Bossman's Pokemon Go Vacation - New Hartford, Utica, Herkimer

Bossman is on vacation from his day job this week and travelling all over Central New York on a quest to catch them all.  As of this trip Bossman was at 91 Pokemon caught.  If you have a local area to suggest for great Pokemon hunting please leave a comment below!

Utica Train station.  Very few people and even less Pokemon.

I spent the last few days closer to home, grinding out kilometers and hatching eggs with a few day trips to the east of Rome to visit New Hartford, Utica and Herkimer.  I didn't spot much in the wild and have fallen far behind on the ice, rock and steel badges.  I've read I need to spend more time near train stations, industrial and urban areas to catch these types of Pokemon, so I feel like I'm nearing the limit of what's catchable without visiting larger cities.  Below are some nice areas to check out regardless.

New Hartford - Commercial Drive

The best spot I've found to find 5-10 Pokemon instantly is the Verizon store on Commercial Drive.  Just pull in and park, start the app and you'll find a mess of Pokemon.  I've heard this has something to do with past cell/GPS usage as documented in the Niantic game Ingress.  Sangertown Mall & Big Apple Music have had some nice rare spawns as well.

Utica - SUNY Polytech

This area was a ghost town in the evening with school out, but there is a nice cluster of Pokestops and a gym between Kunsella Hall, the library and student center.  Once school starts this should be a nice hotspot.

Herkimer - Tri-Pokestop park

I headed to Herkimer in search of a Dragonite but had no luck.  There was a nice park in the middle of the city with three Pokestops clustered close together, so a great spot to put down three lures and farm for 30 minutes.

Utica - Train station

A lot of the Pokemon I'm missing allegedly spawn near train stations and railroad tracks, but when I visited the Utica station there were not many people and no Pokemon in sight.  The Pokestops were also pretty scarce.

Walmarts

Due to cell usage Walmarts are great spots for finding Pokemon.  There are supercenters located in New Hartford, Utica, and Herkimer and worth a quick visit if you're out on a trip.

I'm a little sad that I'm nearing the end of my vacation and heading back to work.  The game has been great for exploring places I normally wouldn't visit, but with upstate being such a rural area I'm a little disappointed there aren't more random spawns in the wild.  I would love to go on a five mile hike in the wilderness and stumble on a Dragonite (as advertised), but know from playing that - outside of parks - this just isn't the case.  Hopefully with some more game updates they'll make the game a bit more accessible to rural players.

What are your thoughts on the game to date?  Post a comment below!