Photos: Solstice on track
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Kensington English proudly displaying her age with her three fingers. she walked on Voorheesville's rail trail with her mother, Sheryl — “I love it!” she said — and her father, Ryan, who gave the trail a more reserved, “Nice.”
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Aidan Rose, 11, said he frequently uses the rail trail and likes the bridge over the Vly Creek best. Why? Because it scares his friend. “I’m afraid of heights,” conceded Jacob Sheridan with a smile. The boys have swapped bikes for a week, each preferring the other’s wheels.
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Dylan Vuille, 9, was wrapped up in a milk snake provided by Reptile Adventure at the start of the trail. Embracing the snake, he said was “fun, but sort of scary.”
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Vendors, displaying everything from reptiles to paintings, lined the light-dappled trail, center, as dogs and kids, men and women strolled, hiked, or biked by. Cyclists Aidan Rose and Jacob Sheridan, both 11, stopped for their second apple, dispensed by Janna Shillinglaw at a booth for the Voorheesville Community and School Foundation, promoting the not-for-profit’s events. Ryan Smith looks on.
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Mark King, left, director of the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy, which hosted the event, chats with Albany County Legislator Herbert Reilly, who has a program of the event in hand. King said the county just this week licensed Voorheesville to start working on an extension of the trail; the village has applied for a $1.2 million grant from the state’s Department of Transportation to make a visitor’s center — a replica of the original train station — and parking lot at the head of the trail that, it is hoped, will one day extend to Albany. “We hope other municipalities will step up and work on their pieces,” said King, “making it a real community asset.” Behind him, coming off the trail, is Gary Washburn, who walked the route for the first time with his wife, Lynne, and their two West Highland terriers, Chloe and Paidin. They said that walking the trail with their dogs was far more enjoyable than walking on a sidewalk or street.