Holland Ravines

It's the last week before I go back to work for the school year and I wanted to go hiking as much as possible.  However, so far I've only been able to go once.  Maybe I will be able to get another hike in this weekend when I'm down in Rushford.

So I wanted to do another Passport hike.  My goal is to get the West Passport program done before hunting seasons starts.  You need to complete 4 Passport hikes in order to earn the badge and after today's hike and the Swift Hill Hike, I will have 2 completed.

I also wanted to bring someone with me so I brought my nephew.  I decided to do a hike about 30 minutes away from my house.  Looking at the Passport brochure the Holland Ravines looked like a fun hike for both me and my nephew.  The Holland Ravines are part of the Conservation Branch of the FLT and this part is managed by the Foothills Trail Club.  It was also the memorial section of Art and Olga Rosche who were founding members of the Foothills Trail club.

Sign at Trail Register

I was a little nervous about parking because when I looked at google maps, the trail access was in a residential area.  I had to park on the shoulder but there wasn't a lot of room so I was half on the road and half on the shoulder.  Even though it was a residential neighborhood, the trail was well marked and it wasn't super populated, it was in a very rural area of Erie County.

Conservation Trail Sign

The trail started out following a horse pasture but we quickly got to the ravines.  The Conservation Trail is on private property in this section, but there were a lot of posted signs throughout.  The trail followed orange blazes but there were times when the orange blazes went beyond a ton of posted signs.  I was understanding that if we stayed on the trail we'd be ok and that's what I planned to tell anyone if they questioned me.  There was also a lot of four-wheeler trails that made it confusing to follow the trail.  We had to turn around a couple of times because we lost the trail.

Nice section of the trail but very few blazes.

The trail was 3.8 miles out and back and besides the several ravines, it was pretty level.  It seemed a lot longer going than coming.  My nephew did pretty good.  He was getting tired but at the turnaround point we stop and ate lunch so it gave him a second wind.

My Nephew and I in the First Ravine

Another Ravine

Another reason I was attracted to this hike was because the brochure said there was "an outdoor museum of retired farm equipment."  Well, we never found any farm equipment, but after we passed a field of Christmas trees we found an abandoned jeep.  It was disappointing.

Abandoned Jeep

This was my first hike on the Conservation Trail.  After completing the Holland Ravines I have completed 1% of the Conservation Trail.  I've also completed 1.8% off all the branch trails.

Orange Newt We Saw