October 22nd 2022 - Finger Lakes Huckleberry Bog Natuare Trail - near Hammondsport NY - 5 miles, estimating 650 feet elevation gain

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 to form a loop.  The blue trail alternated between narrow trails and wider paths through the woods.  Very quickly we arrived at the South junction of the blue trail and the FLT.  I thought the trail map painted in the register box was a nice touch.  The FLT conference provides an insanely detailed guide to 46 (!) different points of interest on the 2.5 or 3 miles of mainline FLT used in this loop.  The 20+ page guide is in the trail register box at each end of the blue trail's junction and I think the expectation is you can carry it with you during your hike and hopefully return it to the same place you got it since it is a loop.  We opted not to try and read page after page about 46 different minor geographic features but the names of them were printed on our 1 pager and some of them were fun.

  • For Thee I Pine, and Balsam Too
  • Take a Peek, Chesapeake
  • Run Pine, Run
  • Ring Around the Chestnut
  • The Kidnapping of the Pink Flamingo

The bog for which the trail is named has a little overlooking deck but just like last time, it's either too dry or too overgrown for the bog to be really visible.  The rest of the FLT section went by very quickly both because the weather was awesome (65, dry and sunny) and also because watching for the frequent little point of interest number tags seemed to make the walk into a game.

This was an easy 'A' trail for both Brian and I.  There's a nice amount of up and down, the fall colors were great and it was a loop trail where we only saw 2 other people.










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