2021-01-24 42 -78

Location

Off Wolf Run Road on the edge of Allegany State Park

Participants

Pedalpusher
J
Simon the dog
Myka the dog

Plans

If yesterday's plans are a success, this should be a Consecutive Hash. The Lockport Hash is also near J's apartment and appears accessible so I may walk her through downloading the HashApp on her phone on Saturday. She sounded interested in going to that hash for me when we talked on Friday and would attempt that before coming back to my place in the morning. The plan would then be to drive down to Allegany in the late morning to get to this (the Buffalo Hash) and in this case would be a Double-Hash for J! Simon will definitely come with us, but I'll have to check the snow reports in the morning. It might be too cold/deep for Myka.

Our local (American) Football team is deep into the Playoffs with a game in the evening we are planning on watching. If we win this one, we'll go to the Superbowl! It's pretty exciting (and I'll admit kind of stressful; we have a wretched history). Go Bills!

Expedition

After J's rough morning (see her earlier Geohash here), she met me at my house only a half hour later than planned. We talked about her expedition while we made some lunch to bring with us and got ready to go. I figured the snow shouldn't be too bad by Allegany, so we brought Myka as well. The drive down was uneventful but we found the road by the hash without any trouble. Even better, the parking area across from where that road ended at Route 280 was plowed. Howestly, we could have driven down the final road too, but we wanted to hike.

Getting to the closest spot on the road, we hadn't seen any posted signs for a while and were able to find open woods on a moderate slope to the hash. Right as we were approaching the hash area, I wasn't sure if I was going to have to cross a short but steep cliff where a creek was working away at the land. At the last moment, I turned uphill again and avoided that area.

Telling J to hang on, I worked the circles of the GPS dance to finally get a good reading and a few pictures. Once we were back on the road, we broke out our lunches and decided to keep walking down the road to see where it would go. A little further on, there was a Welcome to Allegany State Park sign and eventually a gate (open) with a Road Closed sign. Along the way, we saw narrow, triangular concrete posts in the woods. They said 'NY' at the top on one side, but we didn't know what they were for. There is a short square marker in the park on one of the trails marking the NY/PA border, but these weren't quite the same. The road kept going but we turned around after walking to the next bend in the road after the gate.

All in all, it was a beautiful day and we walked for around 4 miles. The snow was just over ankle deep so unfortunately we didn't get to use the snowshoes. As it was, this is a Consecutive Hash for me (see the link to yesterday's hash in the Planning Section) and a Double Hash for J!

Getting home, I prepared some pizza, cracked open a couple beers and we watched the Buffalo Bills lose their Conference Championship game. :( No Superbowl this year, but at least things are looking up after nearly 20 years of really crappy records.

Photos

Right where we entered the woods, we found these old chairs falling apart.
Made it!
Accuracy.
After completing the GPS dance, I looked up and everyone was just hanging out waiting for me...
And then we got pictures of everyone. Myka was caught mid-woof as she let out a bark of excitement.
Plus our Stupid Grins as well.
View East (uphill) from the Hash.
View West, back toward the Road.
Definitely a Frozen Hash.
On the way back to the road, I found this old bird nest.
Walking along the road again, a nice view across the small valley we were walking up.
One of the many concrete posts.