XC Skiing - Schenectady County Forest

This was a regularly scheduled Tuesday morning ECOS ski trip, and today they decided to go someplace local. The hills in the western part of Schenectady County got a few inches of new snow over the past few days, though most of it came down sideways in high winds. The County Forest and Featherstonehaugh State Forest are less than 30 minutes from town, so it seemed worth a try.

We first did a loop around the County Forest, which has very limited trails. The snow was OK, but the trails were bumpy with some downed trees and washouts. The advantage was that it was very close to home.


Then some of us went back to the cars and drove a short distance to Featherstonehaugh SF, and did another loop or two there. Altogether, we were out for almost 2 hours on a bright but windy and cold morning.