Sunday February 12th 2023 - Trails at Hammon Hill State Forest - 7 miles - about 800 feet of elevation gain

 Super Bowl Sunday is not a special day for us.  We didn't even know who was playing and certainly didn't care.  We headed out relatively early and as I hoped there was even less traffic than a normal Sunday morning. This made it a good day for a relatively long drive to a hike.  We had a bagel at Bagelicious in Liverpool (near Syracuse) and then headed South on I-81, passing through Cortland on the way to the trail.  

We didn't bring our dedicated winter boots because around where we live there is basically  no snow left.  So it was a big surprise when we found consistently packed snow on almost every step of this long hike.  The route we hiked was a balloon shape.  The stem of the balloon gets walked on twice and was mostly shady plus it was early in the day so that first mile was pretty icy on the way in. The loop portion of the balloon was better for traction and as the hours passed the warming temperatures helped even the stem part be less icy by the time we walked out.  The scenery was good on this trail but mostly it was just a perfect mix of small hills and wide well maintained trails which made the day a joy.  I also appreciated that the trailhead is located at the end of the year round maintenance section for the road it is on.  This made is extra quiet with no road noise at any point of the hike. There was also a clean outhouse at the parking lot, a rarity for a State Forest, most of which have no facilities of any kind other than maybe a trail.  

As is often the case with winter hikes, the pictures aren't the most colorful but it was an extremely enjoyable hike.






 
 

 


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