Saturday December 12th - Whiting Road Nature Preserve - Webster NY (suburban Rochester) - 2.9 miles

 When we arrived at this park around 10 am on a cloudy cool Saturday we were surprised to see cars parked along the road, seemingly overflowing the modest parking lot.  I was worries we might be in for a people and pets filled walk.  This hike was from the Easy Hikes near Rochester book we were given as a gift.  The hook for this hike was that it was described as having a large variety of different terrains in a small area.

As we started walking along the Blue trail we soon started following functions for the other trails, all of which were meticulously marked with color coded and worded signs.  The first mile of the hike was kind of underwhelming.  A mowed path led around 3 sides of a field which is an experience you can have at a dozen different hikes within 20 miles of our home.  Then, suddenly, the field gave way to a beautiful forest with interesting contours including the narrow ridge where the trail was with a bowl like depression next to it.  After this section was a wetter section with brush on both sides of the trail and a small pond and some wetland plants on one side. 

Thankfully, we figured out that many of the cars in the parking lot were probably related to the group men on mountain bikes that passed by us at one point.  We saw almost nobody else on the rest of our walk except one woman with a dog on the other side of a field.  Overall it was an average suburban walk with 1 extra beautiful section in the middle.  The trails were really well marked and I'm sure we could make many different loops if we revisit.

Pictures by Brian.













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