End of an Era

Due to a return of summer, there was a late decision to shift this weeks TRY run to A & K's in Cicero. Meet at "The Ranch at Gerelick Bay" at 5:30 for the run, 6:15 for the post-run festivities. Grill, fire, water access. RSVP yes if possible as a courtesy to our hosts.

(I had this all set to write, so I'll write it anyway, even though she will not be able to attend.) This week signals the end of an era even if it is not the finale I thought it would be: The longest tenured, reliable, attendee of TRY has done her last TRY session. She literally came into our lives on the run, in the middle of the Boilermaker. Through thick and thin, and at least five jobs that I can think of, she has always made it a priority to make it out to TRY on Tuesdays. She did the overnight running with the Relay For Life crew, when that was a thing, and is the cover girl and winged-wonder of the Paige's Butterfly Run Centipede phenomenon. (Where she also happens to be the only TRYer to be named on the trophy EVERY year.) I don't fully know her stance on recycling, but just having her on board made TRY more Green(e). Unfortunately you do not get to send her off in person this week...so, instead, take a moment out of your day to bid a fond farewell to Malinda Greene who has ran with TRY for her last time. :-(

Since I may not have provided even one paragraph of actual useful content this year...I thought I owed it to you to do a little field trip. So, on Friday morning I headed off to the extension of the West Shore Trail and did a little photo journalism. The trail reopened a week or two ago but I did not want to fight fair traffic and parking to see it. Instead, on a nice and still warm late summer morning I pulled into the parking lot to find about 20 cars in there (busier than I figured! There were even more than 20 cars when I finished up over 1 1/2 hours later). I walked with the double stroller and came across a lot of bikers (most of retirement age), a few walkers, a runner, and even a roller blader.

I did not measure the distance and they have not put down any mileage markers on that side that I could see, but the new ampitheater has to be roughly 1.5 miles from the end of the trail. There is more to it than I realized -  the main building has some sort of "event center" built into it, so the stage building itself looks rather elongated. There are two outbuildings (one on either side, a decent distance away from the seating area) that are bathroom/concession buildings. The mens room at the one I tried was closed, but the family restroom was open, so Joseph christened that with his burgeoning potty skills.

There is also a ticket building and a set of trails (that concert goers will walk in on) that are going to allow for some looping options (and terrain and long and medium hill options) that do not exist elsewhere in the Onondaga Lake park trail system. For now, some of the access roads are only crushed stones, so not idea for fancy road bikes, but for simpler bikes and for running, there has to be a way to do something in the range of 3/4 of a mile loop (maybe even a mile+? as the one "point" is deceptively out there) if you wanted to extend your long run or do some interval runs with some different hill choices mixed in. I'd want to get back there with my Garmin watch on to clock it to be certain, but definitely some boredom busting is available there now. (While still allowing the safety of being on park trails and away from traffic.) The bathrooms being available (maybe?) are a huge bonus instead of having only port-o-johns on that entire side of the lake.

The photos -

Approaching from the Solvay end on the main trail:




The "trail" becomes concrete and splits the seating bowl from the lawn area:



I very quickly counted about 50 rows of seats, so the trail itself offers one heck of a view of the stage. (The trail is supposed to be closed off during concerts but I wonder if they'll allow lawn chairs? Or it will have to remain open for access reasons?)



The view from the 690 side of the trail, looking back at the main building (in front of the bathroom/concession building on that side):



Something does not look quite right (to my untrained eye) about the "berm". But then again, our "Berm" does not look quite right to me either. So who am I to judge?



I made a point to check from above and you can see all the way down into the stage and it should be an unobstructed view even from the very top of the lawn area. (I know there is already a debate if chairs will be allowed or blankets only.)



Now, working backwards from how I took them, these are the buildings and signs you'll encounter after you would park in, or take a shuttle bus to, the huge upper parking lot.

The ticket building (everything is angled oddly - for aesthetics, I presume?)


Some signage:

Look at this one larger if you want to see detail of the entire layout. (The spur off of to the right, is the main park trail that could be used for a very long loop to get back to the "you are here" point.)



That's it. I hope this inspires some of you to get on out and check out the, once again open, extended trail system. It had been a long time for me and I was reminded of just how different the elevated view of the lake is. (With its views of the marina and the Liverpool side and of the Destiny and downtown/dome areas.)