NCT: Mill Street to Stone Quarry Hill Art Park

For this hike, I parked at the trailhead on Mill Street south of the village of Cazenovia, and Frankie and I followed the Link Trail to the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park.  The Link Trail is blazed a creamy yellow, but this segment lies on the portion between the Onondaga Trail and the Old Erie Canal Trail that carries the North Country National Scenic Trail (NCT), so it is also marked with the blue blazes of the NCT.  I hiked this same out-and-back in a cold rain in February 2016 while completing my first NCT Hike 100 Challenge.  Weather conditions were very different today: high temperatures and extreme humidity.  We wanted to get out on "the interstate trail," as Frankie calls it, despite the tortuous weather, so as a concession to the heat, I selected this hike because there is less hill climbing than on the Onondaga Trail and Finger Lakes Trail sections.

Mill Street trailhead

Frankie hadn't been on this section of the NCT before, and as expected, he loved all the bog bridges. 

Most of the streams we were dry, but we found a small pool in one spot and Frankie entertained himself in the usual fashion.  I entertained myself watching toads, the tiny finger-nail sized toadlets hopping everywhere, and hunting for salamanders under rocks. 

tiny toads galore

a salamander had just wriggled out of his hands

rocking back and forth on a wobbly stump exhibit

northern water plantain (Alisma triviale)

deranged selfie

truth: he's chucking honeysuckle berries into the red bucket of this sculpture

spotted St. John's-wort

"The Fall of Disco Mickey"

almost back

MapMyHike tracked this out-and-back at 4.7 miles with 426 feet elevation gain.  This was 0.2-mile less than my solo hike here, because today we didn't walk the last tenth of a mile out to turn around at Stone Quarry Road.  After spending some time looking at sculptures in the fields, we couldn't bear any more sun, so turned back when the trail leaves the hedgerow and enters the field for the final approach to the road.  We could see the road, but there seemed to be nothing to be gained by going out for a closer look... I'm not trying to torture the kid, after all.  It was a good, easy, mostly shaded hike for a boiling hot day.