie online

The walk had a really nice feeling to it  —  it was lovely in the deep pine woods on the Park Preserve ….

…. and beautiful on the ski trails on Hammond Hill

Official head count:  13 hikers, two dogs

You can see 10 more photos by me online here.

You can see Annie’s photos online here.

 

 

Sunday August 16

Shindagin Hollow SF, rim trail along the upper gorge

This hike’s got to be in the Top Five for shadiest summertime trail as well as in the Top 12 for beauty

From the time you get out of your car until you get back in, there’s really only small scattered patches of sunlight

That’s great on a hot morning like this one  —  it was over 80 by the time we wrapped it up, but it wasn’t too humid and it felt fine under the trees

There are a couple of uphill climbs on this trail but they’re not long enough to get you overheated even on a hot day.  In general, this is a pretty easy hike.

Hiker-photographer Annie went off with a small group that bushwhacked through a swamp  —  that was out in the sun  —  I’ve always admired this swamp on the way down Shindagin Hollow Road  —  she has views of it in her album from this hike I’ve never seen and it’s really beautiful.

Official head count:  25 hikers, three dogs

You can see seven more photos by me online here

You can see Annie’s photos online here.

We made it through the week without any hikers getting stung.  But I did learn that one of the hikers who got stung earlier this summer was stung 16 times on her leg that morning, far more stings than I’d heard about.

Hello Hikers!

 

 

 

Wednesday August 5

Harford Slaterville Road north into Hammond Hill SF

This is one of many obscure and little-used sections of the Finger Lakes Trail that start in the middle of nowhere — it makes for a lovely shady walk on a mild morning — but there’s nothing really distinctive about it — the most noteworthy thing is the parking — narrow shoulder, curving narrow roadway, high speed limit — in the past we’ve been careless about getting the hikers’ cars completely out of the travel lane, and some local drivers have yelled at us — we’ve got it down now — except for our people standing in the roadway in the curve

The other noteworthy thing about this hike is the beautiful boggy area where the FLT crosses the road  —  I really like the bright foreground paired with the dark brooding backdrop

This is another of our many trails where you hardly see the sun once you step into the woods, so I pretty much confined my photo-taking to the roadway area

Official head count:  14 hikers, two dogs

Norm is a dedicated native plant enthusiast and he plunged into the bog at the end of the hike looking for I don’t know what  —  I like the combo of the long beard and the grasses.

You can see six more photos by me online here.

You can see Annie’s online photos here.

 

 

 

Saturday August 8

Ravine Trail, Finger Lakes National Forest, Schuyler County

Great hike!

This is the parking lot for the Ravine Trail as seen from Picnic Area Road  —  wonderfully atmospheric, and it sets a terrific mood  —  but if you’ve never been here before and you’re the first to show up, you’ll probably never notice it and you’re likely to go off on a wild goose chase looking for the meet-up

This is a wonderful pine woods right next to the parking lot  —  also terrifically atmospheric  —  I skipped into it for a pit stop before we left for home and I was struck by the beautiful light

The scenery along the ravine that gives its name to this trail is fabulous  —  if the ravine section was longer, I’d make this hike one of my Top 12

We decided to skip checking out any of the horse trails  —  instead we walked south on the Interloken Trail  —  sometimes muddy but not bad this time, and always lovely

There’s a huge pasture where farmers can graze their cattle that I love to visit  —  unfortunately the cattle were off in the far distance this time so they didn’t provide any excitement  —  sometimes they’ll run right near us and I can imagine them stampeding.

Official head count:  11 hikers, five dogs

You can see eight more photos by me online here.

 

 

 

Sunday August 9

Abbott Loop east from Michigan Hollow Road, Danby SF

Lovely morning — marred by a very bad start for our hike.

The path into the woods starts with a drainage ditch that’s gotten deeply eroded — one of the hikers lost her footing descending and tumbled down head first, hitting her head with a thunk on a rock. After resting for a minute, she said she felt OK, and we proceeded.

Purely by chance, we had a visiting physician hiking with us — her help wasn’t needed, but it was very reassuring to have a medical person there.

A few minutes later, three ladies got stung — two of the stings were quite vicious. One of those stung was Tiger, at the base of her hand. By the tie we got home, her wrist and lower arm were swollen and very sore — she took a Benadryl, got extremely sleepy and slept all afternoon. Area still very sore and swollen this morning.

Otherwise, uneventful morning — this is yet another dark leady trail and the dappled light was gorgeous.

We didn’t hit any bees on the way back and by the time we got back to the cars, all was well.

Official head count: 18 hikers, five dogs.

You can see seven more photos by me online here.

Hello Hikers!

 

 

Wednesday July 29

Mundy Wildflower Garden, Plantations botanical garden, arboretum, Beebe Lake  —  and ice cream at the Cornell Dairy Bar

This was a special hike for a hot morning — the forecast was for over 90 (though it actually fell short, topping out at 88 — we still haven’t broken 90 this year) — so we stayed in the flat flood plain along Fall Creek and kept in the shade as much as we could.

