Kueka Lake outlet trail

Spent the last few days in the Finger lakes region of New York. It was quite a busy weekend on the Keuka Lake wine trail. The warm days and crisp cool nights of early autumn tend to inspire  people to get out and do a winery tour. For those of you that don’t live near wine country, a wine trail event, is a promotion where you buy one ticket and it covers tastings and food servings at a string of wineries around the lake. Witnessing the event from a local winery was quite an experience. Tour companies sell these events as a travel package , just like you would book a rafting trip. You get a limo and a guided  winery shuttle  for a day. I imagine most  people finish  the day in no condition to drive, so the tour often includes a bed breakfast.

The finger lakes wine country is stunning, fields of golden rod , framed by purple aster were everywhere.   The wine, and scenery should be a highlight of any visit to western New York.

There are not  many acceptable options for running trails in the Finger Lakes. You could run on the roads, but during a busy weekends, you would have a steady stream of cars brushing your hair back as they zipped from cottage to winery.

For our morning trail runs, we started in Penn Yan New york, which is at the north end of the finger lakes area. The outlet trail follows the grade of an old barge towpath along  a creek. The creek connects Keuka Lake and Seneca lake.

The finger lakes each occupy their own U shaped north to south  valley. They are about 1 mile wide by 25 miles in length.  Since Seneca lake is almost 3 hundred feet in elevation below Keuka lake, the connecting creek has a significant drop as it traverses its six-mile course between the lakes.  In the 1800′s, before electricity and steam engines, water power was king for milling and power to machine shops. Surprisingly sound structural   remnants of the old mills line the outlet  creek appearing  every 1/2 mile or so . Granite cliffs waterfalls , wild flowers and small cottages also dot the route.

The only strange thing we encountered for the weekend,  was the  drug dealer on the trail near Penn Yan.  It took me the better part of an hour to figure out what was going on. I’ll try my best to piece  my conclusion  together.

On the way out, about 1/4 mile down the trail from Pen Yan, there were two men with two bikes parked by the side of the trail. Being from Boulder , when you see a bike near a trail, it is usually a sport bike with an accompanying outdoor enthusiast out for a ride. Contrasting my typical experience with these non sporting bikes and two  crusty men things just did not look right from the start. They were parked along a wooded section of trail, out of sight of both roads and trail head. One guy looked a little down trodden, a home less person  missing the typical accessories, no duffel bag etc; the other just looked like an older guy out-of-place in his surroundings. The older guy did not turn around when I said good morning.  He purposefully   faced away from  the trail and mumbled something inaudible as a token response. Both men  toked cigarettes.
Later when I made the drug  dealer connection ,I was actually relieved, at least they had a motive other than rape and pillage for being there.  In our whole time on the trail we did not see any other person that looked like they used it for any type of exercise and we ran there 3 days in a row. In fact, we saw perhaps a total of 9 people including our drug dealers on the trail over 3 days.

That first day, we did a round trip of 6 miles , 3 out and 3 back.

On the way back, 45 minutes after our first pass, I was running ahead of Sandy by about 3 minutes .  I was hoping that the two creepy guys were gone by now having finished their smoke break and moved on. To my surprise they were only half gone.  The  older, gray-haired guy , with cigarette in tact remained.  Bike parked right next to him. I must note another oddity about their location.  Most people using the trail for any reason choose to stop at points along the trail where there is a view of the river or meadow, or perhaps a bench. Not this guy.  When I caught sight of him the second time ,   maybe 100 yards ahead, I immediately turned back to run with Sandy. When she caught up, she knew exactly why I turned around to meet her. This time as we passed him together and I said good morning in voice so loud and direct that he had to look at me.  Still smoking his cigarette , he mumbled a barely audible good morning while looking askance.  By now, I am running all the scenarios in my head no longer enjoying my run.  What is so fascinating about this stretch of trail that you would hang out for so long? … and then about  200 yards down the trail , almost at the southern terminus,  we pass another young guy on bike.  Not as scummy but stopped making a quick call on his cell. He is dressed casual like a student riding to school on a commute, not like a person a trail. I then realize he is going our direction and has never passed us ,meaning he only traveled up the trail the first 1/4 of a mile before turning around, his only motive for being on the trail was a  rendezvous with a drug dealer.

Two more times while running errands around town we passed the initial homeless guy , first time he was  collecting bottles at trash cans and then once at the redemption center.

Pen Yan is a town of only a few thousand , no violent crime , and a drug dealer with a perfect location  His clients, all regulars arrive via trail on bike.  Out of sight from the watchful sheriff who no doubt knows all of them on first name basis. Should the sherif walk up the trail,  it is too muddy and narrow for a car where he hangs out,  the dealer can peddle off in the opposite direction dumping or hiding any contraband in the woods ,or just toss it in the river.