2014-10-18 42 -78

Location

Slightly northwest of Alden, NY

Participants

Pedalpusher (talk)
Myka the dog

Plans

Going to drive up with Myka and park on the road to the west of the hash. It looks like an old railroad track has been turned into a bike/walking path with a parking lot. Toward the hash though is just an old dirt road so we will head the 1.5 miles in that direction to find the hash.

Expedition

We were aiming to arrive at 16:00 for my first Official Sat Meetup so we headed out at 14:30 to give us time to drive up and then walk to the hash. We arrived at the parking area for the bike path and it turned out that we were actually 2.5 miles away. Unfortunately, the dirt road in the direction we wanted had a "Property of the Town of Alden, No Tresspassing" sign. Fortunately, I saw on the map before we left that on the corner closest to the hash was a church that abutted the trees the hash was by. I decided to check that out and on the way to the church, I saw a snow-mobile right-of-way trail(They set up the signage well before the snow hits). I kept that in the back of my mind as I went to the church parking lot which was completely empty. I didn't really want to stand out in that lot so I went back to the snow-mobile trail. We were about a half mile away(not quite 1 KM) as we walked by a cow pasture next to the road. After the pasture, we kicked out a turkey that let us get surprisingly close. It was in some tall grass though and must not have heard us coming up on it. I couldn't tell if it was a male or female as I was more concerned that Myka was giving chase. As the turkey flew off, Myka realized she had no chance and came back.

Following the curve of the trail, we stayed about a half mile away from the hash and we ended up on that old railroad bed we would have walked down if we parked where we originally wanted to. These snow-mobile trails go through land-owners property who give permission for the trail so there are a lot of Posted signs along the trails. Since there isn't snow yet the trails technically aren't open and some land-owners put up Posted signs blocking access on the trail too. Right when we were getting close(about 0.3 miles or half a KM), the trail was blocked by a simple chain and a No Trespassing sign. Respecting the signs, we headed back and walked the other way down the railroad bed for an extra long walk. There was a stream that went by there as well and I saw an overturned boat in the water. Also, where the tracks used to go over the creek, someone was building a tree-house, but only the frame for the base was set up. There wasn't much else interesting to take pictures of and finishing our walk we headed back to the car and for home.