XC Skiing - Rockwood State Forest

Woke up to howling winds and a dusting of snow locally, but not enough to do anything with. Checked snowfall reports and saw that Gloversville got 2" and Caroga Lake 3", and Rockwood SF already still had 8-10" on the ground. Seemed like skiing might at least be possible, if not fantastic.

Drove up and pulled into the parking area that was covered with glare ice from all the rain and melting that went on. Trails were definitely crunchy underneath, but powdery on top, so it could have been pretty good. Unfortunately, any prior ski tracks were now icy ruts, as were the foot-wide snowshoe trenches that were pretty common. Even worse were the snowmobile tracks that weren't even supposed to be there. We tried to mostly ski off to one side off all these, and avoided the bigger downhills, which would have been treacherous. Found one trail that hadn't been touched, and followed that out and back for the best skiing of the day.

We're really hoping that Fulton County continues to groom this area, or at least roll it flat. It's kind of a mess at the moment, and could really benefit from a foot of snow or some flattening out, or preferably both.

Geocaching - Sanders Nature Preserve

Still about 8-10" of hard crusty snow left on the ground - not good for local skiing or snowshoeing, so today we went geocaching. The Sanders Preserve is a Town of Glenville property that's wooded and has lots of streams running through it. Geocaching.com identified 5 relatively new caches that we had never attempted before, so we were off and running. Or at least walking, once I got my car unstuck from the ice-covered parking lot. We failed to find the first two, which were micros and may have been covered with snow. We'll go back for those in the spring. We did find the third one we attempted, and the other two remaining ones were out of the way and will also have to wait. Not a very successful day, but it was good to get outside for a walk after some of the nasty weather we've had lately.

Biking - Capital Holiday Lights in the Park

MHCC, NYBC, and ABC all coordinated a group ride this evening through Albany's Capital Holiday Lights in the Park display. It was supposed to have been last weekend, but the multiple storms knocked it out and they rescheduled for today. About 15 of us showed up at 4:30 pm, before the displays opened to vehicular traffic (at $15/car), and did 4-5 loops through the light displays. The very beginning of the ride also included a spectacular sunset as a backdrop. That was the real show.





Another rider posted a 4-minute video of the ride on YouTube. I'm the rider in the yellow jacket who appears only occasionally.

Retired one year!

Today is the one-year anniversary of my last day of work. And it's been a good year, as you can read here!

XC Skiing - Camp Saratoga Trails

Camp Saratoga is a part of the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park. In the winter, this parcel has groomed cross-country ski trails that are very nice and relatively close to home. Snowshoers and skiers are allowed, but bare-booting is prohibited, so the trails remain in pretty good condition.

Today Holly and I skied for about 90 minutes, and as we like to do, we didn't always stay on the groomed trails. There are several other skiable trails that aren't groomed, and which also provide some more challenging terrain, and we tried several today. Really made me want to get out into the backcountry environment and away from the groomed stuff. Unfortunately, the rest of this week, especially tomorrow, will bring a potpourri of skiing-unfriendly precipitation, including sleet, freezing rain, and just plain rain. We'll need some more snow on top of all that before skiing will be any good again.

No pictures today. If I had taken any, they would uncannily resemble the last two, snowy pine plantations and wide open trails.

XC Skiing - Woods Hollow Nature Preserve

After 15-20" of local snow in the past few days, getting out today was a must, despite the cold temps and biting winds. We settled on Woods Hollow, a small nature preserve north of Ballston Spa, managed by the Town of Milton.

We skied along the old Ballston Spa reservoir on a nature trail, then up into some pine plantations with very wide trails. It's a popular place for walking in all seasons, and ski tracks don't last very long here.



From there, we continued along the back of the preserve, and set out on the Green Loop (see map), a much less used trail by walkers, and a little backcountry-ish in its skiing feel. On the way back to the car, I couldn't resist going down the biggest available hill, and would have had a good ride had my binding not snagged a hidden downed branch, sending me head over heels.

We were out for about an hour and the skiing was excellent. We're considering someplace a little more exotic for tomorrow.

XC Skiing - Indian Meadows Town Park

Last week we had a crippling ice storm. Yesterday we had 10" of snow. Tomorrow, we're expecting 5-10" more. Welcome to winter in the Northeast!

With other things on the day's agenda, we only had time for a short local ski, the first of the season. I went to Holly's house and helped her get rid of some downed limbs from last week's ice storm, and then we headed for Indian Meadows, a nearby Town of Glenville park.



This is a fairly boring place to ski, but it's close by, and that was a big plus. We were out for 45-50 minutes on really good snow with some wet spots underneath. It was good to get out after a week of nothing but biking on the trainer in the basement. Combined with the morning's snow shoveling, that was enough for one day.

ICE STORM!! - Walk in Lisha Kill Preserve

Friday, December 12, brought us the most severe ice storm we've had here in over 20 years. We got somewhere between 0.75-1.0" of ice coating everything. Tree limbs were down all over the area and the Northeast, and over 240,000 people were without power just in this local area. Some still have no power, and may be out until the middle of next week. I was without electricity for 41+ hours, but fortunately, with temperatures dropping into the teens, I did have heat, unlike many of my neighbors. Our power in this neighborhood came back just after nightfall tonight.

Although the storm was very damaging, it can also be beautiful. Holly and I went for a walk this afternoon in the Lisha Kill Preserve, which I posted about not too long ago. Many, many tree limbs were down throughout the preserve, but almost all of the stately old pines were still standing. I didn't take any pictures on this walk, but have included a few here from around my backyard. I got off easier than many neighbors, but do have some minor cleanup to do nonetheless.

