The Beginning of the End

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We find ourselves in Bath NY, a small town (as in not even big enough to have a Walmart) in the south west corner of the Finger Lake region. This location, as so many of our other sites, have been chosen because it is a good jump off point to a number of places we want to visit while in the region. Typically they are in the range of a number of things, but close to nothing, these camping locations have made for good base camps, though the driving tends to get a bit old.

First let me explain the title of this post. We are at our final camping destination for this trip, the only towing yet to do it toward home. No more campground anxiety as we head to a new destination hoping it’s nice and not a dive, no more new areas to explore, no more tiny house living (worthy of it’s own post actually). This brings up a lot of thoughts and feelings, some quite mixed, I’ll save that however for a post dedicated to the topic.

Originally our plans were to stay here for just five nights then find something part way home to spend the last 3 nights. The kids however really enjoy this campground (they have three pools for the record) so we decided to simply extend our stay and then since we are in range of home, on Tuesday, the five week mark of our trip, drive home. There is more then enough to do in the area so we certainly won’t get bored, in fact no matter how long we’ve stayed in the various stops on our trip we always leave knowing there was a good bit more to have explored and experienced, that’s life though I guess.

Our first day here had us headed to the Keuka Lake Outlet Trail for some biking. It’s always interesting when we head off for a bike ride since we never quite know what to expect in the way of trail conditions and hills (of course that is part of the fun). This trail however turned out to be great. Mostly constructed along what was originally canal tow lines for a canal that connected Seneca Lake to Keuka Lake. This 7.5 mile rail trail had a bit of everything from a trail style standpoint, from paved, to crushed stone, to double track, to even some sections of single track and the odd bridge or two. It made for some fun riding.

The trip was made even more interesting by the small river that flowed along the trail, including remnants of the old canal and several sections where locks used to be present for the canal traffic. About two thirds of the way in we even came across what I can only best describe as a bit of a small ghost town, empty building from old businesses, abandoned mills, and the ruins of numerous other structures. There were some great water falls and at one stop along the river we even met one of the locals, that being a Wolf Spider. Being from Lancaster we are used to seeing Wolf spiders, but there was a difference, these things were about ten times the size!!!! Honestly, I’m not kidding about that, Wendy first saw the spider and then she very quickly recommended we get moving and leave New York forever.

After completing the trail riding to the East we were along the shores of Seneca lake, and though we didn’t stay long it was quite an impressive view. Right near the trail head we also found a fabulous little local ice cream shop where we enjoyed a refreshing treat before biking the 7.5 miles back toward the truck.

 

 

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