Easter this year is April 21st, which as Easter holidays goes is one of the latest possible dates. I am thinking about making Easter week my first big trip of the year, as by then the snow should be gone in most parts of the state, and the weather moderated to the point where the average high most days is around 60 degrees. While it’s likely that the leaves won’t be on the trees, and the mud-season closed roads will still be closed, the weather is likely to be quite pleasant this time of year.

Usually my employers give off Good Friday, and it’s usually a relatively quiet week in the office, so I could take off Wednesday and Thursday, and have a four or five night, five-day trip if I returned back on Sunday. An easy option would be to go out to Madison County, possibly on that Tuesday night after work, camp at Cherry Ridge State Forest, then head out Stony Pond State Forest for a few nights. I do a bunch of trout fishing on the Cazenovia Creek and some of the other local creeks out that way, and do some hiking, assuming it’s not too muddy.

Another option I’ve thought about that would be nice, but a much longer drive is to head up to the North Country, around Malone and Massena. I’ve talked about doing that as a trip for years, but it has yet to happen. It’s kind of a long drive, and I really don’t like having to drive that far, and some of those roads up around Massena are pretty rough and can be kind of muddy in the spring. I also worry about getting stranded for some reason and that very remote country. But the Deer River looks like it would be a blast to fish. Plus I haven’t been up that way in a long, long time.

I am two and half months out from this trip but I should continue to think about my options and plan for my adventure. Could be a very nice kick-off to a nice spring trip before all the black flies are out and biting away.