My second bloggable Letchworth hike!

A few weeks ago I started mapping out a cache along the Finger Lakes Trail (FLT) in Letchworth State Park.  Weekends have been a bit crazy since that time, but the plan today was to once again return to explore and hopefully get myself closer to having a legitimate cache placed!

The last time I was here, I parked at the Sycamore Trail and headed north.  This time I would jump off at Bear Hollow and hike south.  My goal was to explore a spur trail that jutted off the FLT and headed to an overlook of the Genesee River gorge that is referred to by the FLT Organization as Fiddler's Elbow.  To say I was really excited might have been a little overblown, as my body didn't seem all that thrilled to tackle a multi-mile hike in the up-and-down land of Letchworth - but my brain insisted (which as I sit here and type now, I'm thankful for even though my legs are a smidgen pissed.  Haha). 

I hit the trail around 11am or so, and quickly found that Bear Hollow was more a mushy sloppy soaking wet mess, than it was a legitimate access trail.  I probably wasn't more than 1,000 feet from my car before I got a muddy soaker...but I suppose at that point, it's best to get it out of the way.  Besides, I'm a hiker right?  Water and mud are all part and parcel.  So anyway, I enjoyed the muddy slide downhill towards the FLT.  After about a fourth of a mile, I arrived and joyfully marked the intersection in my GPS.  The reason I was taking such meticulous notes, is that when I place this cache, I want to make sure I give everyone explicit directions.  Some knuckleheads like to bushwhack from spot to spot - but on this side of LSP that will probably get you killed.  There are ravines after bloody ravines running east to west as the FLT runs north/south.  Basically, if you leave the trail and try and make your own way, you might not be found. 

I took a deep breath, and made a left turn onto the FLT - heading west towards the overlook listed on the Park's map.  I had hiked this section of FLT years ago, but at that time we were more interesting in distance then sightseeing - so this would be my first time checking out this particular overlook.  According to maps, it looked like the spur trail would take me a little over a third of a mile off the FLT - right at the Genesee River Gorge.  So I expected pretty big things baby...pretty big things indeed!

The hike was really enjoyable, even though it took a little while to find a good hiking rhythm.  A couple times I probably could have just stopped and reaccessed my desire to press on - but I was here - and I couldn't turn back.  The farther I hiked, the happier I became with my decision to do this today.  I was maybe a mile or so in, when a woman in a sports bra and spandex came down the trail in my direction.  I was a little baffled, especially seeing as the next access point was probably a good four-plus miles away.  I bade her good morning (some what quizzically) as she huffed on by.  She would be the first of many runners I'd run into today...so there must have been some kind of race and/or training going on.  Deep woods running - what an interesting concept...not for me though...I'm far too pokey and I'd never win anything as long as I was checking out all the scenery like the nerd I am.

After almost two miles of hiking, I started to get a little concerned that I had missed my spur trail.  Where was this damn thing?  I figured I'd press on though, as I knew if I hit a ravine (unto which the FLT would circumvent), I had gone too far.  Thankfully, the lingering paranoia was short lived, because as I crested yet another hill, I saw the beautiful blue blazes marking my special little trail.  From there it was all downhill.  My legs liked that after the up and down I had being doing for a couple miles, but my head knew all too well that what goes down must come up.  Haha. 


The Genny peeking through the trees!


The woods down here are beautiful, and I was again smiled knowing I did the right thing.  Because hey, I was almost halfway done with my hike!  All downhill after that...metaphorically speaking.  ;-)  As I approached the end of the trail I started to notice the Genesee River through the oaks and hemlocks.  It was really pretty - and as I arrived at the end of the trail, the overlook was exceptional - just like I had hoped it would be. 

I unloaded my gear, and started looking for a good spot to place a cache leg.  At first nothing struck me, but after one loop around I found a lovely oak tree near the overlook that will work perfectly for what I want to do!  I love that mother nature is cooperating with me on this cache thus far...she must want me to show off these awesome spots as much as I do.

At this point I decided to relax a little as I genuinely felt like I had successfully accomplished what I had set out to do.  So I grabbed my camera and started taking a few pictures of the overlook.  Now was probably the best time to get a glimpse of this - as once the leaves come in I think it will obscure it more.  But I was happy to bask in my discovery, and spent a good 20 minutes enjoying the peace and serenity this location afforded me.


Yay for pretty overlooks!


Eventually my mind turned to the trip out - so I enjoyed some high-quality H2O, packed my stuff back up, and began the trek uphill.  I did stop briefly at one point to look back.  With a satisfied smirk on my face, I knew I'd be returning here (hopefully sooner than later) to finish my geo-opus.  Hahaha. 

In retrospect, the trek back wasn't too bad at all.  My left knee was a bit of a bugger, but for the most part I kept a good pace, stopping from time to time to let more oddly dressed runners pass me by, sometimes scaring them as they probably didn't expect to see me leaning up against a tree as they went chugging by.  One girl almost screamed.  Hehe...and yes, I'm proud of that.  Clearly my burliness is awful damn scary.

On my way in a I passed one particular spot by that I knew I wanted to take a picture of on my way back.  I vowed I would, no matter how tired I might be.  It was a little creek, and someone went and built a pretty sturdy stick bridge over it.  It made me wonder why there weren't more (probably because they were ambitious with this one, but once they realized there were like 700 spots exactly like it, they said 'to hell' with it.  Every hiker for themselves!)


Only 700 more to go....suckers!


So here it is, in all it's glory, the little stick bridge that I thought was so unique, it warrented a pit stop/photo opp!

In total my stocky little tookis covered probably 4.5 miles in LSP today.  It was a good day - but it's started getting me to ponder how long a hike this cache will be when it's all said and done.  How long is too long?  And to be fair, while my last two visits were piece-mealing legs together, I will be hiking the full cache hide when I've got everything ready. 

So if I can do it, I figure the majority of the population can!