I have a friend of mine near the Oneida/Verona area.  I'd like to go out there to visit him sometime, spend the night and the next day do some hiking/camping.  Are there any state parks or other places like that nearby which would offer a good, strenuous hike and I could camp out for the night with a fire and the whole deal (I don't want cabins or any of that foo-foo shit)?

Ah memories,,,Sylvan Beach , Lake Oneida,,
try   http://visitnewyorkstate.net/oneida/
best place to find what you are looking for.
Oneida ,as all SUNY 's MAYFEST were great.

isnt lake oneida the most polluted lake in NY ? .. if not the US ? .. full of mercury etc etc ? ..

Well I went to that web page and it's all tourist crap.

This is one of the hardest things I find when trying to find info on camping online.  You type in, "Camping" into a search engine and you get back a bunch of places to park your RV, or places that have hot & cold running water and cabins with king-sized matresses and shit.

Instead of wading through all that stuff on http://visitnewyorkstate.net/oneida/, can anyone tell me state parks, directions, whatever, where I can drive up, park my car, hike for a few miles, roll out for the night by a fire, shit in a hole that I dug in the ground and then leave the next day without ever seeing another person?  I could use some time alone in the woods.  Does the Oneida area offer that, or do I have to go to the Allegheny National Forests in PA for that sort of thing?

-Nick Viejo.

Quoted: isnt lake oneida the most polluted lake in NY ? .. if not the US ? .. full of mercury etc etc ? ..

That would be Onondaga Lake....just a few short miles south of Oneida Lake.

Hey Nick, you won't be far (couple hours+/-)from the Adirondacks or the Tug Hill region.

Finger Lakes Nat'l Forest.. It's between Seneca and Cayuga lakes.  Don't know how far that is from your target, but it;s about 10-15 minutes from Watkins Glen, has some nice secluded campsites, fire rings, and a few good hiking trails.  My girl and I spent a weekend up there, only to awake Saturday morning to a marathon being run through our campsite.  Don't expect that happens too often though ;)

ITS NOT MUCH BUT ITS RIGHT NEXT TO A 3500 ACRE STATE FOREST AND NO ONE WILL BOTHER YOU THERE. CAMP ON MY LITTLE PIECE OF THE EARTH IN HERKIMER CTY. NORTH OF COOPERSTOWN. JUST OFF OF RT 80 EAST OF VAN HORNSEVILLE. EMAIL ME FOR DIRECTIONS.

Here's a link for camping in Herkimer County.
http://www.herkimerdiamond.com/h-koa.html

And for Oneida County:
http://www.trailend.com/