2021-02-28 42 -78

Location

At the old Bethlehem Steel site near the corner of Lincoln Ave and Beech St

Participants

Pedalpusher

Expedition

Around noon, the girlfriend and I took the dogs to Genesee County Park and Forest for Simon's 11th Winter Hiking Challenge with just one more hike to complete for him to be a Completionist!

I knew this hash would not be accessible, but being close to the city, I still wanted to go and check this out. A couple years ago, there was a huge fire here and I drive by the site every time I go into the city. It'll be interesting to stop here and get a better view of it. I remember taking the dogs out in the backyard in Hamburg (about 8 miles south) that morning and looking to the west and just seeing these really dark clouds where it looked like a big storm was rolling in off the lake, but it was actually the smoke from this fire. The buildings at this site are massive and they said a Million Square Feet (almost 100,000 Square Meters) Building was totally burned out. I have a hard time understanding the size of that, but being able to see the smoke from miles away provides the start of comprehending the magnitude...

After a very nice walk through the woods, I dropped J off at her car near South Buffalo (we didn't want to take two cars all the way out there), and then headed for this hash. Using my Phone GPS, I was able to easily find my way and parked on Beech Street before walking over to the fence. It's hard to tell, but the site is missing an entire building that used to stand near the hash. After the fire, they tore down most of it, but you can still see some of the foundation and parts of some of the walls (near the main road). Because of the fence, I could only get within 50 feet, but as I was walking back to the car, my phone must have had a degradation of the signal and with the expanded Circle of Uncertainty, actually said I made it. However, with the fence between me and the hash, I won't claim it. Also, it was so brief, I didn't get a screenshot of it anyway.

Photos

Walking up to the fence, a view of the hash. Should be on the pavement, just past the grass.
As close as I could get...
A better view, the building in this picture is actually the next building over from the one that burned.
View East, you can see the back of the building remaining.
And West, a small front section of the wall near the main road. The rest of the building was removed after the fire.
The corner by the hash with a view of the Hash-mobile.