Road Trips and Hike Reports

We'd been to this surprisingly large city park once before but I think we took a different and longer route this time.  Summer's grip has finally released in our area and it was great to have a really substantial long walk without being totally worn out from heat or humidity. This park is really exceptional.  Despite being minutes from the 104 expressway and just minutes from all kinds of big box stores and other suburban stuff, it is quiet and natural feeling.  We started walking through the tall grass, almost Savannah-like fields.  After circling the large field there was a very quick and dramatic scenery change from open field to very woodsy.  Most of the hike was woodsy and partially shaded.  While there weren't any really big hills, there were lots of modest ups and downs that dded up over the course of the 7 mile long walk. It was a really good day.  

This hike was from a different starting point than another hike we did previously, the Erie-Attica  trail but it connected back to the far point of that trail.  I didn't have a published guide for finding this starting point but I looked closely at Alltrails maps and it looked like there was a trailhead for something labeled 'Genessee Valley Greenway State Park' which I think, technically, is the entire 90 mile trail but I wasn't sure if maybe there was a special facility at the spot Alltrails shows... I  In hindsight I don't think there is anything special where that map marking is but it was still a rewarding adventure.  There was a small parking area along W River road.  From there we headed south along the trail.  A lot of it was very typical generic greenway stuff..     But later it got a lot more interesting with 2 good sized bridges. One of them was fascinating because the level we walked on (which is level with the trailbed) was actually t...

Our friend Jim was in town visiting from Vermont.  Despite the lousy cold weather we did make it out for a little walk along the Ontario Pathway which runs along Flint Creek.  Not much to report, it was just a nice little leg stretcher.  

We last visited this trail January 10th, 2021 .  Hard to believe it's been almost 4 years, it seemed pretty familiar.  One thing that was different this time is that the creek had a LOT of water in it.  The falls were really roaring and impressive.  Today was slightly warmer (or rather, less cold) than the past week but the trail was still firm and frozen.

This was more enjoyable than I expected it would be.  We walked up one long ridge and then made a little loop at the end of it before walking back along the bottom of the same hill.  It felt natural and forested even though it's really quite suburban.

Just another chance to get a qualifying hike in after work.  Once time falls back an hour this will be nearly impossible for months.  Scenery and conditions were very good as was the tranquility on this Halloween afternoon.

I'm mot remembering exactly why we ended up at this hike.  I think I just wanted something that wasn't super far away since we didn't get a good early start to the day. The trail network at this park is pretty extensive  At some points we were along creeks, at other points it was a lot of mowed paths with wetland brush on both sides.  I wouldn't say it was the most remarkably scenic area but the park is large and you can put together whatever size walk you need there. The park was very clean and I appreciated that the roads almost all had a little trail that paralleled them but on the other side of a brush hedge so it never felt like you were walking along a road.