Report by Aleda Koehn – It was a gray day but the hike was good. Twelve of us, (thirteen when Fred finally caught up), started out from the Binder Gym parking lot on the Hartwick Campus. The road to the top of the ridge had been plowed, but once we got to the top, the rest of the hike was in/on snow. As I emailed, conditions would have been OK for snowshoes but not necessary. The snow was soft and wet in places and walking was not as easy as on a clear trail, Snow was still on the tree branches but as the temperature rose we would occasionally be hit by clumps of falling snow. We admired the view from Strawberry Fields, although the distance hills were dark and hidden. We crossed the field and followed the trail into the woods. We came to some barricades which apparently mark the end of Hartwick’s property and were then, presumably on state or city land. The trail eventually goes by the city water tanks and then down the hill by the Health Department building above Job Corp. At the edge of the parking lot was a relatively new sign showing trails through the woods where we just walked. The sign referred to the area as Homer Folks State Park. That was a surprise! No one in our group had known about this. Al Sosa’s name appeared near the bottom of the sign and the trails are bike trails. We know that Al has been instrumental in developing bike trails, but Homer Folks State Park???? I am planning to call him and ask how the park came about. We continued past the bunker built many years ago as a “safe place” for NYS government officials. More woods, more ups and downs, and finally back to the cars. Jim said we went 3.6 miles and several said they certainly felt it. All in all a good trip. Photograph by Julie Smith.
Susquehanna Chapter 