2022-07-08: Deyo Road

Cairo NY roads: 91/112 mi

Continuing to walk my way through the easternmost of Cairo's roads, I devised a 5.5-mile partial loop along some roads east of the hamlet of Gayhead. Located at the town's northeast border, this loop partially retraced a walk I took last spring along the Schoharie Turnpike. This highway, also known as Route 28, marks the border between Cairo and Greenville and, farther east, Cairo and Coxsackie. I also walked some roads south of the border, firmly inside Cairo.

Roads Walked: CR-28/Schoharie Turnpike, CR-67/Gayhead-Earlton Road, Deyo Road, Ira Vail Road

My route started out walking a section of Route 28 that runs the Cairo-Greenville border, which I had walked last May as one of my final roadwalks in Greenville. I had no need to walk it again for Cairo, but it made sense to finish out my planned loop, rather than backtrack down Deyo Road and add more time and distance to my walk.

Crossing a swamp along the Schoharie Turnpike. Compare with a similar picture from last May.

After a little over a mile, I turned south onto Route 67, following it downhill towards the junction with Joseph D Kollar Road. This section of the walk was fairly residential, with a lot of houses and some dead-end residential roads off to the side. It was also heavily forested, with no views or fields, just glimpses of rocks and swamps through the trees.

An abandoned house is dwarfed by the trees enveloping it as nature reclaims one small section of development.

A transmission tower just beyond the house at a local high point just south of Gayhead.

An everlasting pea (Lathyrus latifolius), one of many blooming flowers outside a house at the intersection of Route 67 and Joseph D Kollar Road.

A glimpse of a swampy area west of the road. A number of these small, algae-filled pools, kept low due to dry conditions, were visible on both sides of the road.

A cursory search for information on the Gayhead Sportsman's Club turned up nothing. This sign, half eaten by an oak tree, has clearly been defunct for some time.

I backtracked north along Route 67 and then turned east onto Ira Vail Road. One of the longest backroads in Cairo, Ira Vail runs largely north-south for most of its length, but at its northern end, it turn rather abruptly to the northwest. This section of the road is heavily forested, with few houses or traffic, and passes the south end of the swamp that I had crossed earlier on Route 28.

A view of the drier southern lobe of the swamp from a small hill on Ira Vail Road.

On the far side of the swamp, rusted metal is visible through the trees, possibly part of a collapsed building.

A great spangled fritillary (Speyeria cybele) rests obliquely upon a milkweed flower.

Gravestones of varying size and condition stand in rows in this small cemetery off the roadside.

Deyo Road, a road I had never driven on before, seemed a bit odd to me. It was a strange combination of small sections of dense houses interspersed with wide, hilly fields. Walking on a weekday evening meant there was a lot of activity here, with trucks and cars coming home from work as I walked. One farm had a plethora of goats, but they were too close to someone's house for me to be comfortable photographing. The road was also fairly hilly, with negative elevation gain but a lot of ups and downs.

Looking south at the intersection, down the part of Ira Vail Road I didn't walk.

Grass and small plants cover rock outcrops along hilly Deyo Road.

Power lines dwarf the surrounding forest as they stretch northeast, crossing the Schoharie Turnpike in the distance.

Rolling hills towards the north end of Deyo Road. This is likely a recently-cut hayfield, but could be just grass.

I returned to Route 28 and headed back to my parking spot, in the process passing a point of vague interest: a town tripoint. Along Route 28, the towns of Cairo, Coxsackie, and Greenville meet, and for one moment I could be simultaneously in all three. The town of Cairo has eight tripoints with neighboring towns; I've also visited those atop Windham High Peak, Blackhead, and Stoppel Point in the course of hiking the Catskills. As town tripoints aren't exactly a sought-after goal, the only marker for this was a small sign denoting the Greenville town line.

Although Route 28 forms Cairo's northern border, it is maintained by Greenville's highway department, and thus bears no mention of Cairo.

Discontinuity at the tripoint. The road at left is maintained by Greenville; at right, by neighboring Coxsackie.