Charles Flood Wildlife Management Area at the Empire Brickyard(Town of Stockport)

Visited the brand new 590 acre Charles Flood Wildlife Management Area at the former Empire Brickyard, New York State's latest acquisition, located along the east shore of the Hudson River in Columbia County.  The property was the site of the Empire Brickyard Company from 1902 into the 1950s, and nearly became the site of a landfill in the 1980s, but that proposal was defeated thanks mostly to passionate locals. There are two separate parking areas, one with a full parking lot, signage and kiosk located on Alvords Dock Road and the other at a gate along Route 9J(across from School Road), both in the town of Stockport.

I first stopped by the large parking lot off Alvords Dock Road on yet another overcast spring afternoon.

A wide unmarked path heads away from the parking area and makes for pleasant walking, although it doesn't seem to lead to anything in particular.  It came to a dead end in a large meadow, which was extremely wet due to recent rains, so I turned back there. 

A short informal foot path leads briefly into the woods before returning back to the wide path.  I was a bit disappointed, so decided to head down the road a bit, to the north parking spot, located on the west side of Route 9J.  There is room for maybe 2 cars at a gate directly across from School Road.  I headed out on foot following the road, which was quite muddy and damp in spots.

Several smaller paths seem to break off the main WMA road, but I stayed on the obvious route heading generally west/ northwest.  After a little while, I ran into the remains of what must've been the old brickyard.

More remains, which are mostly overgrown now.  I stumbled across many old bricks laying all over the trail and surrounding woods as well.

A short distance beyond the remains, I came to railroad tracks, which I crossed over in hopes of catching a view of the Hudson River.  Spring growth is rapidly picking up along the river and was quite thick, but I pushed my way through to find a nice look at a backwater section of the Hudson.

Retraced my steps from there, stopping to check out some wildflowers along the way. A nice and easy, but muddy walk brought me back to the car.

A total of 2.2 miles between the two stops at this new Wildlife Management Area, with very little ups or downs.