Labrador Hollow and More - Day 162

  Labrador Hollow is a glacially carved valley that has been named a New York State Unique Place. And the NCT goes through it. These views are from the hang-glider take-off platform, which is really the only place you get such a view. But wow!

Another fun place within the Unique Area is Tinkers Falls. I knew the trail people had done some work in the area, and I was hoping you could get a better view of the falls than you used to. But, you still can't unless you do a lot of rock scrambling. Not happening today. Can you tell that the water flows over a shelf and then free-falls in a sheet in front of a more eroded bowl of limestone until it hits shale again and trickles down the layers?

And Spruce Pond seems like a real milestone for me. Not sure why exactly. It's not really on the edge of the Adirondacks, but it feels like it's beyond the "circle" (more like a squishy amoeba) of places I was familiar with in New York when I was growing up.

First sighting of several flowers for this trip. First Jack-in-the-Pulpit. Not a colorful one, but it was first, neverthless.

This is more exciting. Painted Trillium- more common in the east. It's been found in a couple of place in Michigan, but not many.

And here's the exciting botany find of the day. This is a yellow color variant of Red Trillium. I found a lot of it in Ohio a few years ago, so I know what to look for now. Really special! This is the only other time I've found any. There were two plants.

It was hot and there were some big hills. But I rested longer at lunch and drank lots of water. Beautiful scenery.

Then I met Deb Nero (middle) and Michaela Aney (left) of the Finger Lakes Trail Conference for dinner. We talked trail stuff! Deb is the Executive Director and Michaela is Director of Trail Development. It's so good to know that lots of planning and development is going on. There have been lots of improvements since I last hiked much of New York. That's the direction we all want the trail to go!

Miles today: 15.3. Total miles so far: 2090.9.

See Got My Blue Blazes Back