Sunday March 17th 2024 - Littlejohn Wildlife Management Area - Lacona NY - 6.8 miles, 280 feet elevation gain

Our old frenemy, the 50 Hikes in Centra NY Book struck again.  It said that there were several trails in this area and that combining them with SOME truck trail (dirt road) walks you could make a variety of loops to hike.  That was probably true when the book was written but today even the parking area referenced has been completely stripped of any signage or trail blazes.  We ended up guessing where he was talking about but several things about it didn’t make sense.  Still, I correctly guessed that we had instead ended up starting out on the truck trail and that if we turned left (West) at the first junction we would probably find the ‘red trail’.  And there was a series of things that all fit the description so I’m quite confident we were on the right roads we just did the hike backwards.  But the Red Trail is scarcely visible as a path now and coming from the direction we came it had absolutely no markings.  We ended up going back to the parallel gravel road and only later did we see the signs at the far end saying the trail was closed etc.

For a long series of road walks, this wasn’t awful.  But it was a lot of pavement at the end and while the rest was easier on the feet, it was still just gravel roads that went on and on.  I have to take it as a win since what I really wanted today was novelty and an adventure and it did provide all of that.  There were also some nice beaver lodges, a little snow and plenty of ponds, creeks and brooks so it had some scenery for sure.













 

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