Hammond Hill State Forest

The boys are all dressed up and ready to go! Here we are at the Hammond Hills State Forest parking lot, one of two parking lots at the north end and the only one accessible by actual cars, let alone trailers, we found by trial and error! Good thing Cordy's trailer is a gooseneck (and thus can make a more than 90 degree corner) otherwise we would have been stuck in the middle of nowhere at the end of a partially washed out dirt road... And guess who we meet crossing the road - Angelika hiking with kids and parents! And now I know why she had such a puzzled expression when we rumbled past, she knew where it ended! Maybe I should visit our next new trail with a small car and make sure it is what the map says it is... there might be something to that, hihi.

We both liked Hammond Hills, tho as the name says, Hills, the trails are either up, or down - there does not seem to be much flat area! Which is good for the horses as they get a good exercise, and not good for the horses as they are quite tired and ready to go home fairly soon. At least we had great weather, windy but sunny, and perfect fall leaf colors. If only Greni had not decided to do his donkey impression and take an hour and a half to load! We ended up backing the trailer onto a bank, pull a rope around his butt and just hauling him in. The ass.

One thing, if you decide to hike or ride there, make sure you have the map with the trail blaze codes! The DEC map does not, and without the trail blaze info I don't think Cordy and I would have made it back out... The trails are like a maze up there and with the winding trails and dense tree cover we had no idea which direction we were going :)

More information about Hammond Hills, from the NYS DEC website:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/8204.html

Hammond Hill State Forest is located 3618 acres and is located in the towns of Caroline and Dryden in eastern Tompkins County.

The forest was established between 1935 and 1950 in an effort to reduce soil erosion problems, produce forest products, and provide recreational opportunities. Nearly half of the forest (1799 acres) was acquired by the State from the federal government. Most of the property was former pasture or tilled acreage that was suffering from poor agricultural practices. The DEC planted this land with 708,000 pine, spruce, larch, maple, cherry, ash and oak seedlings. The planting was accomplished between 1935 and 1940 using Civilian Conservation Corps labor. Today, almost 100% of the area is forested, the soil has been improved, and the harvesting of forest products supports all management activities, including recreation.

The Hammond Hill State Forest Multiple Use Trail System has been designed to offer family-based recreation for hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, and cross-county skiing. A snowmobile trail and the Finger Lakes Hiking Trail also cross the forest. The 16 mile trail system is a cooperative effort between the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Lands and Forests, the Cayuga Nordic Ski Club, the Cayuga Nature Center, the Friends of Hammond Hill and the town of Dryden.

The trails are marked with circular trail signs. All trails are designated by color and number. Most of the trails are above 1800 feet in elevation; therefore, these trails are well suited for cross-county skiing. Trailed parking is provided in a parking lot on Cayuga Nature Center property on Hammond Hill Road. The trails are classified by the user's ability. Beginner trails have very gentle slopes and are fairly short in length. Intermediate trails have gentle to somewhat steep slopes and are moderate in length. Advanced trails have gentle to steep slopes and are usually longer in length than intermediate trails.

A very good map, in color, and with the trail codes can be found at:
http://www.cycle-cny.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/hammondhill1.jpg

Also a map, and other information can be found here:
http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeskiblog/
http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeskiblog/?page_id=891