Szuchie's Grand Escape...: In-Blog Product Placement: Genesee Valley Greenway Trail

Wow, I’m really behind on blogging…thankfully as I write this, there’s 6 or so inches of heavy foul looking snow laying on top of the world outside so… I suppose what I’m saying is: I’m not in jeopardy of getting any farther behind in blogging. Haha.

Last Saturday (3/19/2011) I had a zero day. With weekend zeros, I usually like to expand my caching radius and head to places a little farther out. That way I’m not picking off the low hanging fruit that come in handy when I need to eradicate a mid-week zero close to home. With this disturbingly logical and well thought out strategy in mind, I decided to head towards Leicester to play along the Genesee Valley Greenway Trail. The Greenway (hereafter referred to in a leisurely inconsistent way as the “GW”) is a nearly 90 mile hiking trail that starts in Rochester, New York and runs in a southwest direction ending up somewhere around Hinsdale, New York. It’s about as level a walk as you’ll find seeing as it was built on a rails-to-trails. The rail that the trail was built on, was itself built on segments of the Genesee Valley Canal. The Canal, in turn, was built upon portions of a trail established and utilized by the Native Americans. Ain’t it funny how things like that come full circle? For more fun info check out the Friends of the Genesee Valley Greenway.

Anyway, the trail itself is nice – and while some spots can be a little boring – other sections are tremendously scenic and secluded. In some sections, you’ll discover kiosks that explain the history of the area, and in Oakland, NY there are segments of the old canal system that you can view and check out. History abounds on this trail – and as such – my ultimate plan was to enjoy a few miles hiking along it.

There were three caches on my itinerary today. They were:

Get the spot out by Howie and Jan
Gone Buggy On The Greenway! by the Malone Family
Canal House by Howie and Jan

All of them were nicely done – inevitably ending with ammocan hides along the trail. The one thing you will find in ample supply along the GW is poison ivy. That stuff is everywhere, and in some sections you’d be hard-pressed to find a tree without a vine or two running up it. Yuck – you can keep that junk Mother Nature – I loathe it! Although a couple years ago I became pretty good at identifying what it looked like (after spending 25-plus years of playing in it and suffering the merciless consequences). So now I keep a close eye out – especially when I’m playing on trails where I know the rubbish is everywhere!

After I was done finding my caches, laying waste to another zero day and returning safe and sound to my vehicle, I decided to visit some geo-friends of mine. The first stop was Brogan’s in fun-filled Warsaw, New York. Brogan is a character...and by mentioning him, it makes me wonder if I should do a run-down of my geo-friends…hmmm… Anyways, after spending time at the Brogan Ranch, I headed to Castile to visit Paleoman. He was out in the man-cave smashing rocks. He’s a flintknapper. He's a geocacher. He's a cavemen. Clearly there’s a lot to say about P-Man…so I’ll hold of on that for another day.

All in all, this was a phenomenal day! And of course, pictures...