Nomad Life - Day 182

I had another weekend day of mostly cloudless weather in the forecast and was itching to make the most of it!  Due to the dryness in the hotel room (parched), I was wide awake at 0400.  I tried to go back to sleep because I wasn't ready to wake up and ended up sleeping until 0830!.  I had to hurry after that... At 0845, I went to "breakfast" (sparse choices) in the Lobby of the Days Inn (Liverpool/Syracuse).  Beyond that, I felt like there was barely enough time to get ready to leave in time for Mass at a nearby Catholic Church.  The good news was that there weren't many good distractions because the WiFi was still acting (couldn't do Duolingo exercises but managed to read and do puzzles).  When I checked out (1015), I learned that there had been some sort of disturbance near by room during the night (at 0230) - fortunately, I'd slept through that...  Outside, it was overcast and cold (32F).  I'd meant to drive down to the shore of Onondaga Lake but there wasn't time.  Instead, I drove east (on city streets) so I could go to 1030 Mass at St. Daniel’s Syracuse (village of Lyncourt).  There were several features of the service (Latin, kneeling for Eucharist, etc.) that seemed familiar from my many years at Sacred Heart Lebanon.  At 1130, I existed the church and did some map research to plan for my pursuit of North Country Trail miles in the area.  By 1145, I was ready to go - I used NY-298 to reach East Syracuse and then followed several residential streets until I arrived in Canastota (1215).  I stopped briefly to marvel at the Greystone Castle and saw signs for a nearby Boxing Hall of Fame (didn't visit that).  My first NCT stop of the day was at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery on the south end of town.  I found the trailhead there at 1220 and walked through the gravestones (0.1 miles) until I found the place where the trail headed west into the woods.  There was a sign there that said the trail was closed due to flooding so I didn't spent any more time nearby.  Instead, I returned to the center of Canastota (NY-5 and NY-13), following the light blue blazes of the NCT in my car for 1.2 miles, and found a parking lot for the Erie Canal Towpath (1235).  From there, I walked on the NCT for 2.2 miles - all the way to Court Street (on the eastern edge of town) and back.  Overall, this walk yielded 4.5 miles of outdoor activity for the day.  Sadly, the trail markings were very inadequate - I only saw only blue blaze on canal (Montana Bound direction) during the walk.  I was able to do a lot of birding during this part of my day; the highlight of the entire walk was the "Canada Goose Whispering" I did every time I encountered members of a HUGE flock that had perched on the edge of the towpath through the entire section.  Several of the birds were very brave and didn't move but others made a big production about being disturbed...  By 1405, I'd wrapped up my hike and decided to resume the driving portion of my NCT day.  Since a majority of the trail nearby was still following the Canal Towpath, I decided to drive towards Rome (using NY-13 and NY-5).  I stopped for lunch at Wendy’s in Oneida (1425) and ate in the restaurant.  During this time, I made hotel reservations.  When I was finished eating (1450), I got on NY-46 and followed that to NY-365A, which took me to NY-365.  Outside, the temps had risen to 43 F!  Before long, I found myself on NY-26 and had entered the outskirts of Rome.  For the first time during the day, I encountered snow and ice on the ground (although it was quickly melting).  It was also very windy. I followed city streets, past Fort Stanwix, until I reached Mohawk River Trail Parking on Chestnut Street (1525).  My NCT wasn't clear before I arrived but it soon became clear that the trail continued, parallel to the city roads, from that point until it turned north along NY-46.  Thus began a rather frustrating pursuit of the NCT from civilization and into the southwestern edge of Adirondack State Park.  From a paper map (PDF I downloaded before starting the drive), I thought I knew exactly where I needed to go.  So, I set up my car's odometer for the route that was depicted and started following it.  Long story short, I traveled 11.4 miles along highways, through Delta State Park and along Main Street (old state highway) before heading up Carmichael Hill Road.  