Simply nature
I had only a few hours to spend on this particular explore-the-park trip, so I threw my bike in the car in hopes that the two Perinton parks I had chosen for the day would be amenable to bikers. They were -- sort of.
Howell Road Park
Howell Road Park is actually one park split down the middle, north to south, by Howell Road. Some maps still refer to these as Howell Road Park West and Howell Road Park East. My Mapworks atlas confuses things even moreso by labeling the park "Normandie Park," which an online source says is a future park site that the Town of Perinton plans to develop.
I parked in a lot located just north of #202 Howell Road, and bike in hand, tackled the west-side section first, entering from a right-of-way off the north side of Princeton Lane. It's not well marked, but clear enough when you know where to look, in between 6 Princeton and 8 Princeton. The access dumps you into a meadow dotted with large pine trees, and I had a hard time finding the marked trail. I see now from the map that I didn't go north far enough. I should have ridden straight through the meadow area and into the thicker woods. I eventually did find the trail, and had a nice time riding through the grassy area in the meantime.
I returned to the parking lot, where three trailheads for the eastern half of the park can be found. I actually took my lead from a letterbox clue, and entered the park via an access road behind #202's barn.
I'm beginning to think I'm not very good at following trail maps after all, because I was riding around in circles on this set as well. There were blazes and arrow signposts on both sides, but I had a hard time matching them up with my map. No matter; I knew I was never very far from civilization and when I wanted to make sure I was heading back to the parking lot, I used my handy dandy phone compass app.
The main trails (the ones on the map) are mostly fairly wide and flat and sometimes go through those meadow areas. Off the beaten path, the trails are trickier, especially on a bike. This park is part of Perinton's Wegmans Passport to Family Wellness program, and in the booklet it says the trails measure about 1.25 miles. Thanks to my getting lost and my back-and-forthing trying to locate the trails, I managed to ride almost 3 miles. But it only took about a half hour, thanks to the bike.
This is still a mostly undeveloped park. There isn't even an identifying sign. There are no picnic facilities, bathrooms, trash receptacles, playgrounds, etc. Just good hiking. The gallery below show a selection of trail views. Most of them are from the actual trail, although I can't attest that al of them are. The map posted on one of the trail junctions might have helped a bit ... if it had been complete.
Beechwoods Park
Beechwoods Park is a 22.8-acre passive park located not far from Howell Road Park, just north of Rt. 31F, in the Squirrel's Heath neighborhood. I had even less luck following the trail markings in here than I did at Howell Road.
My first mistake was trying to access the park from the north via the High Street Extension trailhead. There is a parking lot there, and the trailhead is obvious. But shortly after you enter the woods, the trail comes to a T. Turn left or right here and you go directly into neighborhoods. It was very confusing. Only later, when I approached that part of the trail from a different direction, did I realize that I could have actually continued straight at that T, but the trail was not clearly labeled.
Only when I looked back at the trail description on the Wegmans Passport did I remember that they did NOT recommend accessing the park from that trail. Once on it, I understood why. It is narrow and clogged with roots. It's not an extremely easy trail to travel by foot, and even more challenging by bike.
After riding aimlessly in those neighborhoods for about a half mile, I packed up my bike and did what the passport told me to do -- park on Squirrel's Heath. The parking lot is smaller here, but the trail much easier to navigate.
The southernmost section of trail is a loop trail which is mostly wider and easy to hike (or ride). There are blazes on the trees, and if I had been more conscientious about following them on the map, I might have had better luck. The total length of the trails is a little over a mile, and I wound up riding most of that (including retracing my steps on the northern trail).
Like Howell Road, this is a beautiful undeveloped natural area good for hiking but not much else. It's a peaceful green space tucked into a suburban neighborhood.
