CNYHikes

     Wellesley Island State Park, located way up north by the US/Canadian border in the Thousand Islands region, has been on my local "bucket list" of places to hike for several years now.  So I was enthralled when I had the chance to visit this unique park tucked away on beautiful Wellesley Island on a weekend with family and friends visiting the area.  The mighty St. Lawrence River cuts through this whole area, not only separating the United States from its neighbor, Canada, but also acts as an important seaway and vital link between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of miles away.  Whenever I visit the river, it feels to me as though I am on a coast, which is far from reality in other places I've hiked a bit further south in Central New York.  Yet you are not on the coast and still can immerse yourself in an entirely different environment of cliffs, waterways, marinas, private islands of unique "pioneer" plants, bays, and river culture.  

     In early July, I set out to explore and experience a segment of the Finger Lakes Trail  that, it turns out, is the furthest east along the long-distance path I have hiked to date.  In the northern tier of rural Chenango County in Central New York lies the Pharsalia Wildlife Management Area, 4,689 acres in size and operated by the DEC.  At first glance on a map, it would appear to be a place for merely hunters to look for game in the spring and fall and not much of a draw for hikers, but the reality is far from the truth.  There is a very scenic and remote piece of the FLT  running southward through these game lands, and some surprising geographical variety for an area that is largely flatter than its surrounding brethren.  For anyone interested in the outdoors as I am, I would recommend checking this lesser-known place out.      The hike I will describe in this blog took me roughly four-and-a-half hours to complete and was an out-and-back, so figure approximately two hours and fi