ithacahikers

Report to Hikers: Sat-Sun Dec 29-30

Sat Dec 29

Gorge Trail, Mark Smith Road, Finger Lakes National Forest

Part of the fun of hiking out in the country is you get the chance to drive through some wonderful rural scenery on the way to the trail head. I’ve loved this farm house along Mark Smith Road since the first time we came here, years ago. The terrain and the massing of the forest behind create a setting of great appeal and charm, the kind of spot you can spin out an idyllic fantasy about. I grabbed this photo hastily — I need to spend a bit more time next time and see if I can capture the scene better.

That’s the road in the background — gives you an idea of how steeply the trail ascends right off the bat

All the ponds were frozen. The ice looked quite thick and I asked for a volunteer to test it out. No takers.

It was horribly muddy on the trails on the broad level top of the forest preserve, so we shifted to Burnt Hill Road

We took a detour to check out this gorgeous pond — there’s a trail that heads through the pine woods in the background, but it’s muddy even in dry weather ….

We saw a couple of parked cars — this was the only one in motion

This was a great road for a walk on a gloomy damp mild morning

Official head count: 17H, two D

More photos:

Jack V

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Sun Dec 30

Treman SP onn the FLT from Route 13

Another hike morning with a beautiful coat of fresh snow draped over everything.

A small group of hikers decided to start early and race well beyond the point we normally turn around — they wanted to see Lucifer Falls. They got back to the cars 20 minutes late.

The main group maintained their discipline and didn’t try to start ahead of time

The snow cover was a bit thin, but deep enough to create a lovely effect

This is one of a handful of spots where everyone is required to pose for an official group photo. The advance group was long gone, of course — four other hikers were also missing from this shot. The Certified Head Count is listed at the end of this report.

I managed to squeeze under this fallen log myself — wondered if I’d make it. Most hikers walked around rather than crawl under.

The snow was melting fast by the time we got back to the cars

Official head count: 29H, seven D

More photos:

Jack V was with the fast-moving advance group. You can see his shots here

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Want to see a short video of our Christmas get-together?

It turned out Norm made 1:45 video by wandering around and documenting the scene. Good chance to see what our get-togethers are like. Technical note: The video would not open for us in Windows 10, but it worked fine on a tablet computer running Android. The video is here.

Report to Hikers: Christmas Day — two hikes and a get-together

Hello Hikers!

Hike #1: Special flat hike from Town Line Road to Yaple Road, Danby

Official head count for the flat hike: 17H, five D

Hike #2: Steep hike along Lick Brook down from Town Line Road to Route 13 and back up

Tiger and I both walked with the flat hikers, so there was no one to take photos or get an official head count for the Lick Brook hike. There were at least 10H and three D that we were aware of — could have been more too ….

Get-together at Katharine’s

Katharine was working under a real handicap to get this event ready — she broke her wrist a few weeks ago and she has a hard cast on her left forearm so she can’t use the hand — still able to pull everything together beautifully — great organization and traffic flow past the food and into the seats — very festive and lively — we left just before 2 pm and people were still coming

Report to Hikers: week of Dec 17-Dec 23

Hello Hikers!

Wed Dec 19

Diane’s Crossing to Hill Road and beyond on the FLT, Danby SF

We finally had a sunny morning for a change, and Norm, who’s concerned about sun exposure, decided to try out a nose protector he created from cardboard. His verdict: It worked well

Official head count: 13H, one D

More photos:

Jack V

Sat Dec 22

Danby SF: Loop trail from Bald Hill Road to Diane’s Crossing and back

We’ve been very lucky this fall and gotten an unusually large number of mornings with fresh snow draped beautifully over the woods — this one was the best so far — in fact, it was probably the best winter-wonderland scenery we’ve had in some years

Normally I load the hike photos onto the web site in the sequence they were taken, so the hike report becomes a chronological narrative of the walk — this time I’m just putting the most dramatic scenes first, so you can get a quick idea how apectacular it was

This is Michigan Creek looking south from the little footbridge at Diane’s Crossing ….

…. everyone was bowled over by the spectacular scene

This part of Danby SF is a perfect setting for a very clingy snow because of the mix of evergreens, mature deciduous trees with lots of small branches, and thick-growing bushes. The situation was even more special because the snow wasn’t deep, so it wasn’t a struggle to walk, just a little bit slippery

Even the half-mile stretch of road walk looked great — as promised, no traffic ….

Bald Hill Road as we headed south toward the entrance to Dove’s Trail

I got this shot from the rear — that’s the official hike photographer Tiger out front — great forest scenery

At the end of the hike, a few hundred feet from the cars …. typically the draped snow would have started to fall off the branches by this point but it really lasted this time.

Official head count: 17H, two D

Sun Dec 23

Lindsay Parsons Preserve, West Danby

Official head count: 22H, nine D

Report to Hikers: week of Dec 10-Dec 16

Hello Hikers!

I’m happy to report that we fixed the way the photos display — you can now click on any photo and see a large high-resolution version. I also went back and repaired the links in last week’s hike report so all those photos are now clickable.

Wed Dec 12

New trail from lower Buttermilk Falls SP to the cemetery on Stone Quarry Road

The temperature was just above freezing — the condition when microspikes are likely to clump up and make it almost impossible to walk smoothly. Photo by Jack V

Official head count: 14H, four D

More photos:

Jack V

Sat Dec 15

Stevens Suspension Bridge, Forest Home, to the Varna Cliffs in Monkey Run

Official head count: 18H, four D

Sat Dec 15

Special out-of-town hike — Steege Hill, Corning

Photos and hike report by Jack V

Jack’s report: 4 of us did the first of the longer hikes at SteegeHill. We hiked 7 miles in 3 1/2 hours. Steege Hill earned its name ‘hill’, most of the hike was either going up or down. All of the hike was in the woods so there were limited views.

You can see Jack’s full set of photos here

Sun Dec 16

Rained out

Report to Hikers: week of Dec 3-Dec 9

Hello Hikers!

Wed Dec 5

Ellis Hollow Nature Preserve

Shortly after we set off, we came to a stream that’s normally slightly tricky to cross, but by no means impossible — this time it was so full we couldn’t see a way across — one hiker tried but had to turn back half way — then he fell in trying to get back to shore — fell sideways, landed on his hip, and wet half his body. He had to head right back to the car. This is the site of the accident — we swung by later in the walk so I could get a shot