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Catharine Valley Trail

c/o Watkins Glen State Park

P.O. Box 304

Watkins Glen, NY 14891

607-535-4511

Services: B,M,O,Y,BB

Friends walk along the Catharine Valley Trail on a cool day in spring in the Finger Lakes, New York, USA.

Named for a local Indian Chieftess, the Catharine Valley Trail (CVT) is a work in progress. When completed, it will run 12 mi./19.3 km. from Mark Twain State Park in the Town of Veteran (Chemung County) at the southern end through the Catharine Valley to Seneca Lake in Watkins Glen (Schuyler County) at the northern end.

Looking out over Catharine marsh to the southern end of Seneca Lake and the US Salt refinery on a hot, hazy, summer day in the Finger Lakes, New York, USA.

Designed to be a year-round recreation trail, it will provide visitors with the opportunity to experience the scenic beauty and historic charm of this glacially-carved region. Following abandoned railroad and canal towpath corridors, the trail passes through a variety of wildlife habitats. The compact stone-dust trail surface accommodates walking, jogging, bicycling, birding, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing. Pets must be leashed.

As of 15 June 2008, the only part that is really open is between the CVT parking lot on South Genesee Street in the Town of Montour and the Millport post office at the intersection of State Route 14 and Burch Hill Road in the Town of Veteran. This is a distance of about 13 mi./21 km. round trip.

An informative sign at the beginning of the trail on South Genesee Street in the Town of Montour in the Finger Lakes, New York, USA.

Here is a description of what you will find. (You can park at either end. This description assumes you are parking at the north end.) If you park at the South Genesee Street parking area on the north side of the road, the trail starts on the south side. Once you cross the road, you immediately have the Follow these signs along the Catharine Valley Trail in the Finger Lakes, New York, USA. choice of going slightly to the right on the main trail or to the left on a .5 mi./.8 km. spur. Both are interesting, but birders should definitely check out the spur. This runs along a wet area. Here the trees are tall with few low branches. Below the trees is a dense undergrowth of non-native bushes (honeysuckle, multiflora rose, privet, etc.), and the wet area that is mostly cattails.

Back on the main trail, this section runs through a moist woods for 4.5 mi./7.2 km. The trail is high above the Catharine Creek with the dense woods on your right and the steep wooded slope to the creek on your left. The trail is great for beginners as it is marked for distance every quarter mile and has a wooden bench about every half mile. In the late spring and early summer you will see a wide variety of wildflowers and ferns, especially maidenhair fern. Birds abound. You should be able to see a wide variety of warblers, thrushes, and vireos, as well as catbirds, cardinals, orioles, red-winged blackbirds, grackles, and some hawks and owls.

The stone-dust trail ends at New Road. Follow this south to the bottom of the hill (about .5 mi./.8 km.). Here it is named Lewis Street, and you are in the village of Millport. At the intersection of Lewis and Maple streets there is a sign indicating that the CVT turns left. If you turn here, you will go to the Millport CVT parking area at the village park along the Catharine Creek, definitely a nice spot to visit and eat your lunch, but this is not the trail. In order to continue on the trail, you must go straight from Lewis Street onto Morris Hill Road for about .5 mi./.8 km. The trail then goes off through the woods on your left for a short ways, over State Route 14, then along a short paved trail to the Millport post office where there is also parking.

Bridge over State Route 14 in the Town of Veteran along the Catherine Valley Trail in the Finger Lakes, New York, USA.