Is it one field or more?
Sherwood Fields
I love extra days off of school. It gave me the opportunity to visit two more parks today, and I dragged my bike along again for one of them.
Today's explorations were in Penfield, and my first stop was a park I have never been to before, Sherwood Fields. It's fairly new, having been dedicated only 5 years ago. It's 82 acres big, and located off of Penfield Road adjacent to the East Penfield Fire Hall. You actually have to enter the fire department's driveway to get to the parking lot.
The first thing I noticed, strangely, was that the official sign out front says "Sherwood Field," while all other references I have seen say "Sherwood Fields." It's a minor distinction, but in the end, the Town of Penfield got it right, since I only saw one big field in my travels.
This is a hiking park and pretty much only a hiking park. There are no amenities, no picnic tables or even a "seasonal" restroom (portapotty). The website promised bike-friendly trails, so I unhitched my bike and started exploring.
The map I had was pretty accurate. The trails are not blazed, but they really don't need to be since they only measure 2 miles among them, so you're never going to be too far from anything. The ones marked on the map are wide, flat, and paved with gravel. They are perfect for wheelchairs, small children, running, and cross-country skiing. In places the grave was thick enough that I wouldn't have wanted to make any fast turns, but in general things were fairly smooth. There are a few other trails mowed through the woodlands, but I did not explore them. Instead, I followed a series of trails that encircled the park, a distance of a little less than 1.5 miles.
The trail I took meandered through young woodlands, over a culvert, around a large field (Sherwood Field, I suspect) along something called "Commission Ditch" and over the Donald Cranson Memorial Bridge (pictured below). There were a few benches where you could sit and contemplate life, but nothing else. We're talking simple natural beauty unspoiled, even, by much traffic noise. There were lots of squirrels and birds. It was pretty to ride, and would be even more beautiful to hike.
A kiosk at the trail head provided a bit of background about the park's development. Apparently the land was originally owned by Robert and Polly Sherwood, a couple committed to environment and wildlife rehabilitation. They obtained the land from a housing developer who abandoned plans to build on it, then worked with the Town of Penfield to designate it as open space.
The Donald Cranson Memorial Bridge was built through donations in honor of Cranson, a past president of the Penfield Lions Club and the first chairman of the Penfield Trails Committee.
The gallery below pictures the kiosk at the trail head, a look at the field as the path opens up to it, a bench located at the far end of the field and the peaceful view from the bench.
Harris Whalen Park
Whereas Sherwood Fields has very little to do beside hiking, Harris Whalen offers pretty much everything.
You'll find the park only about a mile or two west of Sherwood Fields on Penfield Road, near the intersection of Rts. 441 and 250, right across the road from Wegmans.
It's really a park with two faces. The lower part of the park, on the right side as you enter the access road, is pretty much dedicated to sports. There are softball and football fields, a basketball court and four nicely maintained tennis courts. There's also a lodge down here with public bathrooms, a playground, and a small sledding hill which slopes down from the upper half of the park.
Drive up the hill towards the town water tower and the north end of the park, you'll find another playground, more bathrooms (yay!), a pavilion, exquisitely manicured bocce ball courts, and a large wooded area replete with trails.
All indications were that these are not hybrid-bike friendly trails, so I decided to explore these trails by foot. Again, map in hand, I chose to connect several trails and loop around the outside reaches of the park, beginning on the blue trail to the west of the water tower.
These trails are well blazed and pretty accurate to the map. There was really only one place where I was a bit confused as to where to go, but that was a minor glitch. What confused me most, however, was when I happened upon a yellow trail that is not on the map. It appeared to be an extension of the yellow connecting trail, the "Myrtle Trail" that is on the map, but continues east from the red trail. It took me to a very busy road which I didn't recognize, especially since I wasn't exactly sure where I was.
Turns out the trail had taken me east to Rt. 250, where there is another parking lot and trail head entrance which I never knew existed. There's actually a sign here which I've never noticed before.
Thanks to the excellent trail markings, I was easily able to find my way back on the route I had planned. All in all, my circular hike measured only about a mile. That tells me that in total, all the trails in Harris Whalen probably extend only two miles or less.
These trails are easy enough to manage, although a little rough in spots, a little steep in spots and not always very wide. There are a few benches placed along the route for resting. There's lots of little animal wildlife, and when I was there today, lots of little human wildlife as well. It's a pretty hike, nice for an afternoon stroll or for something to do while the kids play ball. Harris Whalen is a very nice resource for the Town of Penfield.
