CNYHikes

Earlier this year, I blogged two of my hikes in Morgan Hill State Forest, a large area of mostly forested hills southeast of the Syracuse metro area and the small village of Tully, NY.  My last outing here ended at where the Onondaga Trail crossed Shackham Road and reached a beautiful wooden bridge over scenic Shackham Brook, and I promised to return to that spot and continue hiking beyond, further southward on that blue-blazed pathway.  So in late November, the weekend before Thanksgiving where unexpected clear skies came about, I took the drive out to Shackham Road and picked up the trail head with the goal in mind to reach at least dirt Morgan Hill Road, 1.55 miles one way from the starting point.  I got a late start for this 3.1 mile out-and-back hike and, on top of that, I was faced with earlier sunset time because of the shrinking daylight.  But it still turned out to be a great chilly fall day spent in the woods. Although much of the autumn color was gone, the scenery did no

     The rolling country southeast of Syracuse, NY, over time, has become perhaps my favorite area to explore when I'm in the mood to seek out the forest.  The hills here become a little higher, steeper, and more angular, hinting that the Catskill Mountains are becoming closer with each mile further east along the Finger Lakes Trail  one takes.  Nearly 77,000 acres of protected state lands cover this area, loosely bounded by Interstate 81 to the west, NY Route 20 to the north and, eventually, Interstate 88 to the south (I haven't made it that far yet. . . ).  Rural Madison, Cortland, and Chenango Counties make up this verdant region that, to this day, is still a decently remote of corner of upstate New York.  And getting to it isn't a far drive from Syracuse, where I happen to live.  In previous blog entries, I detailed my hikes in Morgan Hill State Forest, which I almost could consider the "gateway" to this patchwork of forests.  The blue-blazed Onondaga