Saturday December 19th - Lytle Nature Preserve and Erie Canal walk - Near Lockport NY - 6 miles, almost no elevation gain

 We wanted to make sure I got some exercise on this day because I was going to be dropped off at an airport near the Rochester Airport at the end of the day for very early flights to Oregon Sunday.  I had been hoping to get Brian out with me on a group walk and this one was about as close to Rochester as the Buffalo based Foothills Trail Club ever gets. 

I really enjoy the club hikes because this club in particular often goes on relatively obscure hikes in places I wouldn't discover on my own.  In this case, the Erie canal and its associated trail are very well known and we're already been to Lockport and looked at the eponymous lock downtown.  But this hike started 4 or 5 miles from downtown and I would never have known about the nature preserve across the access road.  Our group leader, Carol, started by walking us on a 2 mile loop through the Lytle nature preserve.  It was snowy and pastoral feeling and we went through the most densely treed part of it instead of walking through or around the fields.





After the loop through the preserve we walked out and back on the Erie Canal trail.  It was pretty much just our little group walking since this was an obscure part of the canal not near town.  There isn't a lot to say about the canal portion of the walk since it's arrow straight and flat and at this time of year most of the water is drained out of the canal.

It was a perfectly serviceable and enjoyable walk and the weather was perfect since it was just cold enough to keep everything dry but there was no wind.  On the way home we tried eating at Miller's bulk grocery and deli, an Amish grocery store near Medina.  It was fun to look around in and a very good value but the deli food itself was a little plain.


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