My first bloggable Letchworth hike!

My adventures on Sunday 3/20/2011:  You just plum could not find a better day to be outside hiking then this day. The temperature planned on hovering in the mid to upper 40’s, the sun was out all beautiful and bright, and the snow was nearly impossible to find anywhere along the Finger Lakes Trail in Letchworth State Park.

The day before I had headed to Leicester to play along the Greenway Trail. To get there, I took the round-about route down through Portageville, hugging the east side of the park as I made my way north. The purpose of this was to do a little reconnaissance and ascertain how much snow might be tucked away in these woods. As I drove, I didn’t see hardly any snow – and with that – the deciding factor was set in place – Sunday would be a hiking day in Letchworth along the Finger Lakes Trail.

This might be a little biased… and since it’s my blog you’re bound to run in to a little of that… but I think Letchworth State Park is one of the jewels of the New York State Park system. Almost every NYS Park I’ve visited is awesome for a variety of reasons – but Letchworth is something otherworldly. It’s called the “Grand Canyon of the East,” as the Genesee River has created a 17-mile long gorge with multiple waterfalls and in some places cliffs that are 600 feet high. Every spot in the park will leave you drooling in awe – it’s that awesome. Besides all that jazz, the Finger Lakes Trail (FLT) also runs along the east side of the Park. It clocks in at about 24 miles of deep woods hiking goodness. The thing I should also mention is that the east side of the park is the “wild side.” It’s not very developed; there aren’t many roads or man-mad facilities to be found. The west side is the touristy side, and the east…that’s more for the hikers baby!

Anyway, the plan today was to spend a few hours hiking the FLT to go to a spot I had never been before. On Letchworth maps, it is only classified as a blue side trail off the FLT. However, the folks from the Finger Lakes Trail Conference call this dandy spot Owl Forks Ravine. It’s a bizarre physical feature when you look at it with topography maps. Here you’ll find a thin ridge that runs parallel with the Genesee River –with a ravine running along the other side eventually cutting a fine point at the end of the ridge where it dumps into the River. Bizarre stuff – and I was curious to see it for myself. What furthered my interest was that the shortest route to and from this ridge involved a six-mile roundtrip hike. So if you’re keeping tabs: this spot was awesome, unique and removed. If that isn’t destination worthy right there, I don’t know what is!

The thought of doing a hike in the 5 to 6 mile range was a little daunting. It’s been a long winter and I’m not exactly in prime hiking shape. I figured this would be a good chance to see what I was capable of doing. The experiment began a little after 9am as I started down the Sycamore Hiking Trail – an access to the FLT that runs perpendicular through it and meanders down into the gorge where you’ll find a massive Sycamore that’s a few hundred years old (and I believe is one of the larger Sycamores in NYS). It’s a super awesome tree, and anyone lucky enough to have the chance to make the trip should before it’s gone. Word on the street is that the river is undermining it…so it’s only a matter of time...

Anyhoo – the grand total hiking distance from my truck to where the Sycamore Trail met the FLT was just over a third of a mile. I’m a 20^th of the way done with my journey! I love measuring hikes in fractions and percentages. It gives me a sense of accomplishment (and towards the end of longer hikes a bit of light at the end of the tunnel…haha). Here’s a picture of what miniscule progress looks like:

　
I threw on my pack, marked this particular intersection in the GPS, adjusted my stylish circa-2001 visor and took the first step along the FLT. It was a big step, seeing as I hadn’t done much of what I consider long distance hiking since…well since I couldn’t remember. The early going was good, and then I hit my first hill.
If you look at the trail maps for the FLT, you’ll notice some sections of the trail (like the one I was on) are very curvy and bumpy. Sort of like a sound wave – with noticeable peaks and valleys. This is due to the fact that there is a myriad of tributaries cutting through the trail as they head downhill towards the Genesee River. Usually as your going to the brink of a curve you’re going to be crossing one of these tributaries - and as such it’s an uphill jaunt to get to the creek crossing. The first one was mild (they usually are), but it was still enough to get me huffing and puffing and wondering if I was making the right decision. I questioned my bodies ability to cart my large frame such distances, but I figured I’d go as far as I could go - damn the consequences.

The first ravine was behind me, and from there it was downhill. It was then that I was really happy about my decision to hike today. Then I started to think about the cache I wanted to place here so I could share this tract of land with fellow geocachers. Then I started to think about what I wanted the cache to be called, and finally, who I should dedicate it to. I thought about my Dad. I thought about Chicky. I thought about Cayuga. I even thought about the Green Tortuga and Sam Gardner. It was my Dad though, that I thought about the most. I miss him a lot, and I hoped he was watching me. It’s been hard…the last two years. I think he would have been glad to know I was hiking, smiling and enjoying myself…it seems like it’s been years since I could say that and really be confident about it. That’s all I’ll say about that...for now.

I was happy - and the farther I went, and the more ground I covered - the happier I became. I started seeing so many beautiful sights…things I hadn’t seen in years. It was a special day to be on the FLT. It was a good day to be me.

After nearly three miles, I arrived at the side trail to Owl Forks Ravine. I was a little surprised to feel this good. But in my head I realized that I hadn’t even crossed the halfway point of my journey - so I wasn’t about to bust out the “bubbly” just yet. The Finger Lakes Trail is blazed in yellow, while the side trails are blazed in blue. So up hill along the blazed blue trail I went! At the time I wasn’t really sure how long this trail would be before it dead-ends - but all told it would turn out to be about a .40 mile walk. This spot was even more impressive then I could have imagined. I found myself hiking a pseudo-knife ridge all the way to the point - where I discovered breathtaking sights!

I just couldn’t get enough of my discovery - and while I knew others had been there before me - I fancied myself a true explorer. Blazing a trail to places never before visited…by me at least. ;-) This was the payoff for my now 3-plus mile hike…and after snapping a bunch of pictures, I just sat there, propped up against a hemlock tree. This is what it was all about…

In total I probably spent a good hour there before I packed up and started the long hike back. And it was long…but I managed. I made a few more stops to rest and hydrate then I did when I hiked in. My pace was noticeably slower and the hills didn’t come as easy either…but I kept a decent gait and after 4.5 hours and 6 miles of hiking I finally arrived back at my truck. I was exhausted, but I felt an inexpressible sense of accomplishment. I’m already looking forward to getting back here - and am even more excited to hopefully lay out a cache to share these exceptional sights with my friends.