Geocaching - Niskayuna

It was a cold dreary December day, so Holly and I decided to try another geocache. This one was a multi-cache, a short walk along the Mohawk River south of the Rexford Bridge. The good news is that we got to walk in a place neither of us had been before. The bad news is we never found the initial cache. It sounds like it may have been a tricky one, but try as we might, we just couldn't find it. The hiders are evidently getting very creative with these things...

Biking - Local Roads

This was the third installment of the Tour de Clifton Park, a leisurely 28-mile social ride from the outings calendar of the Taconic Hiking Club. Details here...

Walk - Mohawk River State Park

Formerly known as the "Schenectady Museum Preserve", this is an area that used to be great and convenient for cross-country skiing. Now, it's become so popular with walkers, and their dogs, that the only good skiing is immediately after a new snowfall. There are some steep ravines and narrow, twisting downhills that can be pretty interesting on a good day.

But today I was walking, since there is no snow yet, just lots and lots of thick oozy mud. I wandered all over the place and even explored some trails I'd never seen before. This place is much better after the ground freezes and is covered with about a foot of snow. I was out for a little over an hour, doing a long loop around the wooded part of the preserve.

Biking - Mohawk River Bike Path

A beautiful December day - sunny and over 50! Took a relaxed ride on the bike path. Details here...

Biking - Mohawk River Bike Path

Maybe the last bike ride of the season today. Details here...

Geocaching - Ballston Lake, NY

A few weeks back, we unsuccessfully searched for a geocache entitled "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" Today, we found it. It was a cold and breezy day, and we needed to keep moving. After over an hour of following clues from one intermediate cache to the next, we were ready to stop and come back another time to finish it. One last look on our way back to the car turned up the final cache, after about 2 miles of walking total.

Hike - Vroman's Nose

A very short hike, actually. It only takes about a half hour to climb to the top of Vroman's Nose, a small hill with cliffs near Middleburgh, NY. It's about a half hour from home, and the views are outstanding. Unfortunately, my camera produced a hard error code when I turned it on, so I have no pictures for this trip. There are some pictures available at the previous link above, and also a wide selection via a simple Google image search.

It was barely at freezing up there, and the wind was blowing, so I took in some of the views, had a quick lunch and headed down. I'm thinking it's time for a new camera.

Walk - Lisha Kill Preserve

Another day that started out bright and sunny, and then came the grey skies and the snow squalls. This is November in the Northeast, and we have to make the best of it.

The Lisha Kill Preserve is a Nature Conservancy property in Niskayuna, NY. It's close to home, and provides a feeling of wildness without going very far. There are several deep ravines and streams, and a lot of very old and large trees. Some of these majestic white pines and hemlocks are said to be nearly 200 years old.



Today, with the combination of mud, leaves, and snow, it was a little slick in spots, but I got in an hour's walk, covering all of the trails that are currently marked.

Walk - Mohawk River Bike Path

I thought I might get the bike out this afternoon, and that thought was encouraged by spending a little time on the trainer in the basement this morning. But then the weather got weird. The wind came up and brought with it an occasional snow squall, all lake-effect stuff coming down the Mohawk Valley from Lake Ontario. So instead of biking, I went for a 2.8-mile walk out west of Rotterdam on the bike path. I saw a great blue heron who kept flying farther down the path to avoid me, and we crossed paths several times in both directions. As I got to the 1.4-mile turnaround point, a more serious squall blew in, and continued for about 20 minutes. It was like winter out there, though the ground was still too warm for it to stick. By the time I got back to the car, the sun was out again and it was all over.

Walk - John Boyd Thacher State Park

Today dawned foggy and damp, though it was forecast to hit the low 60s again, a rarity for November. I couldn't get excited about biking in this weather, so I decided to go for a walk instead.

Thacher Park sits atop the Helderberg Escarpment, only about a half-hour's drive from home. It offers fairly level and non-muddy walking along the edge of the escarpment, and drop-dead scenery every step of the way. The fog cleared as I got closer, and it turned into a beautiful morning up there.



I last went there back in April of this year, and there are more pictures at this link. The waterfalls were running much more in earnest back then, with the snowmelt, but they were still very scenic today.





The Indian Ladder Trail is visible below Mine Lot Falls in the second photo. It's a very interesting walk below the cliffs and under the falls, but it's closed this time of year.

Hiking - Huckleberry Point

I was planning to lead a Schenectady ADK trip to Huckleberry Point on Saturday, but wet weather and a low overcast (read: summits socked in) caused me to cancel the trip. Today, Holly and I went and did the hike ourselves. It took us about 90 minutes from the car to the viewpoint, where we had lunch and took some pictures. It wasn't the most photogenic day - November is pretty bleak as it is, and the sun was not out as promised. But the views of the Hudson Valley and the Devil's Path range were right in our faces. It's a pretty spectacular place. Click on the picture for a 180-degree panorama.

Snowpack Monitor Training - Albany Pine Bush

The Albany Pine Bush is home to the rare Karner Blue Butterfly, a state and federal endangered species. In an effort to better understand its habitat requirements, a study is underway to assess the effects of snow depth on the overwintering success of the butterfly's eggs. Part of this study involves intensive monitoring of snow depth at numerous controlled sites within the Preserve during the winter months. This work is done by volunteers, and I just volunteered for the upcoming winter. Today we had a brief training meeting to go over the process and what we're expected to do. I'll be spending about an hour every two weeks, on the same day, in all kinds of weather, walking around and taking snow depth readings. I'll post more about this once the snow flies and these walks begin.