Road Trips and Hike Reports

 As a county park, this Onondaga county park is a gem.  Set on top of a big hill, the grounds are large and almost too well organized with separate trails for hiking, hiking and skiing. The lodge is warm and inviting and on this not snowy winter Sunday, it was all open but empty of people.  The Alltrails map of the the Southside loop was out starting point but I was surprised that this trail was almost entirely wide mowed path.  So I took advantage of the map on Alltrails which showed many of the lesser trails at the park and we did a piece of some branch of the Finger Lakes trail which was more 'traily (tm)' and interesting to me.   If we ever get around to buying snow shoes, this would be a top place to come. Pictures by Brian

This was a wonderful day.  First we had a nice breakfast in Geneva then an easy pleasant drive past Ithaca.  The hike was a loop trail that we thought we'd done once before in its entirety and once tried to do in very deep snow but had to abort.  It was clear to us by about half way through that while we had certainly been to that trailhead before and done the first part of the trail before, we did NOT do the full Spanish loop either time before.  It started snowing and hailing as we hiked and as we finished the walk it was really coming down.  It was the first snow of the year for both of us.  We saw absolutely zero people on the entire hike and it was very peaceful and special being on the first really wintery hike of the year.  We finished our day out with dinner at Texas Road house in Ithaca.

Originally I had a hike picked out near Ithaca that would be a 7 mile loop.  When we got in the car, Google maps didn't seem to be going on the route I asked for but after a few rounds of fighting with it it was at least avoiding I-90 which was my main goal and we ended up going south along NY-64 which is very scenic and nice even though it wasn't the route I intended. That route took us right through Naples and as we approached Naples I asked if we really wanted to go on such a long drive and when Brian didn't care I decided to save a lot of road time and revisit Ontario County Park which is just 30 minutes from home. We hadn't been there in over a year and it is a showpiece park for the area because it's set on a very steep hill and has a lot of different trails. The other times we've gone to this park we have just passed through the park as a way to do a long stiff day hike on the Finger Lakes trail.  After the first mile or so through the park, the FLT goes

Taking a day off for a fall hike at a favorite trail is a luxury.  Our friend Gene and I were able to get away to this rugged spot not too far from Watkins Glen.  It's a hike Brian and I have done several times and it's a very special place. The first mile or so is an ambling easy walk along a creek.  Other times we've done this hike the creek has been a flowing lovely stream but it's been very dry here for weeks and pretty dry overall for months.  The creek was almost still this time with some swampy looking areas.  The trail eventually crosses the stream and then the climb begins.  There used to be a nice bridge over the creek but it collapsed.  The climb seemed to go on and on more than I remembered but it was an enjoyable climb.  Farther up the hill there were a lot of downed trees which weren't there before.  At times the trail was actually challenging to follow because of all the downed trees. Overall this was a good hike with a lot of exercise.  We neither sa

This was a different kind of hike than we normally seek out. Instead of a relatively remote area with 1 main trail or a loop, we went to this barely suburban state park.  I'd never heard of it before but I saw it in Google Maps while I was looking around and was surprised at the photos from there.  This 350 acre park makes up for in dramatic texture what it lacks in size.  The main feature is a lake surrounded by very steep high cliffs or bluffs for about 180 degrees of the lake's shore.  There were a lot of suburban parents and little kids on that first, closest to the lake trail.  We turned off of it fairly quickly and all of the other trails we went on had barely anybody on them. This was a wonderful scenery day and there were lots of giant rocks to walk on, hop between and plenty of ups and downs.  The trails were all rugged and very interesting, but not very long.  

As an exercise event, this hike barely qualifies at all.  It is a series of zig zagging mowed paths in forested area with a bog or wetland.  This was a very short after work walk trying somewhere new we hadn't been before.  The scenery made up for any shortcomings this trail had in length or difficulty.  Pictures tell most of the story.  It was almost sunset when we finished.

I recently renewed our membership and donation for the Finger Lakes Trail conference . This time I finally ordered a set of loop hike maps they offer.  Each loop hike (some have a few options) is 1 double sided page with a map on one side and turn by turn directions on the other side.   This hike ended up being one Brian I had done before and not even too long ago.  We didn't realize this until we walked 1/4 mile up the trail and saw the historic cemetery.  Last time we were there we were using Alltrails and it was called Urbana State Forest Trails .  Even though the paper map I have and the Alltrails map seem to match, the hike we actually did was different on those 2 trips.  No matter, I don't seem to have documented the earlier trip. We started off going steeply uphill past a privately owned but publicly usable camping shelter and outhouse.  Shortly after the hill topped out we came to the North junction of the Finger Lakes Trail and the blue trail that pairs up with the FLT