Ithaca, NY early June

That’s close to home for me! :)

Two overnight loops that I like to do are:

Morgan Hill State Forest loop (has 1 lean-to and a couple nice spots to camp). You can easily make a 20+ mile loop here with lots of diversity (waterfalls, views of the deep glacial valley and Labrador Hollow, piney woods).

Kennedy State Forest. You can put together a nice figure 8 using the Virgil Mountain Loop (nice views) and the Dabes Diversion loop (nice ridge walk). The Firefox lean-to is one of my favorites. It has a beautiful view and a nice spring nearby. I hike parts of this two or three times a week.

You can make either of these loops longer by adding on an extra section or loop, like the Fellows Hill loop in Morgan Hill (there’s a nice informal spot to camp among the ferns, at the top).

Something involving the Abbott loop in Danby State Forest would be another good suggestion. There are two lean-to’s nearby.

All of these are described well on the CNY Hiking website. I would recommend spending some time there.

Shindagin Hollow, Cuyler Hill, Taylor Valley, and Bear Swamp SFs are also quite nice but they don’t lend themselves to loop hiking.

There are no permits necessary for any of these state forests. You can download excellent maps for most of them from the Finger Lakes Trail website for a couple dollars. Lots of black bears have been passing through the area this spring.

Edit: The loops I suggested don’t have the road crossings that you would get if you hiked the central section of the FLT end-to-end.. Because they are entirely within state forests, to me they (especially Morgan Hill) feel very similar to the outer parts of the Adirondacks, which I also frequently visit. One special thing you find are the many stone walls and foundations left by early settlers in the area. If you’re up for a 3-3.5 hr drive for a beautiful 1 nighter, I would recommend the High Falls loop out of Wanakena, NY up past Watertown.

For a great 1/2 day hike near Ithaca, I would recommend the Sweedler Preserve. Do the blue section and make a loop with the FLT. My daughter and I call one stretch of this “The Dragon’s Back”. There will be lots of water in the falls and creek. A really fun hike! From the parking lot you can also cross under the bridge and enter Treman State Park for free.

Mike,

The Finger Lakes Trail is quite nice hike between the one of the trail heads (about 10 minutes south of the village Dryden) and continuing to South Hill (Tremain State Park) west of Ithaca. The trail crosses several roads, usually with a parking spot, so, it is easy to set up various length hikes. There is a lean-to near the start, about 5-6 miles or so, …a late evening arrival will work (it is too close to the trail head for a full day of hiking, more intended as a continuation from the east, I think.)

No permits are required.  Fall closures for hunting are common, but that won’t be bothersome in June.  There are bear in the area so you need a bear hang or canister. (I always hang food, LOTS of trees.)

I’ve pretty much given up on the trail. It crosses too many roads and has too much of an urban feel. I usually head into the Adirondacks, but it takes about 4 hours to get there. For two days you just spend too much time traveling.

http://www.fltconference.org/trail/go-hiking/interactive-map-segmented/interactive-map-fullsystem/

JH and James,

Thank you for the excellent suggestions, and so fast! This is exactly the info I was looking for. I don’t need to do any more research now, apart from checking distances and selecting one or two of the hikes. Do you think it will be very buggy in early June? Also, are the trails maintained well or will I have to fight thru brush? I want to avoid ticks. I may have some more questions after I look at the maps. Cheers! –Mike

The FLT tends to stay in the hills and there aren’t many wet sections, so it will be buggy but not super-heavy – more like the steady flow of mosquitoes typical for the Northeast forest in summer.

All of the trails I mentioned are well cared-for, except for the Mt. Roderick Loop in Taylor Valley State Forest. The footpath there gets overgrown and very narrow by mid-July. The trails in Kennedy forest and Morgan Hill are exceptionally good.

I’ve had ticks on me in the state forests and state parks close to Ithaca (Shindagin, Danby, Treman), but never in the higher elevations of Morgan Hill or Kennedy, despite hiking regularly in these spots throughout the year. That said, ticks (with Lyme) are much more common here than they were 15 years ago and can be found anywhere in Central New York now. You might want to spray your pants/shorts and socks with Permethrin just to be sure.

One more tip – if you’re driving out of Ithaca on 13 towards Dryden and have an extra hour – consider checking out Sapsucker Woods / Cornell labs for Ornithology.

@ jh

Can’t decide between the Morgan Hill State Forest loop and the Kennedy State Forest walk you suggested, but I plan to do one of them.  I’ll also walk Sweedler Preserve with my daughter. Sounds great!

Thanks again–very helpful.

Mike