Road Trips and Hike Reports

After a mild dry spring, more typical humid warm weather has finally arrived.  We really wanted to get in SOME kind of walk but between the humidity and the reports of lots of mosquitos on some trails, we opted for a more urban walk than we'd normally choose. The trail was a nice experience. We parked on the campus of St. Bonaventure University and walked through campus a bit on the way to the start of the Allegheny River Valley Trail.  The trail started out, unsurprisingly, along the river.  There is quite a bit of growth along the trail so clear views of the river aren't as common as you would think given that the river's edge is often just a handful of feet away from the paved trail.     After our walk we found a wonderful place to eat in downtown Allegany. Why the river and the city have different spellings is beyond me.  Fusion on Main was really delicious and we were literally the only 2 people in their at the late lunch hour we went.  I had Beef Bulgogi tacos and Bri

We originally went to 'Chili Nature Trail' which was a random find on Google Maps.  The trailhead and parking area exist but they are bizarrely located at the end of an apartment complex access road.  Even the street sign for the road is clearly a private road type sign.  This awkward access probably contributes to what I'm guessing is very low visitation because the trail looked pretty overgrown and 'ticky'.   I went fishing in Google again from the parking lot of the Chili nature trail and when I saw the GCVM I suggested it to Brian immediately because we were only about 6 miles away and it isn't open all year round and, to be honest, despite gorgeous mild and exceptionally low humidity weather, my enthusiasm for a big hike was low. There weren't very many cars at the parking lot when we arrived which was nice.  Admission seemed steep at almost 20 dollars per adult.  Thankfully, the scope, scale and quality of the village made it seem like a great value.