Friday, July 6, 2007
Penfield Parks Trails info (includes links to trail maps)
Wegmans Passport to Family Wellness program
photo slideshow
While Ann was waiting for me to run the Yellowjacket Powerbar trail race a month ago, she wandered around the displays at the Adirondack Outdoor Expo. Among the items she came back with were two "Wegmans Passport to Family Wellness" booklets. Apparently Wegmans and Penfield Parks have teamed up to encourage folks to get outdoors and hike some of the Penfield parks. At each of the 13 parks there's a post with an identifying plaque; when you hike those particular trails, you can make a rubbing of the plaque in the booklet. Six rubbings earns you a T-shirt; ten gets you a chance to win a catered picnic. So today we headed over to Penfield to take a few nice walks in the woods and fields, and in the end visited a whopping five of the thirteen eligible parks...
The Channing H. Philbrick Park Trail - Ann and I have been here several times already, back when it was called Linear Park. The trail goes in two directions along the Irondequoit Creek. We started out by hiking upstream from the pedestrian bridge, which goes predominately uphill and past several small waterfalls and remnants of old mills. Further along the trail goes onto an island, which is now much easier to reach due to a new bridge. We hiked almost to the other side of the island, where the trail loops back around, but turned back before then due to greater and greater amounts of poison ivy along the path. On the way back we watched a four-point buck wandering and munching his way through the brush a ways off the path. After returning to the trailhead at the pedestrian bridge, we headed downstream to walk across the stream from a tall sandstone cliff. The cliff is pretty cooled - pocked with holes that birds use to nest in - and while we were there I watched a group of ducks making their way up through the rapids so they could have an easy time feeding in the relatively calm pools above them. trail map (PDF)
The Honey Creek Trail - this trail actually heads steeply uphill from the path heading upstream along the Irondequoit Creek, so we checked it out on our return journey from the island. We only hiked part of the trail, uphill almost to the top of the ridge where the Wegmans Passport marker is. From there it looked like the trail just headed along the ridge and out to the road, so we headed back downhill to continue our walk in the Channing Philbrick Park. trail map (PDF)
The Irondequoit Creek Panorama Plaza Trail - this trail runs from the Channing Philbrick Park along the Irondequoit Creek to Panorama Plaza. Ann and I walked the entire path about a year and a half ago - parts were very nice, and parts ran behind the Panorama Trail?Penfield Road shopping centers and were less so. Rather than walk the entire path, today we hiked down to the Rt 441 overpass, where we had seen some fairly large fish on a previous visit (no such luck today.) Then we returned to the car and drove over to the trailhead behind Tops supermarket, where the Wegmans Passport marker is, and walked a little ways down the trail.
The Harris Whalen Park Trails - by the time we finished the first two walks I was feeling pretty fried, so we stopped at the Wegmans supermarket across from the road to Harris Whalen park. A brief stroll through the air conditioned store, plus a nice cold Diet Coke and some chips, went a long way toward refreshing me, and we headed up the hill to Harris Whalen Park. Fortunately the trails here were through the woods, so after finding the Wegmans Passport marker we spent a while wandering along the pleasantly shady trails. It's a small park, so we weren't there for very long, but it was still a nice walk on some trails we hadn't visited before. trail map (PDF)
The Ellison Park South Trail - Ellison Park is one of the larger parks in the Penfield group, and this was a nice trail to visit. Downhill through a ravine all the way to the southern half of the park, and cool and shady. The path followed a stream which is crossed several times on wooden bridges. Really the only minus to the walk down was dodging three mountain bikers who were tearing down the hill... apparently these guys aren't familiar with the mountain biking code of conduct that requires riders to yield to all other trail users. At the bottom we walked through the park for a little bit (mainly to find a restroom) and then headed back up. The slope was fairly gradual and much easier than I expected it to be from our trip down the hill. All in all, it seems like a good trail for running... I'll have to check the trail maps for Ellison and see what the options are for linking that trail up with some others for a decent-length run. trail map (PDF)
All told, a good way to spend a summer afternoon, visiting three places we'd been before and two we hadn't. I'm looking forward to walking some of the other paths in the Penfield trail system this summer!
JMH
