25May08 – Sitting on the deck at Woody and Corky’s. Just finished a nice hike along the FLT this morning. Started at the Elkdale golf course outside of Salamanca and hiked to just outside of Ellicottville with an overnight at the top of 
Holimont ski resort. WE started yesterday hike with a steep climb, stopping early to check out a very old stone arched bridge. It was beautiful old structure that I pan to use as a model for future painting. The trail from here to Little Rock City was full of fossils so Pete, Wendi and I had a great time looking @ prehistoric animals. We hit a bit of dirt road and then single track to the park. None of us had ever been to Little Rock City, so it was a new experience for all of us. It was interesting visually as well as geologically. It was a mini Utah with lots small narrow canyons eroded into large chunks of sand stone. We spent a good hour exploring the canyons and eating lunch.
Holimont ski resort. WE started yesterday hike with a steep climb, stopping early to check out a very old stone arched bridge. It was beautiful old structure that I pan to use as a model for future painting. The trail from here to Little Rock City was full of fossils so Pete, Wendi and I had a great time looking @ prehistoric animals. We hit a bit of dirt road and then single track to the park. None of us had ever been to Little Rock City, so it was a new experience for all of us. It was interesting visually as well as geologically. It was a mini Utah with lots small narrow canyons eroded into large chunks of sand stone. We spent a good hour exploring the canyons and eating lunch. The trail between Rock City and Hungry Hollow Rd was my favorite by far, lots of ups and downs with amazing older forests. The trail was also used for Mt biking, a bit technical in spots with large rocks, but probably ride-able for 90% of the time. We really liked the camp area at the Old Seneca Camp (CCC era camp) at Mutton Hollow. The trails where great here, a nice place to go for an overnight with mom and Chuck. We had a little “Deliverance” creepy episode at this camp ground when we came out of the woods with back packs on. The camp ground was filled with the local red neck sitting around drinking beer and other holiday red neck activities. They looked at us with our packs as though we where aliens from a different planet. Leaving this camp ground we had a steep climb up to some state service roads to about 2300ft. Ran into an older man on an old school mt bike Moots bike, old Manitou shock, no rear suspension. He said he tries to get out 3 hours a day, good for him, I am jealous. Lots of side trails in this region, need to get a map for future mt bike exploration.
I enjoyed the flat section from McCarthy Hill parking area over to the Mutton Hollow, flat, lots of plants and quite a few small rocks in the trail. More good mt biking trails (can you tell I am jones’in to mt bike). Would like to come back and ski this section into the winter and take the Holimont cross country trails to the bottom of the hill. We could not find the first bivouac at the mutton Hollow intersection so we hiked down past the lifts and large ponds to the Holimont bivouac on the shore of one of the ponds. Saw a wedding on top of the slopes with Riccola bugle band and 30-40 people that arrived via chair lift (pricey) then off to a reception. Had some dirtbikes/4-wheelers traffic most of the night, not the best night sleep. We had an uneventful hike from the campsite to the pick up location. Stopped at Al Stoker (a retired co-worker) for a short break and then a real steep decent down the last hill, almost had to go onto all 4 for some of the sections it was so steep, some switch backs where in order. Ed did some fantastic cooking, pasta last night with oatmeal and omelets this morning; he must have been carrying 10 lbs of food.
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