Hike #14

It's a lovely day (despite the hurricane headed our way in the next couple of days). It's also my birthday. No better way to spend it than going on a hike. We wanted to do something different and since we had no other plans we ventured out to a place we've never explored before. Whittacker swamp State Forest http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/8093.html It's not far from home, but in a part of the county I've not explored much before.

14. Whittacker Swamp state forest 8/26 There's only one trail. It's an old road. It's about 2 1/4 miles long. Once we got to the second parking area we simply turned around and headed back. So it was a total of 4.5 miles. Most is easy. There is a stream to cross and for a bit it gets pretty steep. But it's a lovely secluded quiet bit of land. Gabe said it was "murkwood" like. Dark and damp. Muddy in places. The trails are not marked at all but since it's an old road it's easy enough to follow.

Hike #13

We went for a long hike today. It was such a beautiful day. We were stuck inside canning beets all morning but got out for the afternoon. Since we wanted to spend as much time outside as possible we stayed close to home. Salt Springs again.

13 .Salt Springs 8/22 Hardwood to Friends to summit (around the "frog pond" or frog puddle as we decided it was better named!) to cliff (beautiful trail but many downed trees) to Bunny to Fall Brook to conector to Silver Creek. Basically the perimeter of the whole park! What a lovely hike. We took about 3.25 hours to do it but it was fun.

Hike #12

Beautiful, beautiful day! We went to salt springs again but luckily noticed that the maps in the kiosk looked a bit different than the map we've had in our hiking folder for several years. There's even more land in the park now and a nice new long trail.

#12 salt Springs 8/20 Hemlock to Fall Brook to Bunny (left up bunny right after fall brook crosses Buckley Rd). We took bunny to Cliff trail to summit to Friends (new-white marked) and followed that in a long loop to the junction of Hardwood and upland (we saw the white markers last time we were out and wondered because there was nothing on our map to indicate a white trail in that part of the park!). It was a longer hike than many we've taken lately but very nice. Gabe liked the new Friends trail a lot. It was pretty and relaxed.

Hike #11

#11. Greenwood park 8/17 It was a beautiful day and we were busy :( But on the way to a meeting in Ithaca we stopped at Greenwood and got in a short hike. Greenwood's a county park with a beach and camping. It's much like Cole park but has more extensive trails. We took a few new to us ones. Not a fabulous hike. But it was something.

Hike #10

It's been raining a lot. But today it cleared up and turned sunny in the afternoon. Gabe and I jumped at the chance to get in a short hike.

10. Hawkins Pond 8/16 We stuck to the county park this time. We took the shoreline way trail along the pond. Then cut over to bamboo tangle. We crossed Bevan Road and took hawk ridge up to the overlook on Saxby Road. Then back down hawk ridge and out on Bevan road again. From there we walked along the road to the pond and back to the parking. It was a short hike but we were glad to get one in today.

It was very wet. Hawkins pond is often wet and muddy but it was esp. wet today after all the rain.

Hike #9

It's cloudy today with a chance of thunderstorms later this afternoon. We decided to do a short hike anyway. Salt Springs yet again!

Hike #9- Salt Springs park: 8/13 We decided to do the short loops so we'd be close by the parking lot if the weather turned bad. We took Hemlock to Upland then Hardwood to Woodland and then back out. Basically going back up and down and up and down the hill. It was short but got the blood pumping on the climb up. Hardwood and Upland are both rated moderate because they climb steadily up. There's a huge (almost 300 year old) Hemlock down across the path at one point. It's been cut to allow hikers through but looking at the huge trunk is cool.

Hike #8

The Glen : 8/12 It is a lovely day, but our hiking time was short. My car was in the shop all morning and we are hosting our Quaker monthly meeting/potluck here tonight. We decided to take a quick hike at the IBM Glen. This is a weird park. It was IBM property and was donated to a local nature center. Some of the trails are actually old roads on part of the IBM campus. They were paved but are now broken and reverting to a natural area. The result is a sort of post-apocalyptic feel. Cracked, heaved roads. IBM signs rusted and half covered with growth. Guardrails covered with moss and speed limit signs near roads that you can barely tell were once paved.

It's also got some regular trails including a bit that goes down into a very nice glen with a creek and and old growth forest of mainly hemlock, maple and oak. Pretty, quiet and fun to walk. Much of the 200 acre park has been a favorite nature area for decades.

From the parking area we took the red trail to the blue trail back up and around to the yellow "switchback" trail down into the glen. We continued to follow the yellow trail all the way back to the parking area. Which means we walked just about all the trails in the park. About 3 miles.

We are looking forward to the day when we are free, have a working car and the weather is nice. We'd like to venture a bit farther from home and go on some longer hikes. There are no mountains close to home or even gorges like in the finger lakes. We've got some pretty forest trails but they are all pretty short.