Skipped down to the Finger Lakes region of the NCT. Will go back for the Central NY bit later this month.
Found a great lodging in the middle of Amish country. I will use this as my base for a little while. It’s someone’s extra building on their property, and the owner lives in their main house next door. This is my favorite kind of place to stay. I have my own building, and I feel like I am supporting a local instead of renting an apartment some corporation or rich foreigner bought to turn a profit.
I have a beautiful screened porch that looks onto a lovely meadow, and the a/c inside works perfectly. There’s an Amish farm down the road, and I’ve seen one guy go back and forth on his horse and buggy.
Figure I’ll do about 50 miles of my NY NCT 100 through the Finger Lakes section. I’ll hike closer to a hundred miles total when you factor out-and-backs. Will do this in ten individual day hikes, five in the eastern half and five in the western half.
Today’s intention was to do a 10-mile loop through Tuller Hill State Forest (map M20), but I altered my plans after discovering the Snyder Hill Road parking spaces shown on the Finger Lakes Trail map don’t exist. The road itself is barely a road. It’s a narrow overgrown gravel corridor through the forest with nowhere to pull over. The “road” isn’t in the best of shape, and I had flashbacks of Sandwich Notch Road in NH (iykyk).
I eventually gave up and opted for yet another trail roadwalk. Given the fact the skies are hazy from Canadian wildfires and there’s a poor air quality alert, and also the humidity is 90% and the temps are in the mid-80s, this was probably for the best. Better to suck in bad air on a flat surface by the Tioughnioga River than on steep and densely wooded hills while being attacked by deer flies. One day I’ll get back to normal trail again.
This was quite a lovely and scenic walk on a long gravel road by trees, quiet railroad tracks, and a calm river. Only a couple houses. Did the seven roundtrip miles in short order, though the humidity and heat left me covered in sweat.
Wanted to get more miles in, so I drove to nearby Taylor Valley State Forest (map M21) and tried to do another three roundtrip miles. Made it 0.7 miles in before bailing. The trail was massively overgrown and, of course, buggy. The day was also heading into its hottest hours, and I heard my lodging’s shower calling.
