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It wasn’t the insults about Schenectady from Stephen Colbert that led to this trip.

We started it a few years ago when I had a co-worker who was always making fun of our fair city. One day he gave me a ride home and admitted he’d never been to Schenectady before, but was only repeating things he had heard. He seemed surprised to find our leafy, walkable neighborhood wasn’t horrible, but was actually pretty livable and —  dare I say? — pleasant.  

So the Schenectady Urban Trek was born.

We start out each year in Central Park and do a roughly seven-mile loop through the city. Sure, urban trekking is just walking, but really isn’t hiking just walking too? Plus, on these hikes we get to have lunch at a nice cafe downtown. This year we actually ran into some of the cast from “South Pacific,” which is playing at Proctors, while we were having our sandwiches at Ambition.

Our group (really more like a mob at 26 people plus a dog and two strollers) walked by some houses in the GE Plot that have garages bigger than our house. These places were built by General Electric for their executives and top scientists. If you like architecture, it’s a great place to visit. We also strolled through the Union College campus, stopping to admire Nott Memorial. After lunch downtown, we hit the Green Market for some dessert and to fill up our backpacks with apples and other good stuff to bring home. We looped through the Stockade historic district before heading back uptown via the trails in Vale Park.................>>>>............>>>>.................http://blog.timesunion.com/outdoors/urban-hike-through-schenectady/2553/