Finger Lakes in Spring. Sounds like a good place for some firsts with backpacking! Camille and BF Ben hit the trail and this is what they had to say:
View from the parking area before we started our hike up and along the ridge on the right.
Periodically along the Finger Lakes Trails (FLT) there are these rather adorable little roofed boxes with log books for hikers to sign. Inside is a notebook and various pens and pencils inside a plastic bag with entries going back to 2012. This one was placed halfway up a steep climb in a rare shaded patch of pine trees right next to a waterfall, the perfect stop to rest.
After the initial steep climb the trail levels out and despite the remote
location we passed a realty sign (at the back of the picture)... weird
The traverse across the ridge is through a fairly level and uniform patch of forest. Probably as a land mark someone placed a rock in between the fork in a tree and since the tree has grown around the rock. The rock tree is about half way across the traverse.
 |
| Passed this little guy chillin' right off the trail |
About halfway to the lean to we came to this wonderful lookout spot and decided to stop for lunch. According to Ben hand gliders use it as a jumping off point which is why its cleared of trees. 
The trail we followed was blazed in orange and after the lookout it's a short walk to a logging road which we were suppose to take for a sort while before cutting across private property that the FLTC has secured access to (except from oct.-dec. for hunting season of course). However, the logging company decided it was a good idea to mark the trees to be cut down with orange spray paint. So we are walking down the logging road thinking we are on the trail because of all the orange blazes, except they weren't blazes. We realized our mistake after about a half mile which was good, unfortunately it was a half mile down a steep logging road. After slogging our way back up the road we found the turn off and were rewarded by a particularly serene section of cushy grassy trail with views of the surrounding hills and wind turbines.
Once we made it to our lean to for the night it was time to try my first stabs at dehydrated meals. Ben and I split Pasta with Vodka Sauce and Black Beans and Rice. Both were good. I was genuinely surprised the pasta was so good given I used packaged sauce but it only needs a few tweaks, add some dehydrated chicken for protein and find a noodle that dehydrates a little better (maybe ramen style noodles). The Black Beans and Rice were good but need a little work. It needs some zing so I'm going to try it with more tomatoes, some tomato powder and little more salt. I also dehydrated corn to add next go and am going to do more black beans and less rice in the future. Over all BIG success!
Pasta with Vodka Sauce
~4oz (two servings) angel hair pasta
~1/2 c dried mushrooms
~1/3 dried tomato
~1/2 small head of broccoli, dehydrated
~handful of crushed dried kale
~2t parm
~1t nutritional yeast
~1/2 t garlic
~1/4 t salt
~2/3 of a packed of Knorr Brand Parma Rosa Sauce Mix
Black Beans and Rice
~1/3 can black beans, dehydrated
~1 c of instant rice
~dehydrated sweet potato, zucchini, bell pepper, & tomato
~1/2 t chili powder
~1/2 t garlic powder
~1/2 t cumin
~1/4 t smoked paprika
~1/4 t salt
View from our lean too over Lake Canandagua. We were fortunate enough to be there on a night when they were doing the ring of fire around the lake, which means that once it was dark all the residences along the lake lit bonfires in their yards so the whole lake is ringed in fire. Its pretty cool.
We lit a fire in the fire pit near the lean to once it was dark, although we didn't really need the light because the full moon was so bright.
