September 4th - Canadaway Wildlife Management Area - Near Cassadaga NY (SW NY) - 6 miles about 800 feet elevation gain

 I've been remiss in writing up our hikes.  In some ways it hasn't been a great summer for hiking but there certainly have been some hikes that just didn't get written up.  This being a holiday weekend we felt able to take the time to drive farther than usual.  This location was from the old standby book '50 Hikes in Western New York' which is always an adventure since it's a relatively old book and the author's writing style is sometimes not to the point.

Driving to the site we were concerned about the weather since it was almost 80 at one point and it was gray and humid EVERYWHERE we went with some rain showers on the way.  Thankfully, after the rain shower the temperature was in the low 70's' when we parked.  The trailhead we parked at is for the tongue twisting Earl Cardot Eastside Overland Trail.  There was a gate and a wide grassy forest management road leading directly from the parking lot.  We walked down that road assuming that was the trail but it immediately didn't fit what the book said we would be seeing at the start of the trail.  We walked about 1/2 of a mile before giving up on that attempt then tried a little side trail that we had noticed but earlier but that just led a short distance to a nearly dry creek bed where it ended.  We were starting to think this hike was going to be a bust.  Then, back at the car I looked again at the gate and noticed a narrow steep uphill trail leading off sharply to the right.  The trail made such a sharp turn right away and the hill was so steep that we didn't initially even look at it when we were looking for the trail.

There was a surprising amount of climbing throughout this hike.  The steepest was the first short section but there was plenty of up and down throughout.  The trail passed through pleasant but not very memorable forested terrain.  It was a little overgrown in spots but, except for near a lovely camp site with 2 shelters, easy to follow once we were on it.  The camp sites overlook a decent size pond and I would imagine they would be a really nice place to overnight.  Unfortunately, one of the two had a big party the night before and there were bottles, cans and other trash everywhere.  We rarely see any notable messes like this one and it made us sad that people would come to such a nice place and leave a huge mess and an unattended camp fire.  

The trail was only supposed to be 4.8 miles I think but we added a lot of mileage wandering around at first and ended up with a full 6 miles.  Overall this was a nice enough place to spend the day.  If it had been crisp and dry instead of gray and almost misty the hike probably would have been more fondly remembered.  As it was it was just a basic hike with a fairly long drive to and from (which I mostly enjoyed) but nothing special.









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