Hiking - a two-for-one day

Yesterday, Holly and I and a couple of friends headed a short distance east to hike a couple of small "mountains" in Columbia County, near the Massachusetts line.

We first climbed Harvey Mountain, a short hike to its open summit and briefly into Massachusetts. We saw some of the only blooming wildflowers of the day all the way up on the summit, where we found this small patch of trailing arbutus.



After descending back to the car, we drove along back roads lined with yellow colt's foot to the parking area for Beebe Hill, only about 10 minutes away. This summit has a fire tower, no longer in use, but open to the public for its magnificent views. It's only an hour from home, and only a mile walk to the park-like summit, so it's a good quick getaway.



From the tower, we could see the Catskills through the haze off to the southwest.



And some 25 miles to the northwest, we could barely make out the Albany skyline.



The two hikes totalled less than 6 miles altogether, and gave us a pleasant spring day outside with some friends we don't see very often.