Hiking around Binghamton: Why it’s necessary

It’s usually around this point in the semester when the endless exams and papers begin to seem a little tiresome ‒ making it a great time take a break and clear your head. With autumn in full swing and the trees painting unforgettable landscapes, now is the perfect time to get out into the Broome County wilderness, explore nature and go for a hike.

John Greene, an avid hiker and retired lab technician at a local sewage treatment plant, is an adjunct hiking instructor at Binghamton University. A hiker for more than 60 years, he learned much of what he knows today from his grandfather.

“My grandfather was a man of few words, but a great guy, and I admired him so much,” said Greene. “He always treated me like an adult even though I was just a kid. We’d wander up in the woods, and we hardly ever talked, but he let me do whatever I wanted to do. He would take me hunting with him.

“I didn’t care anything about hunting so I would be next to him as he was watching the woods, dragging sticks over, making forts, throwing stuff around. There wasn’t a deer within three miles of him because of me, but he never said ‘be quiet’ or ‘sit down,’ and just let me do my thing.”

Greene wants to give his students the same love for nature and hiking that his grandfather provided him.

“So many students tell me, ‘I wish I had taken this class in my freshman year instead of my senior year,’” he said, adding that he loves watching students realize how relaxing hiking can be, and the authentic adventure that hiking can provide.

Greene calls hiking “adventure with security.” He recalls a recent hike he did with his class at the IBM Glen during a storm. The rain was so horrific that the class was already drenched 15 feet from the van. As the class was hiking up an especially steep hill in the middle of the storm, one of the students asked Greene why they couldn’t just stay on the main road?

“Well, if we just hug the road, you’re never going to talk about this hike again,” Greene replied. “But hiking up that hill using your hands in the rain, you’re going to be talking about this hike for a long time. You’re going to tell your kids about this hike.”

According to Greene, this is the kind of memory every young person can take away from getting out into nature.

“When you’re out, lost, in the middle of the woods, just exploring the wilderness, the danger is very minimal ‒ but it feels exciting. It’s a story to tell, and we all love stories,” he said.

Colleen O’Malley is an Outdoor Pursuits graduate assistant who shares Greene’s passion for the outdoors. She believes hiking can enhance every student’s academic experience, as it has for her.

“Students should get out and go for a hike to get to know and fall in love with the area they go to school in,” she said. “Spending four years (or more) in an area seems sort of wasteful if you don’t truly get out and get personal with it! Having that positive connection to where you go to college can really balance out the more stressful connections we have with our academic lives.”

Greene and O’Malley offered some of their favorite hiking spots in Broome County. Check them out:

• The IBM Glen on Robinson Hill Road in Johnson City contains a mature forest with some of the oldest and largest trees in Broome County, and its cascading gorge is the region’s finest. For decades, people have enjoyed the glen’s majestic trees, cool waterfalls, colorful wildflowers and abundant bird and animal life.
  
• Chenango Valley State Park offers a beach, picnic tables with pavilions, a playground, recreation programs, a 184-site campground, 24 cabins, sledding, a boat launch with boat rentals and a food concession. Trails are available for hiking, biking and cross-country skiing. Find the park at 153 State Park Rd., Route 369, Chenango Forks.
  
• Wolfe Park on Dorman Road in Binghamton consists of 182 acres of hiking and nature trails, a waterfall and natural scenic beauty. Open free of charge year-round, activities such as cross country skiing, snowshoeing, bird-watching and nature study are encouraged.
  
• One side of Aqua-Terra Park on Maxian Road in Binghamton loops up a mountain that used to belong to a ski resort, while the other side is focused around a scenic lake that is a perfect picnic site. Find it on Maxian Road in Binghamton.
• The 304-acre Jones Park on State Line Road in Vestal, has approximately four miles of marked trails that follow old roads and stream beds. Enjoy the wind blowing through rows of trees in a pine forest or just meander through the lovely wooded areas.

To learn more about places to hike in Broome County, visit the web.