I passed lots of deer and wild turkeys, climbed a huge hill and ended up getting stymied by camping trailers and standing water by the end of this route.  For reference, the starting point I used (1530) was at the corner of Wright Settlement Road on NY-46 (1530) - I ended up reaching a dead end at the top of Mezzler (or Mesler) Hill Road (1605).  This whole route was where the trail was indicated to be on the paper map but I never saw any blazes during the entire route.  I learned later (researching on an interactive NCT map) that the trail had (at some point) been rerouted to follow the Rome Airport fence line until it intersected Mezzler Road east of the dead end I found.  No matter - I'm going to count the miles I did and move on with my life...  Back to the present: from the dead end, I backtracked to Carmichael Hill Rd and used it to find Bloody Hill Road.  Unfortunately  that was an unplowed section of the (actual) NCT and I didn't dare try to drive through 8-10 inches of snow.  Instead, I continued east to Lewis Road.  Meanwhile, it got very sunny.  I eventually got on Steuben Road (CR-74) and used it to find Latteiman Road.  From that intersection, I drove west to try to intersect the NCT again.  Sadly, this route led to another (unplowed road) dead end.  I gave up by search for any NCT blue blazes at 1630.  Dang...  Hoping to reframe my search to something more achievable, I next drove to Boonville (via CR-74 & NY-12).  There was lots of snow on roads and the wind kept making things worse.  I was VERY careful...  After driving into Boonville itself (1645), I stopped to try to get air for my tires) at a gas station - unsuccessful.  Continuing my search for NCT blazes, I next took Woodgate Dr and Hayes Rd - along the way, I passed several places where I could see the Black River Canal Towpath (later learned that it was the actual NCT).  Before long, I reached Millers Woods Road and found a place where the Canal Towpath ended in the town of Forestport (1700).  From that point, I did another NCT Drive, this time for 8.4 miles in the direction of Vermont.  I started at eastern end of Black River Canal (Forestport) and actually saw some some blazes.  Next, I got on Woodhull Road and drove east.  The "main route" eventually became North Lake Road (CR-73) and, before long, I reached the town of Ohio (Herkimer County).  After that, I entered ADK and continued during until I reached the Stone Dam Trailhead (1725).  Sadly, the lot had not been plowed and the snow on the trail was noticeably deep.  With this "dead end", I wrapped up my NCT explorations for the day - not feeling  entirely successful...  However, I also learned that I'd done some NCT miles in January 2015 that I'd never known I completed.  Back then, I'd driven along NY-28 between the towns of McKeever and Thendara (9 miles) and then another section (on the same day) in the town of Inlet, between South Shore Drive and Limekiln Lake Road (0.8 miles).  I decided to take credit for those miles and add them to today's total.  From that point, i entered "get to the hotel" mode.  First, I backtracked to NY-28 (south) and used it to reach CR-75.  After a little bit of driving, I rejoined NY-12 (north).  I passed through Boonville again and then reached Port Leyden (Lewis County) by 1750.  Along the way, I listened to audiobooks.  Google Maps eventually put me on NY-26 and I used that road to get to NY-3.  As I approached Watertown, my map app took me on a series of side streets that followed fence line for Fort Drum until I was able to get on NY-342.  I arrived at my hotel, the Quality Inn Watertown / Fort Drum (located in Calcium near US-11) at 1850.  After checking into my hotel (least friendly desk clerk on the entire Nomad Life Adventure), I made dinner in my room and (with good Internet for once) worked on my Blog, eBird and (finally) some Duolingo.  Part5 of the evening was dedicated to making plans with Eileen (via text).  After that, I did some reading - I later started watching movies.  Bed time was at 2300.  What an amazing day of highs and lows, outdoor weather shifts and a sense of accomplishment that I might be able to complete a large portion of the (nearly) 5000 miles of the North Country Trail!  NCT Today = 22.6 miles (plus added 9.80 missed miles from 2015) / Grand Total NCT (corrected) = 165.6 miles