Well you would of thought it was a funeral procession. 11 cars with their headlights on following a Jeep Patriot up to the top of Garlinghouse Road, dropping off pick up cars along the way. I don’t think the residents in the area have ever seen this many cars altogether on this remotely located road. All the planning and coordination of this hike was worth every minute to bring our hikers into a cold and desolate artic landscape, near the top of Hunt Hollow Ski Resort.

No one got lost or went the wrong way and we arrived at our starting point where the snowplow ended on the east side of Garlinghouse Road. There was adequate parking and we quickly separated into 3 ability levels, cross country skiers, climbers, tourists and naturalists. Ann and Jerry led the climbers, Rick H. the cross country skiers (promising to remove their skies at the steep downhill trail to Liddiard Road), and Pam led the tourists and naturalists. The snowmobile trail was hard packed, widely traveled, easy to walk and one had to wonder when these mysterious loud vehicles travel as no sounds of snowmobiles have been heard in all our walks. Maybe they all travel at night, in large groups, for weekend adventures, from destination to destination.

Tourists and Naturalists separated at the corner of Liddiard Road, Bob put on his snowshoes for the first time in 20 years to travel the unpacked road east. Liddiard Road is quite long and would be excellent for cross country skiing, end to end. There are only 4 houses on the road and the upper
Naples Creek on the east side follows it’s path with signs posted as a public fishing stream.
The west part of Liddiard borders two beautiful ponds and the upper Cohocton Creek.

Climbers continued on the C-4 trail past Liddiard, up hills, to an elevation just under 2,200 feet near the top of Coates Road. Unfortunately views of the windmills and surrounding area was unable to be seen due to the cloudy conditions. Climbers took a very steep walk down Coates Road and surprisingly all hikers met at the same time in LESS THAN 2 HOURS. Actually 1 hour 50 minutes and 30 seconds (Ann and Jerry turn into pumpkins if our hikes are over 2 hours).

Hikers enjoyed our usual bar food at the Middletown Tavern in Naples where many discussions about tapping maple trees, vitamins to take, injuries, and coordination of future hikes. Good to see you hiking with us again Rick and Lois! We’ll return to the snowmobile trail on April 13th to
enjoy another section of what we hope will someday be a Springwater Trail.