On Sunday, January 4, we returned to Boughton Park in East Bloomfield to take advantage of a pleasantly warm day to start our winter season of hikes.

This hike had two groups, with one group staying to the more level trails including some views of the ponds. The other group hiked out of the park on the Seneca trail, as far as Cherry street. Due to the warm weather, we had no snow on the trails, and lots of mud. There were some large puddles to cross, and some slippery slopes. We had at least one hiker slip and fall in the mud, but no injuries.

As we returned to the park, we met John who had arrived late and followed a different route to get ahead of us. We continued around the east pond, and this trail had several long muddy sections, so this portion took a little longer than expected, but the boardwalk across the wetlands was nice, and my dog Newton went for a swim in the creek after we crossed the bridge.

Due to the slow progress, our group returned to the parking area by way of the gravel road between the ponds. We arrived back at the parking area a little late, but everyone was there.

I am a member of the Rochester Academy of Science, so we went to our observatory in Ionia for our social, with a large classroom, and lots of tables and chairs. I explained a little history of the site, and the group, and after eating, some of us went out to one of the roll-of buildings to see the 16-inch Newtonian reflecting telescope. Due to the wind, we could not open the building to do any observing, I just showed how we can roll the roof back to expose the telescope. Hopefully we can plan a visit in better weather, to include some observing through a telescope, and meet some of the other RAS members.