We got a good bit of rain the afternoon and evening before the hike, and it was still very wet when we arrived at the trail head — the air had a wonderful mild damp quality, and the light was extremely bright but a little misty — very nice!This miniature horse lives in the farm area at the top of Curtis, and he’s always interested and energized when our group comes hiking here — I think farm animals are amused at the novelty of a group of walkers coming into their neighborhoodI picked this woods road because I thought it would be less slippery and muddy than one of our usual forest trails after all the rain we’ve had this month — that was pretty much the case, but not entirely ….
The beaver dam crossing was especially tricky this time because the water had overtopped part of it, forcing us to walk along the extreme downstream edge — some hikers chose to cross the stream at the base of the dam instead ….Here’s another view of the scene — I took the lower crossing myself — pretty challenging — you can see a photo of me in Annie’s photo album of the hike, looking like I’m about to fall downOne of the two old railroad trestles — it’s much higher above the creek than it looks in the photoBob’s property abuts the Malloryville bog, and we entered the bog this time by walking up his amazingly long driveway to his house and garage — I saw a photo opIn the bog — there are some pitcher plants inside this observation platform
Hike rained out. According to the various rain loggers, it rained briskly between 9 and 10, and just a little between 10 and 11; then the rain stopped.
Black Diamond rail trail, from Perry City Road to Willow Creek Road, Ulysses
It took me a long time to warm up to this trail. When it opened a few years back, Tiger and I checked it out by getting on it at the south end, in Cass Park. I hated the huge electric transmission line poles and the highway running right next to the walkway. Later we tried out the trail from its upper end, at Taughannock Park. No ugly infrastructure, but I thought it was boring.More recently, we’ve had occasion to walk on the central portion of the trail. I’ve been very surprised at how different this stretch is, and how pleasant. The scenery along the way is extremely good, fields and clumps of woods and distant viewsAlways a high point of our walks — a strange-dog meet-and-greet. The dogs clearly enjoy it, and it always produces a sense of subdued high spiritsThere was a big rainstorm rapidly approaching us from the south, and the air had a lovely damp sultry quality to it. Really nice morning to be outside.
Official head count: 15H, six D
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Sat Oct 19
Connecticut Hill WMA with Dave G — Carter Creek Loop
Dave said a lot of leaves had come down since earlier in the week thanks to the wind and rain — it really opened up the woods and we had great views into the neighboring hills — I’d say late October on a sunny day with plenty of colored leaves still up makes for a gorgeous hike hereOur nature photographer Annie, with her sister Margaret
Another case of, “Hey! it wasn’t supposed to rain until later!”
Official head count: 13H, one D
Get-together at Randy and Nancy’s
It started to rain pretty briskly as we drove from the trail head to Randy and Nancy’s, and I wondered if the bad weather would discourage people from coming to the get-together, but a number of people who hadn’t hiked showed up
Randy skipped the hike and stayed home creating a variety of fancy tapas-style hors d’oeuvres. Nancy made a cake and created some tapas-style vegetarian relishes. Everyone loved the food. It was drizzling outside and there was a fire inside and it was wonderfully cozy and fun.
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Sun Oct 13
Michigan Hollow Road southeast on the FLT to Hill Road and beyond, Danby SF
I decided we’d start out doing the very short first leg of the hike on the road, so Tiger could get a couple of photos. Once we stepped into the woods the light was impossible for taking photos — none that Tiger got was worth using, IMO
I decided to completely trust the weather forecasting services this time — they were predicting it would rain hard between 7 am and 9 am and then stop during hike time ….…. they turned out to be 100% right — the rain stopped right on time and we had wonderfully atmospheric conditions for our hike, damp, dark and sultryEveryone shown except one person (and me)
Official head count: 15H, one D
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Sat Oct 5
Texas Hollow SF, Bennettsburg
It was too dark in the woods to get any photos beyond this one, which is pretty murky, but, I hope, interestingly atmosphericThe first part of the trail, from the parking lot to the big field, is horribly challenging. Rather than struggle with it any longer, we decided from now on, we’ll use Texas Hollow Road for a few minutes to reach an alternative entrance to the field
This walk was a special request and a special occasion — regular hiker Tom was making his first return to the hiking trail since getting a knee replacement two months ago.He was in good spirits. This was actually his second new knee — he had the other one replaced a few years agoIn fact everyone was in good spirits — it was a gorgeous morning, with a wonderful feeling of fall in the airTom requested a walk where the trail surface would make for easy walking, and he could turn back early and be sure of finding his way back to the carsAs you can see from the close-up here, the trail surface is excellent, especially compared to our typical trail, which is a lot rougherThis is an excellent walk, realy pretty the whole way
Second hike in a row where a hiker rejoined us after an extended medical layoff — this time it was Casey, back after three months’ recuperation from major abdominal surgery — amazingly, he was able to do the complete hike at normal speedThis trail is always extremely dark, but there is one open spot where we can count on getting a photoI can’t say the hikers always love the experience of undergoing a group photoNot everyone made it into the portrait shot
Our snowbirds are starting to leave town. Mak and Tamara are planning to leave this week for their winter home in Florida. They’ll be gone until May. We’ll lose more hikers as winter gets closer.
Official head count: 21H, eight D
Ekhart’s 88th birthday get-together at Hopshire
A number of people who missed the hike turned out. We sat in the brewing room, which was open to the outdoors, and we had a number of yellowjackets buzzing peacefully around. The setting was oddly festive, and the get-together had a very lively vibe.It would be really fun if this photo was depicting a special envoy from the county sheriff’s office officially sent out to congratulate Eckhart for continuing to hike at such an advanced age — actually it’s just our regular hiker Jim, who was on duty and who swung by for a quick handshake. In fact, Jim was celebrating a milestone of his own — last day on the job after 32 years. This is the open doorway where the bees can come and go.There was lots of delicious food. Hand-made chocolate heart and photo of Eckhart by PJ