North Country Trail (NCT): DeRuyter State Forest

Dogs Leashed

Features Birding · Fall Colors

The eastern trailhead is just off Webber Road and is not particularly well marked; if you approach from School Street (from the east), the turn will be on the left on a grassy unpaved lane just after crossing a small stream. Drive back toward the hill, and stay left/straight. You'll cross the stream again over a culvert. The trail starts on the left (northeast) side of a small stand of trees.

The western trailhead is marked somewhat more clearly, with a designated parking area just off East Lake Road at the northeast corner of the DeRuyter Reservoir.

There are several places where the trail drops briefly into wet, muddy, weedy sections. Long pants are not a bad idea. Bring a dry pair of socks for the car.

This segment of the Onondoga Trail (a branch of the Finger Lakes Trail) starts just south of New Woodstock, and climbs Kinney Hill before crossing DeRuyter State Forest from east to west. Roughly half of the trail runs through easements across private land, and you'll notice a few segments that are named presumably after the original grantor.

The first mile is a steady climb, mostly long switchbacks through deciduous forest, followed by a descent of the west side of Kinney Hill into a saddle just outside the forest. After passing a small pond, the trail lets out on Fairbanks Road (dirt) before picking up again a little ways to the south at the edge of DeRuyter State Forest. From there, you'll cross two small hills before dropping down to the DeRuyter Reservoir.

Kinney Hill is largely deciduous, with birch and maple. Inside the State Forest, the vegetation shifts to largely evergreen, ferns.