Hiking on the North Country Trail/Finger Lakes Trail in Highland Forest
Last Sunday, we went to Highland Forest with a beautiful 70-degree, blue-sky day! Since it is only just now showing signs of spring here in Central New York, we knew not to expect dry trails and the North Country Trail showed us that mud is definitely deep enough to swallow up a 70-pound dog! We hiked a 9-mile loop trail, known as the Main Trail or the Phil Sutters Memorial Trail and it definitely had more undulation than I had expected. This park is known as "The Adirondacks of Central New York" and gave me a great workout. While the hills weren't huge by any means, the trail was diverse and varied from old road bed to bog bridges to straight-up mud climbs! At some low points in the trail the mud was up to my calves and, like I mentioned earlier, about 5.5 miles in my dog took a wrong step and was up to head in mud.
It was nice to get out and stretch our legs on this trail and I can't wait for my next visit to Highland Forest, maybe even to try my hand at mountain biking on their mountain bike trails!
The photos above: 1) NoKey at the conclusion of our hike with the NCT and FLT signs; 2) The view of Limestone Valley below the forest; 3) Muddy trail feet!; 4) Gracie actually taking a break in the woods, which if you know my dog you know is rare!; 5) A blaze on the main portion of the trail, not NCT/FLT. I love the tree shape on the tree :)
