Sunday April 5 - Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area - Newfield NY (near Watkins Glen) - 6 miles

This was an amazing hike and trip.  On the way South we drove on NY-14 along Geneva Lake.  On the way home, NY-89 along Cayuga lake.  Both lakes are stunning and you get lots of different views along both scenic highways.  We headed out after noon which is unusual but Brian had some work to do in the morning.

When we arrived at the trailhead, there were about 7 cars, more than I imagined for what sounded like an obscure location.  The trail we were following from Alltrails was for the Van Lone Hill Loop Tail and it was a perfect loop (no lollipop part to double back on) so we faced a choice immediately after getting out of the car.  Start by walking uphill along the road we parked on or go downhill slightly to walk along the creek we were next to.  We chose to start along the creek.  While there were some wet spots (and later on the upper part of the trail, some really wet spots), overall, this trail was in better shape than the Scarbuck trail from yesterday.  The first mile and a half maybe was along the beautiful creek and there were numerous interesting overhangs of rock and variations in the creek from nearly motionless to swiftly moving cascades.

After we got to the bridge, the trail went decisively uphill.  All the way to the top of the hill which formed one side of the raving we had been walking on.  Interestingly, it didn't just go back to the trailhead on top of the hill we started on but rather it cut inland quite a bit and then followed a totally different but equally captivating stream for a while.  The upper trail was considerably muddier and at one point I actually fell down on my butt.  Thankfully I wasn't hurt of particularly soaked from it. I did have a splinter from one of my trail detours around mud which we were able to remove and disinfect with our tiny first aid kit in the hiking backpack.

The creek along the upper part of the trail had more of a smooth limestone (?) shelf stair stepping type of creek bed versus the lower trails gravel and stone one.

There were over 950 feet of elevation gain on this ~6 mile hike.  We devoured our McMeal in the car like it was the best tasting food ever because we were very hungry and, for McDonalds, it was pretty great!  It was dusk (7:30) when we got home.

I would rank this in my top 5 hikes in the North East.  It was really impressive.  Oh, and those 7 cars, not sure where those people were because we didn't see or hear a single person even distantly on our entire hike.