Hiking the Gorge Trail in Finger Lakes National Forest

We're beginning to prepare for our move this Thursday to a campground near Toronto, and the more we've thought about it, the more complicated it is, getting our cell phone, internet and GPS systems ready to function in Canada.  We'll be in Toronto for a month, and then will be in and out of Canada several times this year.  In 2015, we'll be spending nearly four months in Canada.  In 2016, we plan to spend almost 3 months traveling through British Columbia on a trip to Alaska. This has required more upgrades than we expected:  a new mobile hotspot that's Global Ready, added global roaming for our cell phone and hotspot, probably a new prepaid basic phone in Canada, and a new GPS with Canadian maps for our truck.  So there's been a real flurry of electronic activity the last couple of days.

We still make room for the outdoors, so this afternoon we drove across to the east side of Seneca Lake to take a hike on the Gorge Trail (as well as a side hike on the Interloken Trail).  It was a short hike of just under 4 miles, an easy outing to stretch our legs as we start to increase our running mileage after the Broad Street Run and begin training for the half marathon in Schroon Lake, New York with Katie in late September.

The hike is a pretty one.  It starts near Gorge Pond, which is very picturesque this time of year, with all of the deciduous trees really leafing out.  Kathy is enjoying the scene at the pond:

Just as we rounded the pond, Kathy spotted a goose family; unfortunately, the goose family spotted us at the same time.  By the time David could get the camera on them, they had turned their little goose butts on us and started making out for the far shore of the pond:

Well, the hindquarters of wildlife is better than no wildlife at all.

We got to the trail junction of the Gorge Trail and the Interloken Trail and David assisted in holding up the sign:

Spring and its signs are everywhere.  Here are some beautiful, delicate, fuchsia-colored wildflowers:

...and some delicate, lily-like flowers down in the wetlands by the stream:

The hike follows a stream down into a verdant gorge.  Finally, the stream came into view between the young, leafy trees:

At the bottom, the stream is stony, and David inspected it as we walked:

We counted at least five widow-makers just waiting to fall on some unsuspecting hikers' heads.  Kathy inspects and tags this one to make sure it does us no harm:

Our trail led down the stream to the base of a hill, which we climbed up to a trailhead at another parking lot.  We refreshed ourselves with some cool lemonade (Kathy had a specially homemade Arnold Palmer) and headed back upstream toward our own trailhead.  As we hiked, we could see little falls and rapids:

The stream valley was peaceful and no one else was on the trail.  We lingered and watched the sunlight dapple the stream with light and shadows from the swaying trees:

Back at the trail junction, we turned up the Interloken Trail to seek out a lake that showed on the Forest Service map for our trail.  Not long after, we found some strange sort of mushroom growing right in the middle of the trail:

After about a half mile's walk up the Interloken Trail, we couldn't find the lake where the Forest Service map showed it would be.  We checked our GPS, which showed no lake in that position. We hiked on until we found a landmark that we knew was past the supposed location of lake.  No lake.  So we turned back down the trail the way we had come.

No sooner did we turn back than we finally found the lake!  It was at least 20 feet wide and 60 feet long:

We named it, "Lake Disappointment."

Back we hiked to Gorge Pond, and found it looking particularly fetching in the bright afternoon sun:

Even the cattails were out in force:

The predicted 4:00 pm showers never materialized.  We appreciated this and headed home in the truck, slowed only by two stunod drivers of trucks and horse trailers that decided to block the entire road to unload some horses for what Kathy supposed was a planned trail ride.  Some quick reconnoitering found us an alternate route and we were back on our way home...

...to soak our bones and muscles in the hot tub for what we think was a day well lived!