Azure Mountain

Ever since climbing Hadley a few weeks back, Frankie has been begging for another fire tower hike, asking to go even on days when common sense would indicate it was not very likely (e.g., on days I had to work).  Yesterday we went for a hike with Erin and Alden, taking them to Hemlock Glen and the USGS benchmark on Morgan Hill, a longer training hike for Alden in preparation for the High Peaks later this summer.  When we got home, Erwin had dinner waiting.  Immediately after eating, Frankie dashed out for some basketball with his neighborhood pals, but he didn't wait for me to call him in... he turned up at a reasonable time, saying he wanted to get to bed early so we could hike a fire tower today. Then he proceeded to set the alarm on his watch to make sure we were up in time for a long drive.

FLT: Shapley Road to Searles Hill Road

 

 

With school year almost over, my solo hike opportunities will soon be on hold for the summer, and I want to be mindful to make the most of my last few chances until September.  I determined that if I was aggressive with pace, I had just two more hikes eastbound on the Finger Lakes Trail (FLT) before reaching the village of Bainbridge.  That seemed like a good goal for myself, so today I started off on Shapley Hill Road where I'd turned around on my last hike.  There is a small parking lot and kiosk here associated with Wiley Brook State Forest, which made it very convenient.

 

FLT: Brooksbank Road to Shapley Road

I had planned on resuming my eastbound exploration on the Finger Lakes Trail (FLT) where I left off last time on Basswood Road, but when I arrived, I wasn't crazy about the narrow width of the available roadside parking.  Since the trail follows the road east from here, I decided to keep driving to see if I could find a safer parking spot.  As a rolled along, the notion of hiking the roadwalk in the boiling sun seemed less and less appealing.  There were more houses and more terrain than I expected; it would feel like an extra hot and sweaty neighborhood walk.  So I kept driving.  When I got to the spot on Brooksbank Road where the FLT leaves the road and enters the forest, the parking was manageable so I stopped here -- and then I entered the forest.  Ahhh!  I will have come back for that roadwalk during hunting season.  Today was a day for shade.

Hadley Mountain

Frankie has been begging to hike another fire tower, but I was unsure whether he would enjoy black fly season in the Adirondacks.  Things can get pretty dire up there and trip reports suggested thick swarms had been descending.  However, the weather seemed favorable.  We had a cold snap, and cold temperatures can set the bugs back markedly.  Knowing it would be even colder up there, I decided it was worth the trip up.  And the gamble paid off: we saw not one biting insect on the entire hike.

FLT: Bliven Sherman Road to Hoben Road

With my last two hikes, I completed the orphaned gap in my eastbound Finger Lakes Trail (FLT) coverage, which was left back in March when I skipped forward to ensure safe parking in deep snow conditions.  This means I have now hiked the entire contiguous length of the FLT between the Stevenson Forest Preserve west of Ithaca to the southern edge of Pharsalia Woods State Forest.  There is something very satisfying about hiking consecutive segments of the FLT, so that even though I am section hiking as opposed to thru hiking, I get a sense of the flow of the trail.  Having said that, I skipped ahead again on today's hike.  About 2 miles east of where I left off in March, the FLT passes Berry Hill Fire Tower, which is accessed from a roadwalk along Tower Road via a short deadend road (essentially a long driveway).  Frankie absolutely loves fire towers, so I decided to save that hike to do together.  The fire tower is currently undergoing restoration, so we will wait until it is reopened and hike Bowman Lake State Park together.  I'll pick up the roadwalk solo during hunting season.

FLT: Elmer Jackson Road to Nine Mile DEC Truck Trail

On this hike I traversed the Finger Lakes Trail (FLT) between Elmer Jackson Road and Nine Mile DEC Truck Trail, filling in a gap between two previously hiked segments.  However, because I wasn't crazy about the parking available at either of those locations, I started my adventure in the middle, at the small parking area off Fred Stewart Road.  The FLT online mapping indicated there was "pull off parking for 5 vehicles" which seemed safer than shoulder parking on seasonal dirt roads.  This meant I hiked a yo-yo of sorts, hiking north to the spot on Elmer Jackson Road where I'd turned around last week, then turning around and hiking south past my parked car to the spot on Nine Mile DEC Truck Trail where I'd turned around snowshoeing in March, then back north again to my car.  Whatever it takes...

FLT: Johnson Street to Elmer Jackson Road

With the long stretch of mild weather, I finally felt confident that the snow would have melted enough down in Chenango County to safely resume my eastward exploration on the Finger Lakes Trail (FLT).  Sure that the unmaintained seasonal roads would be passable by now, I returned to Johnson Street, where I had left off on my post-election day hike.  The FLT mapping shows shoulder parking at the trail crossing, but I knew from my previous visit that it wasn't suitable for my little car, so I parked less than 0.2 miles west, where there is a gated forest road heading north.  There is enough dry ground to park safely off-road here without blocking the gate, and I'd rather walk a little extra than risk getting stuck.  This is a pretty remote area and I have no cell coverage here.