Twice is nice in Perinton
Today was a two-park day, due to lucky confluence of two factors: incredibly gorgeous, sunny and warm weather, and adequate time on my hands to explore two parks.
Spring Lake Park
My first stop was Spring Lake Park in Perinton, just south of the Penfield town line off of Whitney Road. It encompasses a little more than 40 acres, and features two softball fields, picnic tables and grills, a nice playground. Some benches and shaded swings, and bathrooms. Despite its name, there is no lake at Spring Lake Park. But it does hug the Irondequoit Creek which flows north to south through this area.
There’s very little official information about this park online. The Perinton Parks Department simply links to a 10-station Walking Tour brochure which was created by one Abigail Istvan, who apparently did this as a project in association with her studies at Michigan State University. (You can download the brochure here: http://perinton.org/Departments/Parks/Springlake). I don't know how long ago it was completed or how recently it was updated.
So I was armed with this brochure when I reached the park. I parked in the lot closest to Whitney Road, and started walking around the outside of the park, near the creek, searching for the walking tour starting point.
I never was able to find Station 1. Nor could I find Stations 3, 5 or 8. It’s possible the posts are no longer there, or they are hidden in the thick underbrush. It’s also possible that they were located closer to the creek and we’re supposed to go down some of the thin paths to find them. If so, that wasn't clear.
There were a lot of those little paths leading from the large meadow down to the creek. But undergrowth is threatening to take over most of them, and I worried that poison ivy was abundant. Given that I was wearing shorts, I didn't want to take any chances. When I did make it down to the creek, however, it was a beautiful and peaceful sight.
The walking tour (what there is of it) measures a little less than a half mile, north to south along the west side of the park.
Once I reached the end of the walking tour (Station 10 was there so I knew it was the end) I continued south along Spring Lake Road, where the park opens up again with a large meadow, a second sports field and large parking lot. It’s not a dedicated dog park back here, but there were at least six dogs there, romping in the park and splashing in the creek.
The skinny creek trail continues to circumscribe this area, hugging Irondequoit Creek as it bends east. Once again, this trail is iffy. Sometimes it’s wide enough to comfortably hike along the creek. Other times it’s so overgrown you have to pop back into the meadow.
Following the creek (on the trail or in the meadow), and then turning north back to the parking lot when you hit the park boundary will take you almost a half mile.
The photos below show you 1) the playground specially designed for tiny tots, a nice view of the creek, and Station 6 on the Walking Tour. It seems to invite you down to the creek, but most of the other stations were not so obvious, or were nonexistent.
Fellows Road Park
This is another BIG park.
Fellows Road Park lies at the corner of Fellows Road and Whitney Road, just three miles east of Spring Lake Park. It’s 33 acres in size, and is pretty much a sports-lover’s dream park. There are lighted tennis courts, a tennis wall, basketball courts, soccer fields, shuffleboard, horseshoe, handball and volleyball courts, and three nicely groomed softball fields with bleachers (a tournament was going on when I was there). Plus there’s lots of extra space for pick-up football and Ultimate Frisbee games. There are playgrounds for tots and elementary kids, restrooms, picnic tables with grills and picnic shelters.
There are no hiking trails here, but there is a very nice one-mile long, 11-station fitness and jogging trail which circumscribes the park.
The photos show the playground, one of the fitness trail stations, and a softball game being played on one of the park's beautiful fields.
