Two steep trails up the hill from lower Buttermilk Falls SP to the upper level
This is the entrance to the Owl Creek Trail, which starts off the road from the lower parking lot up to the cabins. I never heard of this trail until late last fall — it’s not on the main park trail map and it starts in a very obscure place (though it is on this trail map). In any case, it’s a beautiful trail and well worth doing regularly. It’s basically just about as steep as the other better known trails that run from the lower parking lot up the hill — that’s to say, it’s a killer.The trail ends in this small cemetery on upper Stone Quarry Road. It’s a nice little spot but there’s not much to see — it’s really just a place to turn around.For part of the way, the trail runs right along the edge of a very deep and steep ravine through which Owl Creek flows — if you’re into contour maps, you can see the Google contour map showing the ravine and the road here.Here’s a view of the creek — very prettyWe made the trip up and back to the cemetery in just an hour — to fill out the other hour, we walked up the rim trail and then walked on the Bear Trail for a little while. This added up to a lot of time spent going uphill strenuously — and it puts this hike into maybe first place as the most strenuous one we do.
Danby SF — Loop trail from Bald Hill Road to Diane’s Crossing and back
Diane’s Crossing, the little bridge across Michigan Creek where we started heading back toward the carsIt looks a bit overgrown and brushy in the photo, but it’s actually a very lovely and serene spotBack at Bald Hill Road
Official head count: 25H, three D
More photos:
Jack V. I’m not able to get a working link to this album of Jack’s. To see these shots, use one of the other two links to Jack’s work in this report, and then click on the phrase ” > Ithaca Hiker Photos >”. That will take you to the home page for Jack’s photos, and you’ll see his Danby shots album in the top left.
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Sun April 7
Monkey Run Natural Area, south side of Fall Creek, Varna
Michigan Hollow Road at Diane’s Crossing SE to Hill Road and beyond oin the FLT, Danby SF
Official head count: 13H, one D
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Sat March 30
Monkey Run Natural Area, north side of Fall Creek at Hanshaw Road
The trail has been rerouted away from this creek-front stretch but a small group of us in front failed to notice the detour. This is the best time of the year to check out this stretch because all the weeds have been flattened by ice and snow.
The high point of this walk is always a group shot at the pavilion. The hikers were a little reluctant slow to get into a proper line this time, and I had to try and boss them aroundHere’s the view from the line-up — I thought Norm’s stance was undignifiedFor some reason, we never manage to get all the hikers into the portraits — four people missing from this one, not counting me
Potato Hill SF, Level Green Road to Old 76 Road, Caroline
Major surprise when we got to the trail head — we found a big logging operation under wayWe’re used to this place being completely deserted and tranquil, so it was very weirdOnce we got a few minutes in from the road, the walk seemed normal againIt warmed up quite a bit during the hike, and by the time we finished we ran into some horrendous gooey mud
Six Mile Creek, north side rim trail starting at Crescent Place
This hike is right in town and I thought there’d be a good chance the snow had melted, because there was so little snow in other parts of town …This isn’t a popular trail by any means — we never see anyone else using it when we walk here — but enough people had used it that there was a treacherous thick layer of ice laid down that made walking trickyThe group had to cut the walk short when they came to a stream they couldn’t ford ….No one wanted to retrace their steps through the woods because of the ice, so they walked back the whole way on the South Hill Rec Way, which parallels the trail.
I had to skip this hike, having fallen ill the day before with vomiting and diarrhea. I had to sit out a lot of hikes last summer after I fell down and suffered a concussion, but I always looked forward eagerly to looking over Tiger’s photos right after every hike to see how it went, and I always thought each walk looked beautiful in the photos. This time, though, oddly, the scenes from the hike looked ugly and depressing to me — never happened before — I was really surprised how much the intestinal illness was affecting my perceptions.
Official head count: 12H, one D
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Sat March 16
Woodard Road east into upper Treman SP on the CCC Trail and the FLT
Our official nature photographer Jack V loves to photograph water — he was using a high-quality new camera for the first time — check out his shots at the link below to see the shot he got of this lovely small waterfallI was still too sick to hike, but this time when I looked at Tiger’s photos right afterwards, it seemed like a really great walk and I wished I’d been able to be there
Official head count: 12H, one D. Two more people left home intending to join the group, but they failed to pay attention to the location and they went to the wrong place
Stevens Suspension Bridge up to the big Cornell fields and across Freese Road to the Varna cliffs
When we reached the top of the hill and arrived at the edge of the huge fields, it was like suddenly arriving at the beach on a gorgeous mild calm spring morning — it was only in the low 30s, but with the sun bouncing off a vast expanse of snow, it felt like a perfect day — not hot, not cold, just perfectly rightThe Varna cliffs — Tiger and I have become too alarmed by the severe undercutting of the banks that’s going on to walk to the edge the way these hikers did. Jack V has an excellent shot of the cliffs in his photos, linked belowSpectacularly nice morning IMO
We’ve had a lot of dark hikes this winter — this was one of the darkest — so dark the camera had trouble focusing, which is unusual — really fun if you like very gloomy atmospherics — mild and windy, a little rain
