April 12 I hiked another section of the FLT, part of the Onondaga Trail spur.  I parked at the Tinkers Falls trailhead, although I used a parking lot south of the main lot, since the main lot was full!

I started up the road and found lots of people in their vehicles doing trail maintenance, raking the road and digging runoff ditches.  They probably belong to the soaring club - one pickup had a hang glider on the roof rack.

I turned off the road when I hit the trail, and dropped down to the crossing above the falls.  I slipped a little but didn't fall crossing the creek, which was considerably lower than it was 2 weeks ago.

Then it was steep up the bank, about a 500 foot gain, nearly straight up.  I stopped part way to remove a shirt, and when I pulled my hat and camera over my head, my glasses went flying.  It took a while to find them in the little runoff stream in front of me.  On up to the top of the ridge, and sweating like crazy.

Then I hiked along the top of the ridge.  It was beautiful in the woods - dry, and sunny and mild. 

After about a mile of fairly level and nice walking, I dropped down through an area where logging has been done, and the trail was littered with tops and trunk, and very hard to climb over.  At the bottom, I crossed Shackham Road.

There were a couple of mountain bikers coming down the road toward me as I marked the waypoint on my GPS.  And I saw a troop of Boy Scouts and fathers up there.  The scouts were asking the bikers where the trailhead was, and the bikers asked me as I walked into the woods.

The scouts started on the trail behind me, and I figured they would be staying at the lean-to, 1.1 miles up the road, at Hemlock Glen.  I hiked along, and in this area, adjacent to a briskly running stream, the snow was packed down - obviously a cross country ski trail.  I met a couple along the brook, and then started up to the lean-to.  A few minutes after I got there, the bikers arrived and flopped down their bikes to rest on the deacon's bench.  They confirmed the scouts were planning to camp at the lean-to.

I decided I didn't want company for the night, and it had been a pretty tough hike, so I thought I would have a good workout in if I just went back to the car and called it a day.  Which I did.  I counted 12 cars in the parking lot when I got there.

2003 April 12 FLT