Rolling Around The Green Country Side

 

Post #16: Well I spent my 43rd birthday in my hometown.  So I thought it would be a good idea to go pedal through the Carlton Hill area of Western New York.  That area is special to me as I use to hunt the state land as a kid with my Pa. 

    The first picture is from Kingsley road, and in a cooperative hunting area.  A big lush woods is to the left.  The pavement in this area is a lot of chip and seal.  Growing up some of these roads were hard dirt roads. I think what use to occur was it would be chip and seal and they would let it go.  A layer of dirt would build up, then they would chip and seal again.  Now with more houses being built in the area, it is staying chip and seal.  

    I started my ride after 11am, and it was between storms.  So the corn was shooting up and I could feel the fields breathing and the humidity increasing.  It was shaping up to be a juicy ride.  What I did learn is that big trucks wave on the country roads and give a wide birth, and well compact crossovers, maintain their lane on the back roads.  

    The ride proved to remind me of how much I do not remember. I hoped on Moose road over to Bank Road.  Bank Road is kind of the spine to the Carlton Hill area.  I road down that on top of the hill, and I saw a beaver house with a damn from the road.  I saw a late season fawn.  It was the size of a large Labrador dog in height.  I also saw a bald eagle perched on a tree.  I spent the ride, spinning and taking in the sights and smells.  

    I arrived at the southern end of Bank Road, and turned east up Kelly Road.  As I pedaled up Kelly, I wondered how the asphalt sticked to the hill.  I did have the choice to go down, but at the steep base there is a stop sign.  So pick your poison.  

    I noodled around northern Warsaw, then made my way back to Middlebury via the small little place called Dale.  Dale is kind of a local joke about the size other post office.    

    As I passed through Dale a train came by on the tracks heading north.  Growing up that train use to be Chessie (C&O) Train. The yellow train with red and black stripes with the cat head logo.  Now the engine was a Norfolk Southern engine.  Things change over a span of 22 years I guess.  I like the Chessie engine better as a kid.  Not gonna lie as a boy sitting in a Buick Regal watching the train engine go by with a cartoonish cat logo on it spoke to me.  Plus it was a colorful engine.      

    So with my time spinning along the tracks on the road, I turned my bike east and passed from Wyoming County into Genesee County, and I passed through Linden, NY.  Well Iowa has their Viscilla Axe murders, and Western New York has their Linden Murders.   I linked a newspaper article, the series of murders is pretty unique in America.  Meanwhile I got to the Rolling Hills Asylum, and from there I went back to Wyoming County and headed home.

       I can yammer on for longer and talk about Pearl Creek (Crik) and how the Seneca or Tuscarora had a hunting camp on the Oakta (O-At-Ka) Creek, and I would look for arrowheads in the fields after the farmers plowed.  Yes, we found arrowheads as a kid.  I have tried researching which tribe was in the area, as the Seneca generaly used the Genesee river as a border, but I am nt that far from the Genesesee and I could see the Oatka Valley being a dead space for both tribes to use as a hunting ground.  Who knows, I am not that smart on the local native history here to that detail.

Cheers and Godspeed