Hiking NY: Backpacking the Letchworth Section of the Finger Lakes Trail

Last weekend I took Brad (and my hiking buddy Ken) on his first backpacking trip! We did a section of trail that I've done before, but this time we stayed in a shelter along the way. We hiked 8 miles on Saturday and got to the shelter around 4pm. Then on Sunday we got up early and hiked another 5 miles to the car. Everything went great!

I set up my tent for Bradley to sleep in, as well as for my changing quarters! The days were very hot and humid, and the night didn't cool down very much.

When we got the the shelter (which I had reserved), there was already a group of people there with tents set up and a fire going! They seemed nice enough, and didn't know you were supposed to reserve the shelter for use. Since they were going to sleep in their tents, we were fine with them staying. I told them the only issue might be with their car since we had to leave a parking pass on ours. If they didn't have permission to park overnight, their car may get towed. It turns out that was enough to scare them off, so they actually packed up and left!

We cooked hobo dinners in the fire, then roasted marshmallows as we waited for the sun to go down. 9pm is backpacker's midnight, so we hit the hay early and tried to get some sleep. Shortly after dinner, a police officer showed up on an ATV asking if we had seen a tree on fire. He came back again later on, so we aren't sure if there actually was a tree on fire somewhere.

We had hoped that starting early on Sunday we would beat the heat, but unfortunately that was not the case and even at 8am it was already mid 70s with high humidity again. An occasional breeze helped cool us off, and before we knew we were back at the car!

This weekend I am off for yet another adventure, so check back soon!