On a crisp pre-autumn day Sunday, sixteen people and three canines hiked Stid Hill. Four hikers, led by Gene and Georgia, selected the Naturalist non-climb hike, exploring the fields, replete with lovely wildflowers – but, alas, no mushrooms, down below. The rest of us, including 80-year old Katherine (if I live to that age may I be just like you), hoofed it all the way up – about 1000 feet – to the hang gliding launch atop the hill. There was a stunning view of downtown Rochester which we got a closer view of thanks to Doug’s binoculars – we could clearly see the downtown Kodak building on State Street. There were plenty of oohs and ahhs amongst the group, and rightly so – in addition to the city view there is an awesome view overlooking Bristol Mountain and the adjoining hills and valley. Several years ago, while sitting with my friend in a hospital room at Strong, he told me that one could see somewhere in Bristol from Rochester. 
It was always foggy and overcast then but we could see something way off in the distance – I finally found the view from the other direction. As I sat on a bench and glanced around the group I was happy that they were so awed, too. There was something for everyone – the find of the day for one canine hiker was a deer skull with one antler (?) which Newt chomped away at – yummy, apparently.
As we began our descent we were surprised (actually bordering on shock, but since there were several new members with us our fearless leader tried not to come totally unglued) to see that the hot pink blazes on the trees, visible several weeks ago, had vanished (stranger things have happened, really) but thanks to Melissa’s good sense of direction and some recall from a previous hike, combined with Doug’s GPS on his phone, we were soon on our way down the proper trail. Nothing like an added challenge to enhance the experience…All told, it was 5 miles roundtrip of rugged terrain, even climbing on all fours and grabbing onto tree roots for a short time but we all finished with smiles on our faces (or maybe delirium).
Meanwhile, down below, unbeknownst to the rest of us, Gene and Georgia had some time to kill after their hike finished, before our troops arrived down from up above. Luckily, Joan, Bob and Tippi arrived around 4:30 and Bob called me to make sure we hadn’t decided to spend the night up there. Once at ease, he rested, after a grueling day of taking down some trees, and Joan and Tippi did some hiking up the hill.
Our well-deserved and delicious beer and brats were very welcome at the after-hike social which was held at Brew and Brats, down the road in Bristol Springs. We sat outside, to dine alfresco, possibly for the last time this year…
Welcome to a few new faces and welcome back to some whom we had not seen in quite a while. It was a great hike, a fun group and the best-attended Stid Hill hike to date. Thanks much to all who attended and thanks, Douglas, for your lovely photos. Cheers!
My husband and I tried this hike out–we really wanted to make it up to the hang gliding launch for the view. We started at the south end parking lot on the only obvious trail that we saw, climbed a good ways up (not seeing any possible offshoots along the way, and all of a sudden, there were no trespassing signs galore. Do you know if this trail indeed goes through private property? When we looked at a map on our phone, it did look like there was a big block of land that was not part of the DEC property that we would have to go through to get to the launch. There isn’t a ton of information about it online, and I saw this write-up, so I was hoping you guys might have some insight. Thanks!