When we first moved to Bath from Holcomb, I got a map of Steuben County. And there, running a whimsical route from east to west (or west to east) was a broken line labeled “Finger Lakes Trail.” So I drove out to one of those spots where the trail crossed a road, and started following the white blazes. And I’m still following, 23 years later.
*The F.L.T. is a hiking trail, “a walk in the woods,” or occasionally across fields, now and then along roads, once in a blue moon on village streets, as in Watkins Glen and Burdette.
*The Main Trail goes between Catskill State Park and Allegany State Park, meaning you can hike the 580 miles from one to the other, all across the Southern Tier. By far most of it is on private land, with access through the generosity of the property owner. Nearly every foot of it was laid out and created by volunteers, and nearly every foot is also maintained by volunteers.
*A 1962 meeting at Keuka College laid plans to emulate the Long Trail in Vermont, and set up the Finger Lakes Trail Conference. It took years to finish actually creating the Trail, and the whole system now adds up to a thousand miles of hiking.
*That includes half a dozen major Branch Trails. The longest is the 180-mile Conservation Trail, with one terminus near Niagara Falls, and the shortest is the 12-mile Interloken Trail in the Finger Lakes National Forest, overlooking Seneca Lake. Letchworth Trail runs the length of the park along the gorge. Onondaga Trail is south of Syracuse. The Bristol Hills Trail has one end by the Jump-Off Point north of Naples, and the other end near Mitchellsville. The CRYSTAL Hills Trail runs from Bradford southward (through the Village of Addison) to the state line. It’s the northern end of the Great Eastern Trail, which runs (walks?) all the way to Alabama.
*For much of its route the Main Trail also carries the Great Northern Trail, from Lake Champlain to the middle of North Dakota. Then there are spurs (usually to amenities, or to points of interest), or loops, such as one around Queen Catherine Marsh and one through Montour Falls.
*One two occasions while hiking the trail I’ve suddenly been at the center of a cloud of songbirds, circling all around by and chirping away. Twice I’ve had the same experience with butterflies.
*I often see deer while hiking, occasionally foxes, once a fisher. Squirrels and chipmunks are commonplace, of course, but near Birdseye Hollow County Park is a colony of black squirrels, actually a naturally-occurring color variant of the gray. In the right places, I find beavers or muskrats.
*I know two places where there are flocks of bobolinks. I’ve encountered hairy woodpeckers, and peregrine falcons. I’ve watched the turkeys range through fields, or settle into their trees as night draws in. There are gorges and waterfalls, some of which must wait for days before someone hikes out to see them. In one place, the Trail goes through a vineyard.
*Hiking the Trail is a walk through history on one-time roads, or farm tracks, or railroad routes. In the woods of Bradford you skirt an almost-forgotten country graveyard. Near Campbell, and again in Liberty Pole, you pass one-room schools. In Howard (drainage ditch) and in Bradford (evergreen plantation) you hike through the work of Civilian Conservation Corps lads, during the Great Depression. In multiple places you hike across stretches flooded in 1935 and 1972.
*In Urbana you’re walking where Glenn Curtiss flew, and passing the cemetery where he lies buried. A spur route down to Curtiss Museum descends the same slope down which Glenn and his friends experimented with hang gliders in the snow, back in 1908. You cross the route of the first Grand Prix. At some points you look down on Keuka Lake, Seneca Lake, Canandaigua Lake.
*After a year or two I stopped at a Trail register box, signed in, and pilled out a Trail Conference membership form, figuring that since I walked on the thing so much, I should at least pay some dues toward upkeep, and so I still do, every year.
*At 4 PM on Friday, September 6, F.L.T.C. Board member Laurie Ondrejka will make a presentation about the Trail for Steuben County Historical Society’s quarterly lecture. It’s a free presentation at Bath Fire Hall, and we hope you’ll join us to hear about this regional treasure.