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.