Fourth Hiking Day- May 26- Beaverkill Rd to Wildmeadow Rd.

 
This was an easy hiking day, only 6.5 miles and lightly rolling. It was the last day of the Finger Lakes Trail hike that would be all off road, and we really enjoyed it. I guess the theme of the day was "color."

Our first stream crossing was over Black Brook. With the dark stones the name actually seemed sensible (although the next stream was Mexico Creek. It did not look southwestern).



This leaf seems to be a novelty. It's a red raspberry that appears to have no chlorophyll.



This was closely followed by cute little orange fungi.



This connected us to the place where we'd done a section of road walk two days previous.

Then we made a decision that turned out to be a good idea.

Because of our changed plans, this hike had morphed into five days instead of four. There was still one day to go. And I was supposed to write my monthly news column and send it in by Tuesday noon. There was plenty of time to accomplish the writing; we finished this walk early in the afternoon on Monday. We found a place to eat and get internet access in Claryville (more on that another day). I couldn't move the deadline because I'd already made arrangements to send it later than they like to have copy. It would be easy enough to "fudge" the text and make it sound like we'd finished, but I wanted a picture of us at the eastern terminus of the trail.

It seemed like it would be anticlimactic, but we went to the end of Denning Road, and hiked the final mile of trail that connects the Finger Lakes Trail to the Long Path (not to be confused with the Long Trail). The Long Path goes from New Jersey to near Albany.



Somehow, it was just fine. I often get bent out of shape about endings that aren't endings (I try not to get grouchy), but this time, it seemed like a perfect ending to the last off-road day of the hike. We would just knock out those remaining road miles the next day in good time and scoot in the cars for Marie's house. I signed the register book... it was a nice touch to be able to write "completing the Finger Lakes Trail."



And so, here we are at the eastern end of the FLT, and it was exciting and exhilarating and emotional. I'll add this final 1.2 miles to the map for tomorrow. So this day's total was 8.9 (of which 7.7 counted- since we did the final piece in two directions).


This has turned into way too many pictures for one post, but I have to show you that we are a long way from the western terminus, both in space and time. This picture is from 2000. It's the only state to state crossing on the NCT that is all on trail with a sign. So, there are the brackets for my Finger Lakes Trail!

	See Third Hiking Day
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