5.7 Mile Run Through Halfmoon Crescent Park & Along the Mohawk Towpath Byway
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
I'm beginning to think winter is upset that it woke up late and is determined to hang in there as long as it can... though at least we haven't been getting the snow that Rochester has.
Almost 15 years ago I did my first Mohawk Towpath Byway Duathlon, and other than a couple of killer hills on the bike course I remember enjoying it a lot. It probably helped that the times I did it we had gorgeous fall days. At that point it was staged at Krause's Grove, a commercial picnic site that was also a former restaurant, plus there had clearly been other structures on the property (cabins, apparently.) At some point the race moved to Riverview Orchards in Rexford. When I drove by Krause's a couple of weeks ago, I saw that the landscape had been cleared and there was obviously early construction going on. A little research revealed that they are finally building a complex of condos/apartments on the site, along with a yacht club and small public park, after years of planning and setbacks. I can't say that I'm thrilled, it's going to make major changes to the viewscape along that part of the river.
I've often thought about running the short path through Halfmoon Crescent Park (I've ridden my bike on it once or twice when I did the south & north river loop) but it's very short - at most a 4 mile round trip if you include the stretch that runs under the Rt 9 bridge. I extended that today by running the short stretch of road between the end of the park and the small parking area near the intersection of Clamsteam Rd and Towpath Rd - that's where I'd typically run to when I run the Towpath east in the Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve.
All told, a fairly pleasant run, bringing back some nice memories of the couple of du's I did out of Krause's... I have to say, though, some seasonably warmer weather would be nice. But at least it wasn't raining like earlier in the day.
JMH
