Harford-Slaterville Road north on the FLT into Hammond Hill SF, Dryden
This trail head is in a lovely country setting out in the middle of nowhere — at first glance it looks very idyllic — but in fact it’s a bad place to shape up, and it makes everyone nervous. As you can see, the road is very narrow, and the hikers’ cars aren’t more than a few inches out of the driving lane. It’s impossible to get any further off the pavement because the ground drops away quite abruptly into a pond right on the other side of the cars. The hike meet-up area in in a short straight stretch between two blind curves, and the speed limit is pretty high.Steve S, Jim (across the road), Casey, Joel and Jack VIf you click on this shot and enlarge it, you can see Katharine in the far left demonstrating her special method of carrying two dogs — quite a trick IMOTiger was waiting just up the trail as the group sprang into action — she took all the rest of the shots in this report. You can see another shot of Katharine carrying the dogs — she’s really good at itThe trail itself is very attractive — makes up for the bad parking situation
Official head count: 14H, three D. Two more hikers set out to join us but they missed a turn and drove way out of the way asnd never managed to find us.
Special out-of-town hike organized and led by Steve S — Labrador Pond, Tinkers Falls and Hang Glide Hill, Tully
The hike report and photos are by Steve S
IthacaHikers Splinter Group hike guided by Steve S to Labrador Pond, Tinkers Falls, and Hang Glide Hill. After we all managed to gather at Labrador Pond we admired the serene lake and walked the boardwalk through the boreal forest. Warm and pleasant at Lab Pond, then rain at Tinkers Falls. Several hikers did the walk behind the falls and met the rest of the group at the junction with the trail up Hang Glide Hill. The rain stopped by the time we made it up the long hill to the summit. Spectacular view, snacks, a bit of hang out in the damp air, but the view was very atmospheric. Afterwards we drove to Tully where we had coffee at Bloom Cup Cafe–a very pleasant comfortable coffee shop.
Sorry for the poor quality of the shot of the falls but it was soaking rain. I think the context etc makes it ok to publish. It’s especially neat to see Irene and Nelson behind the falls and Norm at the base. We all had a great time despite the weather.
Official head count: SevenH, one D
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Sat May 25
South Danby Road west on the FLT to Curtis Road and Hill Road, Danby SF
There was mud, as expected — it was very sticky, and very slippery. Luckily the muddy segments were fairly limitedThe chance of rain was very low — but within just a few minutes after we started the drive home, we ran into a real cloudburst along 96B in Danby that would have drenched us if it hit a little earlier. The storm seemed to be confined to Danby — it wasn’t raining as we got closer to town.
Finger Lakes National Forest — Logan Road to the Burnt Hill lean-to on the FLT
Grist Iron Brewery, Route 414 — a short drive from our trail headThis was the biggest turnout we’ve ever had for a brewery after a hike — we had two tables full of hikers at Grist IronThe brewery is in a great setting overlooking Seneca Lake — it was a gorgeous day, really beautiful and not hot
Connecticut Hill WMA — loop trail on the FLT and Ridge Road south of Boylan Road
This is a new trail for us that Nancy L worked out while she was exploring this part of Connecticut Hill. It was pretty much unfamiliar territory for all of usWe had one stream crossing with steep high banks — a bit of a challenge — everyone else had to climb down and then back up the other side — Eckhart is 87
Road walk — Beck Farm, Red Mill Road, West Malloryville
We came upon a very large area of trilliums in full bloom — not as striking as the trilliums we recently saw at our official trillium viewing site on lower Shindagin Hollow Road, which spread far up the side of a deep ravine, but very impressive
Official head count: 19H, three D
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Sun May 19
Upper Black Diamond Trail and south rim trail, Taughannock Falls SP
It was sunnier and hotter than predicted — our car thermometer read 85 as we headed home — there was no shade on part of the Black Diamond Trail and I was starting to feel a little punchy on the return legWe have several regular hikers who often arrive late but have a great ability to find us — it’s always fun to suddenly see them pop up — this is Katharine, our main party hostess
I don’t like to be too timid when I’m trying to decide if we should hike when it’s going to rain — on the other hand, I don’t want to see a group of hikers ride out to the trail head and then it pours. I thought I made a sensible decision about this hike based on how hard it was supposed to rain between 9 and noon. But then shortly after I sent out the “let’s do it” notice, it started to rain much harder. It was really coming down on our drive to the trail head. We wondered if other people would show up. In fact, we had a surprisingly good turnout, and everyone was energized by the fact trhat we were goig to hike in such heavy weather. It turned out the weather service very much underestimated the rainfall from 9 to noon in its prediction — we can know exactly how much rain fell because Cornell maintains a high-quality weather station just a few miles from where we hiked, in Harfard. In fact, we got 3X the amount of rain that was predicted. It didn’t matter — we had a great hike — the setting was just as lovely as I’d hoped.
