It progresses northward from NY 224 as the two-lane Mecklenburg Road, crossing nearby railroad tracks and entering a more pronounced rural area north of town.

The road gradually curves to the northeast, passing by brief wooded areas on its way into the hamlet of Catharine, where NY 228 intersects with County Route 10 (CR 10).

Just outside Catharine, NY 228 begins to parallel the western shoreline of nearby Cayuta Lake, which ends about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of the community.

[1] Outside of Mecklenburg, the road crosses more rural areas in the town of Hector as it heads generally northeastward along Taughannock Creek and approaches the Tompkins County line.

[5] The section of pre-1921 Route 46 between Mecklenburg and Perry City went unnumbered until the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York,[6] when it became part of NY 79.