Sunday November 6th, 2022 - Ontario County Park at Gannett Hill - near Naples NY - about 3.5 miles estimated 600 feet elevation gain

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 through an area which is private property. This land owner does not allow bikes (and has zig zag fences designed to reinforce their wishes keeping bikes out) and interesting, doesn't allow passage at all from October 1 to December 12.  I'm sure it's for hunting of some sort.  In a way I was not unhappy because my motivation for a long in and out hike wasn't great.  But I did take that obstacle as an opportunity to more thoroughly explore the county park's trail system.  While none of the individual trails are very long, there are a LOT of them and many of them zig zag along the contours of the hill while others go up and down the sides of the hill quite steeply.  We saw a lot of interesting hillside terrain and I actually found it easier to be energized by the choose your own adventure hike we put together.  We didn't end up with a lot of miles but it was good exercise and a good bit of new territory.  We didn't see anybody else on foot and just 2 bikes. The weather all week has been summer like and today was no exception. It was well into the 60's by 10 am.





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