I only took a few photos because I didn’t want to get my camera wet. Here’s a closer view of the hikers:Leigh Ann, Haven, Norm, Kathy, Tiger, and Jim in frontRoger, Eckhart, Nancy, Joel, Wendy and Randy. One more hiker, Brenda, showed up to hike, but when she got out of the car to start the walk, she realized she’d left her hiking poles in the parking lot of Saturday’s hike, so she went off in hopes of finding them (she did). There were three dogs with us on the trail.The rain slacked off briefly at one point and I got this shot.
One word of advice: Don’t wear cotton pants if you’ll be walking in the rain for two hours and it’s chilly out.
It rained overnight and the rim trail was extremely wet and muddy — I slipped at one point and fell sideways against a tree stump which had a stub sticking out that jabbed into my side pretty hard — sore and bruised the next morningThere were indeed a lot of trilliums and other wild flowers along the lower stretch of the road just as Annie said in her preview report — but the rain that fell overnight caused them to sag and droop, so the flowers weren’t as visible as usual.
It was raining a bit on the drive to the hike — no rain while we were walking — started raining again on the drive home ….. the damp cloudy atmospherics were fantastic The high point of this hike is walking across a large beaver dam. I think it’s great fun but it makes some of the hikers nervous; they’re concerned it might give way. This photo was taken by Norm, who was wearing high rubber boots and who waded out into the water just downstream of the dam to get the shotThis is what the dam crossing looks like from up at the level of the damThis is one of a series of eskers we walk on — there’s a pretty big drop off to both sidesThe old railroad right-of-way — view from one of the high trestles down to Fall CreekInside the Malloryville bogThis normally isn’t a hike where we do a group shot, but we had a visiting hiker, Adnan K (in pants #46), who asked for a photo with everyone — for the second time in a row, all the hikers made it into the portrait.
Parking for this walk is very limited and a bit dangerous, so we only do it on Wednesdays when the turnout is smaller. It’s a shame because I’m sure our weekend hikers would really enjoy this hike just as much. Two things set it apart — many of the trees are unusually large and old, and the terrain rises and falls pretty steeply in a striking mannerWe used to hike here regularly, but then I began to find the trail too steep, so we didn’t come for three years. Then my curiosity got the better of me. I was surprised to see that Cornell Plantations, which owns the forest, has created an extensive new trail segment that’s very wide and well groomed, and is extremely easy to walk on. I was thinking they’d redone the whole length of the trail, and eliminated the super-steep and rugged ups and downs that I’d come to find so challenging.Alas, most of the original old trail is still there, as hairy as ever, though the difficulty has been eased in several spots by the provision of some sturdy rope strung along the steepest parts. But it’s still grueling.But I don’t mean to complain too much. The forest is really exceptionaly nice.Unfortunately the trail’s not long enough to last two hours, but it’s too long to do two circuits, so you have to quit early. I didn’t mind; my ass was dragging
Raining very lightly at the meet-up — not a great forecast — the regulars faithfully turned out anywayIf you enjoy grey damp cool weather, it was actually quite nice outWe’re strongly focused on trying to keep our slower hikers from getting lost here — Norm is making a directional arrow out of branches to show which way to turn, since it’s not obviousIf you click on this shot and look closely at the high resolution version that will pop up, you’ll see snow falling — this was the second year in a row it snowed on the last Sunday of April while we were on the trailThis might be the first time ever that everyone on a hike made it into a formal group portrait — we have certain hikes where a portrait is always part of the routineThe scene back at the cars could look a little bleak and grim to you — in fact, everyone was in a very cheerful mood
