Saturday January 27th 2024 - Hike at Sampson State Park, Near Romulus NY - 4.3 miles, little elevation gain

The weather today wasn't terrible.  Mild temperatures and, at least this morning, dry.  But it's been REALLY wet here the last week with lots of swollen streams and standing water in fields.  So I thought this was the perfect day for the kind of 'hike' we would normally avoid, the all-paved trails hike.  This State Historic park is about 1/3 the way between our house and Ithaca and we've driven by it many times but it's pretty flat and other than being on the shore of Lake Seneca doesn't have a lot of obvious appeal.

The park turns out to be over 2000 acres and part of the site of a former military base, Samspon Air Force Base.  Walking around the park was very strange because there are DOZENS of miles of old roads paved going all over in a fairly tight grid pattern and a few roads that go at odd angles.  Most of the roads are not blocked off exactly but are in marginal condition.  And there is almost NOTHING standing along almost all the roads.  It's like a huge network of roads seemingly connecting nothing to nothing.  It's interesting to imagine what this area was like back when the Air Force Base was still active AND the Seneca Army Base (directly across the same highway as Sampson State park is on) were both busy places.  Together they make up thousands of thousands of acres with just a single North-South highway going through the middle.  If this part of New York (or the country in general) were more of hot spot this huge tract of redevelop-able land would be a huge asset but since it's kind of in the middle of nowhere I imagine it's something of a liability for the towns it is in.

Other than the museum and the numerous cabins close to the lake, I'm not sure I see the appeal of this state park despite the enormous size and 200 camp sites.  For today's unusual need this was just the right unusual place to go.