East Hill Chase

A summer like morning.  Bright sun radiating warmth.  You can feel the heat coming. A peaceful morning for a hike - little do we all know of the chaos behind us. We began at the FLCC East Hill campus which now links the campus to Hi Tor and the main FLT trail.  The blue blaze trails are wide - double track, designed for cross-country skiing.

wildflowers are out

Four of us set out to enjoy the day.  The trail starts up through a field - often swampy - and then up East Hill, a steep switch back climb

20 minutes later the chase begins.  While we are meandering through the woods - two others arrive at the trail head and begin trying to track us down and join us.

Our hike was highlighted by birds, wildflowers, and a series of ponds.  The chase group moves a bit more frantic pace - covering a lot of ground, calling out, but alas - not finding us until we all meet up at the park for a game of bocce.

Bocce was the order of the day - we had four in our group and Latin was a topic of conversation.  Here is all you need to know about bocce from the World Bocce League - starting with its history.

All's well that ends well.

Signage & parking area on East Hill Rd.

Double track trails

Blue trail pond

One of High Tor's biggest ponds

Caught up to catch a game of bocce

Measuring bocce distance...with his feet.

wildflowers are out

Blue trail pond

One of High Tor's biggest ponds

Caught up to catch a game of bocce

Measuring bocce distance...with his feet.

Nundaweo, The Great Hill

It is not often that one gets to walk into the birthplace of a people.  We explored the Great Hill Nature Reserve and the entrance to Clark's Gully - the site where the Seneca Nation emerged. This week's hike has also been a New York Times feature article.  This is our back yard.

Hiking up to Clark's Gully

We walked up to the new look out - a hard to find chipped pathway that leads to three information signs and bench.  The field has been sown with native plants - birds abound.  Following Sunny Road we hiked up around South Hill to enter the Great Hill Nature Reserve.  This marked trail is a loop that takes you above the south end of Canandaigua lake.  Here we found what looks like an Seneca rock mound.  

View south 

Farther up the hill are the Bare Hill sacred sites.Saint George, Serpent, and the Seneca Indians. We headed down the hill to wander up into Clark's Gully.  Water flowed and we picked our way up the narrow gorge.  Not far in is a waterfall coming down into a pool.  Here we stopped to take the scene in - a natural sitting spot.

The best part of the day may have been the 'found' fishing experience...a bobber in a tree, old line & hook on the ground, and a stick - go get a worm!
                                   

Rock mounds

First waterfall in Clarks Gully

Scrambling down

Communication...

...and trust.

Conklin Gully to Naples Community Park

Tor - a hill or rocky peak, a high craggy hill.  The word comes from Old English - Welsh in origin. The Gaelic word torr means lofty hill or mound. Our own Hi Tor is appropriately named.  I have hiked, biked, and run Hi Tor for 30 years and never knew what tor meant; it took a stint in the flat lands of Ohio and teaching the Sherlock Holmes classic the Hounds of the Baskerville.  The mystery is set in a boggy 'tor' region of the English countryside and to understand the story you need to understand the setting - my new vocab word was 'tor' and I finally looked it up...

What a day for a hike - it finally felt like spring. We hiked up the north rim of Conklin Gully, a steep push up and a narrow trail that skirts very close to the rim in places. It is a trail you need to be aware of your steps on.  The views are amazing. The trail is unmarked, but defined. It ends in the creek bed and you have to scramble the creek up to Angel Falls - a box canyon.  There are multiple small falls along the way to Angle Falls.  We then turned around hiked back down to the new bridge on the blue spur trail which took us to the orange Finger Lakes Trail.   We followed the trail north across Hi Tor to drop onto the Naples Community Park. Along the way the sun was shinning and we enjoyed glimpses of the lake that will be gone with the full bloom of leaves in a few weeks. 

Creek bed hiking to Angel Falls

Approach to Angel Falls

Hi Tor - view from South Rim of Conklin Gully

small waterfall

Angel Falls

New 'plastic' bridge

Cooperative Volleyball

From Camp Cutler to Ontario County Park.

We embarked on a 6.7 mile hike from Camp Cutler to Ontario County Park in the fog.  At least is was not freezing and raining.  The hike follows the Finger Lakes trail through the Boy Scout camp across rt. 33 and then up to the county park.  Unfortunately the weather conspired against us again - this hike does offer some spectacular views.  The first overlook in Camp Cutler looks south over Naples and beyond, the second one looks east to Middlesex and High Tor, and finally the view north, the only one we saw, from the Jump Off.  

Glacial rock in Camp Cutler

Should be a great view - looking east.

Even with the fog early, the hike was a good one.  The hike began with a push up the hill then traversing the ridge north before dropping down to route 33.  After crossing the road we continued on to the beaver pond.  The phrase, 'busy as a beaver' is appropriate.  Here we witnessed the work of a very active beaver.  This is also where our trail challenge took place - the 'Half-Life Challenge'.  The group got to four half lives.  I think this is one we can come back to. The word trust was used, and this was our first challenge that required some trust.  We will explore this more in future challenges.

Approach to the beaver pond.

             

Beavers at work

Beaver lodge.

planning the next move

1/2 life challenge

The final section of the hike was the push up to the highest point in Ontario County.  Sitting at over 2000 feet, the park offers great views, trails, and facilities.  We were rewarded with the fog clearing and even the sun came out.

Finally a vista!

Our destination - The Jump Off - view north.