Marie hiked with me for quite a distance this morning. In fact, she stayed with me until we had climbed a 600-foot hill. Most of the climb was on a closed county road, so the actual walking was not difficult. That made the elevation change more tolerable. We had to laugh though, because when we got to the top there was a gate with this sign for cars coming the other direction.
In case you can't read it, it says "Danger Keep Out." So, that implies that we'd just come through the dangerous section. There wasn't even a washout or holes or dragons or anything!
But, what I want to talk about is Branch Trails of the Finger Lakes Trail. There are 6 major branch trails. If you hike all of these, you can get a patch, a different one from completing all of the main FLT. Since I have the main FLT patch (finished in 2014), Marie and I have been working on the Branch Trails. We did the Onondaga long ago because it is part of the NCT. And I will do that one again this year. Two years ago, we did the Interlochen and Bristol Hills Branches. You might remember that I mentioned a week ago about passing the end of the Bristol Hills Trail. Last summer, we did the Letchworth and Crystal Hills Branches. Today, I passed the end of the Crystal Hills Trail. Marie didn't walk that far with me today, but she just did that piece last year because we had to walk in from a parking spot.
The Crystal Hills Branch is blazed with orange, and here is where it begins (or ends, depending on your direction). They have used three blazes to denote that ending. This isn't quite standard, but it works. I've been asked about blazing, so some day I'll talk about that.
But this is neat. There are two huge cairns that mark the "entrance" to the Branch trail...
... and the path to the Moss Hill Lean-To.
Marie and I have only the Conservation Trail to complete for our branch trail patches. Maybe next summer!
Today was a challenge for my lungs with an 800-foot hill (I went up 200 more feet after Marie turned around), and then a 500-foot hill. I didn't do either one fast, but I did them. And although I did take a nap afterwards, I'm not feeling sick again. Tomorrow I'm going to try longer miles, and they are really hilly!
Miles today: 8.9. Total miles so far: 1909.7
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3 comments:
Glad you were able to get out there again today.
So glad you're feeling better, Joan, and that the elevation wasn't too much. That's great info on the branch trails and sounds like something I'd like to do. My goal is to do all of Michigan (will finish the Lower Peninsula this summer) and then do at least 50 miles in each NCT state - this might be my "thing" in New York. Thanks for giving me something to chew on! Be well, hike strong.
The "Unknown" comment was from April - forgot to add my name 😀
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