Hiker Alert: Don’t get your vehicle towed or ticketed!

Joe Dabes passed this information along for the Finger Lakes Trail, but it applies to parking near any trail:

If parking on a road shoulder, do not park with any wheels on the pavement.  I have heard of two vehicles being ticketed by county sheriffs for doing this.

Also do not park in or near a private driveway.  This last weekend a hiker had his vehicle towed away for parking next to (but not blocking) a private driveway.  The specifics on where this happened:

Map M19, mile 1.4.  Here there is official Jim Schug Rail Trail parking on the west side of Lake Road, as shown on the front of the map.  You can recognize this because of the large partially fenced rock filled area with a dispenser for doggie crap bags.  The hiker parked on the other (east) side of the road next to a private driveway of a guy who dislikes hikers (until about 12 years he was using the old rail bed owned by the Town of Dryden, when the town extended the rail trail, forcing him to move the equipment that he was storing on it).  The back of map M19 will be modified to clearly state that the parking here is on the west side of Lake Rd.

Another M19 parking alert!  There is no longer any shoulder parking at mile 9.8 where the trail crosses Babcock Hollow Road.  Recently Cortland County significantly widened this paved road, eliminating all off road shoulder parking.  However, you can park at a snow plow turn around area 0.3 mile to the north (except in winter).  Map M19 will be modified to show this.

If you’d like to experience hiking the Finger Lakes Trail this year and don’t want to hassle with shuttling cars, the guidebook “Take A Hike – Family Walks in New York’s Finger Lakes Region” has maps and details for 13 loop hikes that utilize portions of the Finger Lakes Trail.