Sunday April 18 - Beaver Creek State Forest - Near Utica NY - 7.5 miles, 1050 Elevation gain

This hike had been on the to do list for a little while.  It is a longer drive than most hikes we do so no traffic April 2020 was a good time to do it.  Utica is about 120 miles away and this trail head was about 20 miles South of Utica.  I took US-20 all the way there and it was a lovely but long 2.5 hours.  This hike marked the first use of the middle sized of the 3 outdoor backpacks we own.  Our normal day hiking pack is an Osprey Stratos 34 which we have absolutely loved ever since we got it in Arizona years ago.  The middle bag is also an Osprey but an Exos 58 which was only worn a few times in Oregon to prepare for what turned out to be a single night of backpacking along the Deschutes River near The Dalles.  I would really like us to get out again to try overnight backpacking this spring and dusting off the bigger bag is one step.  There is even one larger backpack in our collection but that one only fits me whereas the middle one is marginally able to fit Brian's smaller frame.  So we have to pack carefully to get everything into 1 medium and 1 medium-large sized backpack.  This hike served as a refresher on dealing with a larger pack.

The conditions weren't inspiring as we loaded the car with lightly falling freezing rain or hail and a dreary wintery look.  Despite the weather forecast, things did not get any better on the way there.  There was a thin but consistent covering over most of the ground when we started out on the trail.

The trail headed up the hill behind the information sign.  The first half mile was fairly steep and then it met a wide forest road or 'truck trail' and went uphill steadily again after a brief saddle where the trail and truck trail intersected.

After we got to the bigger road there was a lot of nondescript forest road to walk along for about 1.5 miles.  Then this road which any car could probably drive on met up with a less well maintained forest road near a secluded ranch.  This part of the road was very wet.  There were puddles that spanned the entirety of the wide road and lots of mud.  

This picture was clearly from before the puddles

The puddle ridden stretch of road was tedious and messy but didn't go on too far.  Interestingly, the next junction was very subtle.  We could have walked right by it but after stopping and consulting the book and the phone, we figured out that the narrow downhill track on our right was in fact our intended path. Coincidentally, I've started using the record function of Alltrails to record our hikes which has the side benefit of serving as a breadcrumb and providing accurate distance and elevation measurements  

My foot squished very alarmingly deep into one of the mud puddles

When we turned off of the puddle road, the next segment of trail was narrower and had a more open feeling with some nicer views.  It was my favorite segment of the whole day.  As we came down a pretty downhill curve we saw a stream coming into view and Brian half jokingly said he hoped we didn't have to cross that stream. Until this point there had only been minor run off streams crossing the trail.  Just a few seconds later though it was clear that the trail did in fact cross this creek.  And it was pretty wide.  Pretty shallow but not rock hop shallow.  I loudly declared that I had no intentions of turning around (both because of the length of trail we'd already covered and its less than repeat worthy condition) and we started looking at our options for crossing.  My eyes were initially drawn towards a narrower and seemingly rockier gap a hundred feet downstream from the designated crossing but as we tromped closer to it, it was still ,at best, something that would require plunging one foot into very cold water and that was not much help.  By process of elimination, the snow covered log pictured below looked like our best option.  Brian led the way, brushing some of the snow off and using the smaller branch along side the log as a hand rail.  Then about half way over he stood up and bravely teetered over the last few steps of the log.  I was nervous watching him do it and when I did it my heart was pounding and I was very adrenaline charged.  Also, I had the (large) backpack on and Brian's water bottle slipped out of its sheath and plopped into the stream as I crossed.  It was a mix of sad, guilty and funny to watch it bob away down the stream like a bowling pin upside down gently swirling downstream until we couldn't see it any longer.

This log crossing was one of the times when Brian and I have a reversal of our normal characteristics.  Normally I'm pushing us to try more remote, less neatly packaged hikes and to try longer and harder hikes than we sometimes think we should.  But when it comes to intimidating obstacles on the trail, Brian always leads the way.  I get very antsy anytime something high up or narrow comes up and Brian seems to be able to forge ahead showing me the way.  This was certainly one of those times.

After the log crossing, there was a mile or so up a relatively narrow horse trail and then another wide road that led back to the first wide road near our start and finally down the narrow and steep half mile back to the car.  

Despite being wet and cold and muddy, this hike checked a lot of boxes for me.  I loved the adventure factor of being on a less developed trail network, seeing absolutely zero people or even other parked cars and in general we both enjoy winter hikes.  We stopped at Panera bread in Utica before hitting I-90 to make a more rapid return from our trip.  Their rapid pick up system worked really well and the guy came out instantly when we pulled up with food in hand.  It tasted amazing because we were quite hungry!