Agile Trekker: Old Croton Aqueduct Trail, Quaker Ridge Road (southern intersection) to Nelson Park, Westchester County

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
3/10/2018	6.7 miles	2 hours 30 minutes	581 feet		81.6

Map: Old Croton Aqueduct State Historic Park, Map & Guide
Parking: Gerlach Park. The park isn't labeled on the map, but it shows up in dark green to the right of where Old Albany Post Road becomes Quaker Bridge Road. The map shows 3 black dashed lines in the park, which represent the steps going from the park to the trail.
Directions: Take a right out of the park's parking lot and walk down the road (Old Albany Post Rd/Quaker Bridge Rd). Turn right onto the OCA trail. As an alternative, you can take steps uphill in the back of the Gerlach Park parking lot, which will take you directly to the OCA trail. Walk past two weirs. Next to a school there is a ventilator where you turn left and walk diagonally through a park playground (Nelson Park). There is parking on Edward Road on the side of Nelson Park. Turn around, and return to car (there is a shortcut where you can take a set of stairs at the back of the Gerlach parking lot up to the OCA trail). A map is definitely needed. The trail signs (either signs that say OCA or blue blazes) are sometimes easy to miss, especially in the road walking sections.

We've had a lot of snow, and we were looking for an easy trail in case we'd need to snowshoe. We headed over to the Old Croton Aqueduct trail, where we ended up last time. I thought we'd have to park further north and repeat a portion that we have already done. The map doesn't show parking areas, so sometimes you might have to drive around and look for some. We got lucky today - finding one that was really close to where we ended on Old Quaker Ridge Road last time.

We saw that there was not much snow, so we left our snowshoes in our car, and just brought our microspikes. We ended up not needing microspikes either. This section is very urban. I really didn't enjoy it - too many houses, graffiti, and trash everywhere. We met a couple who thought Trek was a service dog. Ha! I guess because of his pack? They were looking to adopt a rescue, so I referred them to a shelter that a friend of mine works at. We must have looked pretty out of place with our backpacks walking in downtown Ossining. Someone asked us if we were backpacking. I told him we were training to backpack, which is true in a way. Our hiking goal this week is 7 miles each day. I should be thinking about working on very gradually increasing my pack weight as well.