Syracuse, New York has the strangest weather.  The local saying is, if you don’t like the weather, just wait a day.  And I guess that’s what happened this weekend.  When I got up Saturday morning.  It was  50°F  outside.  We looked at the Aliner and we looked at the Exploder and wondered if we should take it camping.  But my uncanny sixth sense said that we should probably scope it out before we do something foolish.  So we left snow starved central New York for the hills south of the city.

Now from Syracuse North, it is mostly flat, boring land due to the fact that it used to be part of Lake Ontario.  But sometime around 20,000 years ago (give or take a millennia) when the ice receded and the lake began to empty into the ocean, it was all a swamp.  But south of Syracuse.  The land rises gradually up to a point where all the rainfall either runs north to Lake Ontario, or south to the Chesapeake bay.  This “high area” is rich in state forest land.  And one of our favorite sections of all this State Land is an area called Taylor Valley.

We have camped here before and have entered it into the freecampsites.net website.  And as noted in the picture, it’s a great place to camp. (Sorry, that photo was taken last year) Another great thing is that it’s only about 30 minutes from the house, and it’s in an area where there just aren’t many people.  I find the very hilly topography, and numerous streams and cemeteries make it a very interesting place.  Now in the middle of the state forest is a section that was once a commercial campground.  Nothing fancy, just for tents or small trailers for primitive camping and no hookups. They had a big picnic area and fireplaces and a game room building, but the only electricity was in the home/office/campstore building.  Sometimes in the late 50s or early 60s.  They went bankrupt and the state acquired the land.  They removed the buildings and house, but did nothing to change the character of the campsites.  So today it is a large circular Road around a field with a crisscross of trees that make it a great free camping area.  I even believe the state continues to mow it at least once a year.

So we left warm, snow free, Syracuse to check out the camping in Taylor Valley.  On the way you have to drive past a ski resort, which I already knew was open because they make a ton of snow.  And I was pleased to see that the ski runs that they do not make snow on were clear of snow.  And I had great hopes that the camping area would also be snow free.  But when we got to the camping area, another 8 miles past the ski resort, we found more snow than I could have possibly anticipated.  It suddenly became very clear that it had been a good idea to leave the Aliner and Exploder at home.  I guess in reality, the narrowness of the valley and the height of the hills on either side probably protected it from any sun and melting warmth.  I did note that the temperature was 41°F in the valley  when we got there, as opposed to the 57°F  it was in my driveway home.  At least I had the forethought to bring my hiking boots!  And of course the boys were ready to go regardless of the snow.

So we parked the car on the slippery icy driveway, and proceeded to explore around the campsite and the trails around the area.  Both of the boys were a little more than their usual excited to once again sniff wildlife.  Caesar of course did his usual once around the car to see what was within distance to possibly find, while Dakota locked on to a track and began following it.  It goes to show you that even very well-trained dogs can lose their good manners when focusing on something interesting like a track.  He nearly walked into the road as I was recording video.  It’s not a busy road, so it’s not a great danger, but I do like to make sure that he does not go in roads anywhere without permission or me with him.  And when I corrected him and got his attention he was surprised and he was well aware that he was doing something wrong.  When we crossed over the road from the picnic and small camping area to the main camping loop I realized what he was tracking.  Some very large deer tracks were quite evident in the snow and they were extremely fresh.  Possibly within the last 10 or 15 minutes.  Something Dakota really likes is a very fresh track.

So we continued around the loop and walking off into the side woods looking for deer, turkeys, owls, and any other wildlife that I knew existed in that area.  Then we hiked into the back section of the camping areas to a stream that flows along the western edge at the base of the hill on the western side of the valley.  I was amazed at the number of deer tracks and trails that were coming across the stream and going into the flatlands woods.  These weren’t just deer trails, they were deer interstate highways.  The other side of the stream up the hill is an old Orchard, and I suppose that attracts a lot of deer for dropped apples and to eat the buds on the trees.  Orchard farmers often complain that the deer reduce their crops by eating the apples and flowers and buds.  But Cornell University’s research has shown that actually trimming the tree up the way the deer do produces larger heartier fruit, thereby actually producing bigger apples, and more appealing apples.

We hiked around more looking for beavers that are usually present building dams in this stream . And there is an old beaver meadow upstream a ways that we hiked through, though we didn’t see any beavers.  This is also an ideal place for otters, but I didn’t see any evidence of them, as they usually leave a slide in the snow where they slip into the water.  The beaver meadow in spring has many beautiful flowers.  In addition to the Alders and cattails, there are various grasses, sages, and rushes.  There are also brilliant red cardinal flowers, blue flag irises, and tons of daffodils and other early spring flowers.  This area will probably be my second spring camping trip, after a long trek to someplace a little farther south.  I tend to like to go camping before it’s really warm and dry enough to camp around central New York.

Well,  I guess that’s about all there is. Thanks for stopping by !  Leave a comment if you want, feel free to explore any of those silly ads on the page 🙂    And get out and get moving !

Stay safe and see you in a week !!
Rick, Caesar & Dakota (The Boys)