The plan worked out great — we had to do some time in the sun in the mid 80s, but it wasn’t humid — these Cornell horticultural areas are fabulous and it’s a delight to spend time wandering through them — I wonder how many people mean to visit them, but rarely or never get around to it

The Cornell dairy bar moved into a new building near the botanical gardens two years ago — ice cream not bad, but pricey — a pint costs the same as a hand-packed pint from Cayuga Lake Creamery — the prize for the thinnest person with the biggest ice cream item went to June — she bought an enormous ice cream sandwich — jumbo raisin oatmeal with chocolate ice cream and sprinkles — verdict: Not good, cookie much too thick, couldn’t taste the ice cream — everyone wanted to sit inside to get the a/c and it was much too dark for me to get a photo.

Official head count: 20 hikers, three dogs

You can see seven more photos by me online here.

You can see Annie’s photos online here.

 

 

Saturday August 1

South Danby Road westward on the Finger Lakes Trail

Lovely walk on one of our most beautiful pine woods trails.

This is another one of our hikes where you step into the shade as soon as you leave the cars, and don’t really emerge until you’re back. That can hold down the heat on a warm day — but this time it was quite humid and the shade didn’t help much on the outbound keg, which is definitely a bit strenuous. The humidity dropped after we turned around and we had a gorgeous walk back down the hill, absolutely delightful.

I often think I should put this hike onto my list of favorites. I never do — but the fact we have such a great trail that doesn’t quite make it into my top group really speaks to the quality and depth of our walks, I think.

Parts of this trail are amazingly dark — does weird things to the camera but I like the effect.

Official head count: 14 hikers, six dogs

You can see seven more shots by me online here.

You can see Annie’s photos online here.

 

 

Sunday August 1

Six Mile Creek, south side rim trail

Wonderful morning for a hike, mid-upper 70s with low humidity, a little breeze, very few bugs

This one turned into a big adventure hike for most of the group — they ended up doing a major bushwhack on the way back up from the reservoir, including a very steep hillside scramble — June, our number one daredevil, rated the hill as serious — she told me she thought some of the hikers wouldn’t be able to do it, but everyone did

I had to miss the excitement — as some of you know, my balance has been damaged by a rare nerve disorder I inherited from my mom, which started causing me problems last year — I have to avoid narrow spine trails and steep descents now — so I was waiting up on the bluffs while the others did their bushwhacking. I’ve done my share of hillside scrambling in the Six Mile gorge in the past — it’s really fun, and it can feel a little alarming at the moment.

Official head count: 18 hikers, one dog.

You can see seven more photos by me online here.

You can see Annie’s photos online here.

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Items left behind at our July 25 cook-out still waiting to be claimed: two black umbrellas, red jacket, brown folding chair

In the week between July 25 and Aug 1, the temperature of the pond at Roger’s climbed five degrees, thanks to a week of sunny 80+ days — plenty warm enough for swimming now

 

Hello Hikers!

 

 

Wednesday July 22

Yellow Barn State Forest, Dryden

Lovely morning, cool enough for a light jacket for us thinner-blooded ones

Still fresh-smelling and damp from the violent storm that came in on the cool front 18 hours earlier

This place buzzes with snowmobilers in winter, but it seems pretty dead the rest of the year. It’s definitely one of our second-tier state forests — scruffy, overgrown — there’s supposed to be trails here but I never see any — the DEC web page describes it as “primitive in nature” — fine with me, I really enjoy walking on the decayed forest roads, huge puddles and all.

Official head count: Nine hikers, two dogs

You can see five more photos by me online here.

You can see Annie’s photos online here.

 

 

Saturday July 25

Treman SP on the Finger Lakes Trail

Tiger and I had to miss this hike in order to get things ready for the cook-out. All these photos are by Jack V.

I set the start time for this hike an hour later than usual — I tried to emphasize the late start but I evidently didn’t do a good enough job — two hikers showed up at the usual start time and did most of the walk by themselves

Jack reported the hike was beautiful.  The group was clearly hightailing it  — they covered a lot more distance than we usually do.

Head count: Seven hikers, two dogs

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After a few hours at Saturday afternoon’s cook-out, two of our regular hikers, Bud and Scott, set off to drive to Toledo, the first stage in a drive to Montana — they’re going to hike into the back country for 10-12 days of fishing. This will be a completely primitive camping trip near bear country. It sounds like a fabulous adventure, though one I would never want to actually do myself. I urged them to keep a journal so they can write a report for us when they’re back. You can see them here training for the hike last winter — Bud’s on the left with the huge pack, Scott’s on the right.

In more cook-out follow-up news, the following items were left behind: Two black umbrellas, one folding; a red jacket with liner; plastic serving dish with center dish; styrofoam cooler with bottle of champagne; and a nice slotted serving spoon. Contact me if one of these items is yours.

 

 

Sunday July 26

Michigan Hollow Road to Curtis Road on the Finger Lakes Trail

A little warm but very beautiful in this gorgeous Danby SF woods

A number of hikers and several of the dogs got stung, both on the outbound leg and heading back to the cars — the bees are definitely becoming a problem this summer — if you’re allergic to bee stings, be sure to bring your epi pen — if it gets worse, we’ll start doing our walks on the rural roads instead of the forest paths.

This trail is a little strenuous and we got sweaty but it was comfortable enough even in the mid 70s thanks to all the shade, and we had a great time of it.

Official head count: 21 hikers, five dogs

You can see seven more photos by me online here.

You can see Annie’s photos online here.

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Someone asked me to make up and publish a list of my Top Ten hikes — good idea — I’m going to do a Top 12 — stay tuned.