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.