Sunday December 13th - near Labrador Hollow Unique Area - Near Truxton (Syracuse) NY - 3.5 miles, estimated 750 feet elevation gain

Update: October 15, 2023... It turns out that this hike is NOT in the Labrador Hollow Unique area at all.  Its very CLOSE to it.  But now, almost 3 years after having gone here thinking I'd been to Labrador Hollow I can confirm that this hike is actually in Morgan Hill State Forest.

 Original entry:

As we headed East on US-20 (for quite a while), the weather went from 37 down to about 30 and a little (very tiny) bit snowy.  Not something we expected since it was early in the day and the temperature usually goes up as the day goes on but Syracuse is a little further from Lake Ontario and the Finger lakes that help moderate our temperatures in Rochester.   The trailhead was a few miles down a very bumpy but not very hazardous dirt road at a pond.  From there the trail back tracked just a few hundred feet back towards where we drove in and then went up the hill on the other side of the road from the pond. Almost immediately this felt like a more woodsy/mountainous feeling hike than most of the hikes closer to where we live.  The trail made good steady progress up about a 500 foot elevation gain then there was a brief plateau and then a distinct point where it went very earnestly down hill.  Interestingly, this trail is part of the Finger Lakes trail network yet maintained by the local Adirondack Mountain Club chapter.  I don't think there are many places where the Finger Lakes and Adirondack worlds collide but for whatever reason, this trail East of I-81 is included in the Finger Lakes trail system inventory.

The downhill seemed to go on a long time but it was probably less steep than the uphill.  Soon we were crossing the same road we parked along but about half way up the road between the pond and the junction with the next road we came in on.  On the pond side of the trail we briefly followed a small stream downhill then again climbed gently uphill as the trail hooked back towards the pond.  Soon the tiny stream joined a slightly larger stream and at about the high point of that gentle wooded hill there were 2 other streams that came together in a beautiful V shaped cascade. It was really beautiful and peaceful and I felt like I was somewhere very special to have such a beautiful scene all to ourselves in a very wild feeling place.  The last mile or so took us along a ridge that the pond eventually appeared on the left side of and then hooked around one side of the pond taking us back to our car.

We both absolutely loved this trail.  I felt like I was on a great hike within minutes of leaving the car and except for a little mud between the amazing V shaped cascade and the pond, the rest of the hike was way above average for scenery, terrain and seclusion.  It was well worth the 90 minute drive to get to it.


Pictures by Brian mostly.













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