Letchworth 1 - Yellow Blazes

  We are now following yellow blazes. We are doing another of the Finger Lakes Trail branches. This is the Letchworth Branch which goes the length of that park and along the gorge cut by the Genesee River. I've been here a lot of times in my life. It was one of my dad's favorite parks- he didn't have many, but I'm not sure we'll even see the thing he liked the most. And I've hiked here with Irene several times since I've been blogging.

I've previously hiked pieces of this trail with Irene, but I'm not sure I'd done the parts we hiked today which was the southern end of the park.

The weather is delightfully cool, however it decided to rain for an hour in the middle of the day. We managed to hit a park pavilion at the right time to eat lunch and stay dry for most of that time, but I did have to put the camera away. This is at the Parade Grounds, a flat open area where a number of divisions of troops mustered for the Civil War.

This is just a roadside weed, an agrimony I think, doing it's first year rosette (whatever it is, it's a biennial), and I think it is pretty. Newish, and very invasive weed, Narrowleaf Bittercress, Cardamine impatiens.

The best of the day was taking a spur trail after the sun came back out that followed the edge of the Letchworth Gorge. The rock walls are about 200 feet high.

Here's another view. See the green water at the bottom?

And our destination on that spur was the view of the Middle Falls. The Upper Falls is just visible above that. You can see the Letchworth Bridge spanning the gorge at the top of this picture. This is a new bridge, built in 2017, which replaced an iron bridge that had been in use since 1875. This is an active railroad bridge, operated by Norfolk Southern. The new bridge has been named the Genesee Arch Bridge.

It was an easy hiking day. A lot of the trail was on a former railbed, and was quite level.

Letchworth Branch of the Finger Lakes Trail, southern terminus to Dygert Rd with spurs, 8.7 miles

See Letchworth Hogback

Dan & Ruth

  We have moved locations again, and on the way got to visit with Dan and Ruth. If you have been a long-time blog reader you've seen them before- hiking friends whom I dearly love. Marie was there too of course, but we forgot to take a picture, so I ran back to get one after Marie was already in the car.

We ate lunch with them and had lots of wonderful conversation.

And that's about all for today.

See A Day with Elaine

A Day with Elaine

  Today, Marie and I spent the day with my friend Elaine. You can see why we used to be called Mutt and Jeff if you are old enough to remember that cartoon.

Our first activity was to go fossil hunting for a couple of hours. Around here, that is usually a sure thing to find a few fossils. We didn't find anything spectactular, and I forgot to take pictures because it was just run of the mill stuff. But we had fun. In this stone, there is the round end of a horn coral impression, and the impression of some worm. We also found crinoids and brachiopods, and some other small shell impressions.

"Look over there," Elaine instructed. It's like the grass on the other side of the fence... you always think the best ones will be just around the bend.

Then we went to a small public garden and musuem. It was really nice. Even though it's September, there were still quite a few flowers in bloom.

We spent about two hours there, but I would gladly go back again. We didn't really see it all. There is an extensive stamped brick collection.

There are a number of buildings filled with old tools. One building is a working mill. This is just a small bit of some of the farm tools on display.

The most amazing thing is a fossil he found on his property. It's been called one of the most significant fossil finds of New York State. You need to understand that each half of this rock is bigger than I am, and is filled with these fossils of Glass Sponges. A fossil colony had never been found before. They are Uphantaenia chemungensis

Finally, we made a visit to Ithaca Falls.

Dinner out and it was time to say goodbye. Nice day.

See Crystal Hills

Crystal Hills 6 - Complete

  Marie and I have now hiked all 49.7 miles of the Crystal Hills Branch of the Finger Lakes Trail. We also had to do 1.4 miles of the main FLT to access a parking area. Total FLT miles this year is thus 51.1 miles, and we qualify for this year's Hike 50 patch!

As I have mentioned, this is also part of the Mid-State Trail (we would have to hike 275 more miles to complete that). And if we were going to do all the Great Eastern Trail, we'd have to hike another 1550 to Alabama. Not this year! We were at the northern terminus of all those routes today. This is not at the terminus, but someone spent a significant amount of time to carve this into the rock. The word "trail" is down in the lower left corner.

I guess this hill doesn't have a name, but it's between Mead's Creek and Dry Run (which was not dry). The route went through Watson Homestead, the site of the very first North Country Trail Conference I ever attended, in 1995. This is property that was in the famiy of Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM. This is the house where he grew up.

He attended this little one-room schoolhouse.

We had another beautiful lunch spot, this time in mature pines.

Partridgeberry was sparkling with water, and this one even had a berry.

And at the north end, the Moss Hill Lean-to was welcoming.

Now for the truth of the tale. Today was really hard. We walked 10.1 miles, but it felt like a lot more. It was really tough. It rained for a couple of hours today, but the rain of the previous days has made an awful lot of mud, and the floods of 3 weeks ago have washed out a lot of places, exposing rocks and making gullies. It was also a really hilly day. Down, up, down, up, down, up.

But we made it. We always do!

Crystal Hills Branch of the Finger Lakes Trail, Woodcock Road to Moss Hill Road on the main FLT. 10.1 miles

See True Blue Gumby II

The Lake that I Love

  We are staying for a couple of days near enough to Cayuga Lake, where I grew up, to be able to see it. Just a wonderful place.

We took the day off and rested. This was a fine use of the day since it rained a lot. We played games, read, and visited some people. It was nice. So I'll share some more plants from yesterday. None of these four is commonly found in Michigan, so I was realy happy!

This is one I found last year in NY in Huckleberry Bog. White Wood Aster, Eurybia divaricata. This trip, the blooms are much more fully open, so the pictures are lots nicer.

I've also found this one in New York before. It has been seen in Michigan, but not many places. I'll have to keep my eyes open. This is a white goldenrod called Siverrod, Solidago bicolor. It wasn't fully open, but you can see it's definitely white.

The next one isn't in Michigan at all. I've seen it before, but I think only the leaves, which are distinctive. See how the leaves become winged and just flow into the stem? I didn't realize the flowers were white, but they can also be light blue. This is Lowrie's Aster, Symphyotrichum lowrieanum.

Finally, we have a Mountain Mint. Sadly, I'm not sure which one, but the leaves are too wide for the common one, so I think this might be Hoary Mountain Mint, Pycnanthemum incanum. Again, not generally found in Michigan- mostly east and south. I was a victim of being in a hurry. I just looked at the flowers and said, "Oh, Mountain Mint," snapped a picture and hiked on without looking more closly. A glance at the photo, however, told me the leaves were wrong.

What a feast of plant treats!

Tomorrow, we'll be back on the trail.

See True Blue Gumby II