Don has shared several historical references about the Genesee Valley Canal.  Don hiked with us at Ganondagan last week and was pleased to note that some of our history buffs enjoyed sharing the history of where we were hiking.

This Sunday the Tourists will follow a portion of the Genesee Valley Canal route as it passes through Letchworth Park.  Don suggested two specific books:

Wyoming County, New York  Images of our Past by Mark Herman. published 1991 by the Donning Company Publishers, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

History of Allegany County by Beers, F. W., New York, 1879.

There is a article on the canal history written by James Warlick available from the Rochester Library website.  Please check the picture I found on the “Geography of New York” website.  It shows the canal that we saw on the Finger Lakes Trail – Letchworth Branch this summer.

My thanks to Don for the reminders of all of the history in our area.  I hope the Springwater Trails hikes will continue to trigger the sharing of this history.

On Sunday nine of us gathered at the Buckley Farm to preview a proposed section of the Springwater Trail and the enjoy the view of Honeoye Lake.  The weather definitely cooperated with us and we all enjoyed the walk.

This walk was definitely not on a fully prepared trail.  We encountered Spruce trees that needed many branches to be trimmed, and underbrush that could grab your pants leg, or scratch your face.  Dena survived when I let go of a tree caught on my backpack just as she stepped into the target spot.  After that Pati warned everyone to spread out when we bushwacked through trees.

We parked on Thorp Road.  Don and I shared some emails about which maps call it Thorp and which call it Thorpe.  Bing calls it Thorpe, which is also what the road sign says.  Google and the Town maps call it Thorp which matches the family name in the area.  The moral is, don’t completely rely on any one spelling of road names.

There is a nice knoll where we parked, that would certainly make a great trail head for the Springwater Trail.  From there we followed the mowed trail across the field and up the hill. About half way up, we turned into the spruce woods, finding a path to Warner Rd.  Across the road, we found a Red Pine woods that adjoined the potato field at the top of the hill.  We stayed just inside the woods, trying to avoid some of the briars that we will want to cut for a trail.  At the north end of the property we exited from the woods onto the field path and enjoyed a nice walk east across the fields with a view to the left of Honeoye valley and straight ahead to the Naples/Canandaigua valley.

A short walk back across the top of the hill on Warner Rd (Garlinghouse Rd) brought us to a open field above Thorp Rd.  We proceeded down a fairly steep hill to the cars.  We will need a switch back on this hill, especially if it were wet and the leaves had been slippery.  John demonstrated his gymnastics coming down one steep spot.  We all made back to the cars with all limbs intact.

I wanted to share Char’s picture of the old harvester – it looked like a paddle boat traveling through the leaves.  And I will end with a picture of Gene walking through the Spruce Trees.