Saturday January 16th - Blue Cut Nature Center - Near Newark NY - 1.5 miles, about 125 feet of elevation gain

 This wasn't the hike we started out to do.  We had planned to go to Fillmore Glen for a hike that was a little over 4 miles.  Brian was supposed to work in the evening but he got a call asking if he could come in early so we decided to scale back on Saturday's hike and double up on Sunday's.  I first tried using the 'Sarah Coventry Loop' as a backup plan but when we got to the starting point it looked totally unofficial and a closer look at Alltrails revealed a note saying the former 4.2 mile loop hike was now severed by a piece of private property in the middle.  It wasn't at all clear it was even a real trail so I moved on.  Backup plan #2 was to try Blue Cut Nature Center just east of Newark NY on NY-31.  

While the only hike shown in Alltrails sounded pretty lame at just 1.3 miles, I needed something close and fast so we could at least get SOME sort of walk in.  It turns out to be a lovely piece of land.  It doesn't seem like a very large piece of land but it fills a funny shaped wedge just south of NY-31 (which itself is pretty much routed to follow the Erie Canal which is immediately to its North) and a set of busy double tracked railroad.  There were 2 substantial trains headed West during the bare hour we were there.  There was a satisfyingly steep but modest little hill and ridge to climb and walk along and then we came down the far end of it and finished the loop along the field and an interesting long row of trees that were planted very geometrically many years ago.  I'd call this outing a leg stretcher.








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