Doggin' The Finger Lakes: Best of the Best

As the temperatures drop, you may notice your dog getting friskier. Autumn is the best time of year to get out and exercise with your dog on New York trails. The Finger Lakes can be a great place to hike with your dog. Within a short drive you can be scaling mountains that leave your dog panting, exploring impossibly scenic gorges that will set tails to wagging or trotting along glacial lakes for hours.

BEST PLACE FOR YOUR DOG TO SWIM: Havana Glen Park (Montour Falls). There aren't many great spots for your dog to swim in any of the Finger Lakes but he will delight in frolicing in the plunge pool beneath Eagle Cliff Falls here.

BEST ONE-HOUR WORKOUT FOR YOUR DOG: Sweedler Preserve at Lick Brook (Ithaca) You have your choice of how to attack the 500-foot drop through this gorge and its three major waterfalls - if your dog prefers a more gradual ascent and doesn't mind a straight-down descent, take the blue-blazed trail. If you favor a safer climb down with a harder hike up, stay on the white-blazed Finger Lakes Trail.

PRETTIEST HIKE FOR YOUR DOG: Cornell Plantations (Ithaca). The Plantations are a beguiling mix of landscaped grounds and natural areas right on campus.

BEST HIKE TO VIEWS WITH YOUR DOG: Ted Markham Nature Center (Bath). Situated atop Sharps Hill, the park is best known for the panoramic views from its Overlook. Spread before you are the Village of Bath, the Cohocton River and the valley beyond. Coem for the views and stay for the hiking.

BEST HALF-HOUR HIKE WITH YOUR DOG: Taughannock Falls State Park (Ulysses). Unlike its gorge kin in the Finger Lake, the easy canine hike here is the Gorge Trail that travels up to the falls on a wide, flat path. The grade is so gentle that the .75-mile Gorge Trail remains open even through the winter.

MOST HISTORIC HIKE WITH YOUR DOG: Ganondagan State Historic Site (Victor). Traveling across these peaceful trails will transport you back more than 300 years ago when this was the main trading town of the Seneca nation before it was destroyed by the French.

BEST OPEN-FIELD HIKING WITH YOUR DOG: Lindsay-Parsons Biodiversity Preserve (West Danby). The star walk here is the Blue Trail that mixes open meadows with long views of the surounding hills with a woodside loop.

BEST PLACE TO LOSE YOURSELF IN THE WOODS WITH YOUR DOG: Hammond Hill State Forest (Dryden). There are no great destinations here. No great views,no sparkling waterfalls, no deep lakes. Just a great place to get out and hike with your dog. If you can't find a suitable trail here, you aren't trying.

Find out about these and other destinations for your dog in DOGGIN' THE FINGER LAKES: THE 50 BEST PLACES TO HIKE WITH YOUR DOG, $12.95. So what are you waiting for? Your dog will want to hike to the base of the second highest waterfall east of the Rockies (page 55), hike past a replica home of the only U.S. President to serve without a Vice-President (page 21), hike through one of the rarest habitats in the country and the only such place in New York (page 103), to visit a glacial kettle (page 19), hike through the darkest place in Cayuga County (page 77), explore a Seneca bark longhouse (page 31), hike to Todd Ewer s favorite place (page 59)...

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