Friday, August 12, 2011

A nice hike in the mountains, a trail review…

2011-08-10 Ives Run Hke and Ithica Cornell 015

Wednesday was the day we planned to get in a good hike if the weather would cooperate. We woke up in the morning and the skies didn’t look too ominous so we set out for a 7.5 hike over Bald Hill to have a look at the scenic vista on the 2011-08-10 Ives Run Hke and Ithica Cornell 006trail. We packed a lunch and some water and hiked the 2/10’s of a mile over to the trailhead. I snapped a photo of the trail map on the trailhead so we could consult it and we picked our path wisely.

We decided it best to hike the longer 5.1 miles section first since we were climbing in altitude and wanted to gain gradually rather than take the steeper 2.1 mile section to the top. This longer section of the trail was apparently little used as could be ascertained by the abundant overgrown vegetation and narrowness of the trail itself. Had it not been for the yellow blazings on the trees marking the trail we would not know we were a trail most of the time.

2011-08-10 Ives Run Hke and Ithica Cornell 009Along the way there was not much too see, however, we did get cross paths with a porcupine scurrying along until he or she finally clambered up a tree. It was a fun sight watching it climb up the tree… The trail continued to an open meadow of lush ferns and eventually crested a short while later. As we started to descend we came upon the scenic overlook which provided nice vistas of the surrounding area. Lunch on the trail and the scenic vistas were the highlights on this hike.

After enjoying the overlook we started a steep decline of two miles back to our campsite. This part of the hike vlcsnap-2011-08-12-06h41m41s131took us through very mature maples trees and the woods were open underneath. All in all this was a nice hike but not a great one… we did get some nice exercise though.

After returning to the RV from the hike we cleaned up a bit and we waited for our dinner date with Jill and Steve. They had found a nice little dive out in the middle of no where. We feasted on burgers and wings and chased it down with some nice Pennsylvania crafted beverages. We had a wonderful time that evening sharing stories about our experiences as novice RV’ers.

2011-08-10 Ives Run Hke and Ithica Cornell 014

8 comments:

  1. Its always nice sharing rv experiences and find out so many other people have had the same problems.

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  2. Ahhh, a good hike followed by burgers and crafted beer, does it get any better that this?!

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  3. a hike in the forest.. a porcupine?..now that is a first..and burger,beers and friends..the good life you are leading!!

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  4. Great photo of the porcupine. Russ had a pet porcupine as a kid!

    Sounds like a good dinner too.

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  5. I'd love to see a porcupine! Well maybe some day.

    Hey, maybe we will meet someday in the middle of the country! I'm trying to breath!

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  6. Nice long hike you did there! Quite a few miles! Do like the shot of the porcupine.
    Nina

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  7. Bald Hill? You'd think it would have great views! Love the picture of the porcupine climbing the tree. I didn't know they did that.

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  8. Love the porcupine! I've never seen one. It's on my "life list".

    Sounds like you got some mighty good exercise and then had a fun evening.

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