Sunday February 19th 2023 - Trails at Bakers Woods Preserve - 3.5 miles -Near Natural Bridge NY - about 200 feet of elevation gain

This isn't a statistically impressive hike.  But those 3.5 miles were all on snow and parts of the trail was so steep there was a step and ropes to hold onto.  Another spot had an inclined ramp type thing, again with a rope. It was just non-stop interesting scenery too which is harder to do in the winter when most everything is white.

Though owned by a conservancy group, this trail is maintained by either 1 guy or 1 guy and his family, we aren't clear on the details.  He happened to be walking into the trail network from the parking lot and when he saw us he turned around. Turns out he was just going in to refill a map display.  We chatted, played with his very cute dogs and then thanked him for all that he does to make this trail system work before heading in.  There were a few poems broken up into little phrases almost Burma Shave style on some of the trail sections.  There are also numerous little carved things on the signs like cartoon bears or berries etc.  Very personality filled place.  Remarkably neither of us got our feet wet at all despite there being some not frozen water and a few places where my foot went through crunchy snow covered holes.

This hike was a hefty 2 hour drive from our hotel in Oswego where we are spending our long President's day weekend.  That put the hike in the Adirondack region but not in the Adirondack Park boundary.  We had a fantastic dinner last night and today started with a very small local bagel shop.  Oswego is certainly a town with plenty to keep somebody busy for a few days and good urban walking including an impressive river walk which we traversed last time.


















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