Hiking - Pinnacle, near Bleecker, NY

On Saturday, I joined a Schenectady ADK outing to climb a mountain named simply "Pinnacle", in the southern Adirondacks.  There's no trail to its wooded summit, so after a short piece of old road, this would be a bushwhack most of the way.

Our route

Nine of us left the parking area at the end of Pinnacle Road, and climbed the old road in about 8-10" of fresh snow.  Leaving the road, we climbed steeply, avoiding several cliffs, up to a ridge, and followed it to the summit, where we had a brief lunch/snack break.

The descent down the NW side was a little trickier, since the cliffs we'd had to pick our way through on the ascent were now below us and invisible until we arrived at the edge.  After exploring a bit, we found a steep chute that allowed a safe butt-first descent.  Following a valley, we came upon some spectacular and colorful ice formations on cliffs above us to the right (see green dot on map above).  This was a good place for another snack break.

Continuing our descent through now over a foot of new snow, we reached a frozen beaver pond, and followed the edge of it, and then its outlet, back to the old road we started in on.  This was tough going at times, with deep snow and buried ditches that ensnared a couple of us, our snowshoes breaking through the thin ice below.

Once we reached the old road again, it was a straightforward march on tired legs back to the cars.  Pie a la mode and hot coffee at the nearby home of one of the hikers topped off a great day.

XC skiing and moonlight snowshoeing - Enjoying winter while it lasts

With some lake-effect snow blowing off Lake Ontario with high winds the past few days, one of our favorite places to ski apparently picked up some significant snow.  So today we headed off to Rockwood State Forest yet again, and arrived to find 6-8" of soft new fluffy snow atop the older 8-10" firm base.  That made for some pretty fantastic skiing conditions.  Only a few other people had already been out, followed by a dog walker or two co-opting those nice ski tracks. But the snow was so nice, we didn't care.  The big downhills were manageable and enjoyable for the first time this year.  Too bad there may be some sloppy weather coming in again over the weekend.

The weather was clearing by late afternoon when we arrived home, and by 6pm skies were  crystal clear.  Moonlight snowshoeing would go as planned!  By the time we all met at 7:00, some clouds had moved in and it was flurrying, but we were all dressed up, so decided to take our chances.  At the trailhead, all was clear again, for about 5 minutes.  But even the milky moon provided a good deal of light, so off we went.  We visited the beaver dam and the tree I'd found yesterday, and occasionally had a moment or two of bright unimpeded moonlight.  But then it socked in almost completely, and robbed us of the experience we'd hoped for.  So much for the "mostly clear" forecast.  Still, it was the first time we'd been able to do this trip in almost 2 years of no snow, so we enjoyed it despite the semi-darkness.

Snowshoeing - Featherstonhaugh State Forest

With my monthly moonlight snowshoe outing coming up this week, I needed to visit Featherstonhaugh State Forest to see what the snow conditions were like, and whether this trip would be going at all.  Surprisingly, there was still a fair amount of snow at this 1200' elevation less than 30 minutes from home.  I even saw some fresh ski tracks in the 1/2" of fresh snow that had fallen overnight.  The base was crunchy underneath, and the trails were hard-packed and much better suited to snowshoes.  I wandered to do some exploring off-trail several times into the somewhat softer deeper, but still crunchy, snow.  Near the new beaver pond, I found this specimen:

A LOT of work went into getting to that point, but those guys seem really determined, as this wasn't the only one I saw.  Not sure what they plan to do with them once they're down, but it's fun to see this going on anyway.

So, the bottom line is that if tomorrow night stays clear in the early evening, we'll be returning here by moonlight for a very different experience.  Last winter's trips like this never happened due to lack of snow, and this winter hasn't been much better.  Fingers are crossed that we'll finally get one in.

XC Skiing - Lapland Lake XC Ski Center

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  With all of the free areas to XC ski in the local area, we rarely pay to go skiing in the somewhat artificial environment of a commercial XC ski center.  But with both the winter we had last year and again this year, local skiable snow has been a little hard to come by.  So today, Holly and I headed off to Lapland Lake, a ski center north of Northville, just over an hour from home. 

The nice thing about these places, and especially Lapland Lake, is that the trails are impeccably groomed, allowing for lots of kicking and gliding and some really nice downhill runs.  And a delicious lunch here at the Tuulen Tupa Grill is another advantage over a cold sandwich out somewhere in the woods.  Still I prefer making my own way in a more natural setting.  Except when there's nowhere nearby to do that.  Like today.  So we sucked it up, paid the trail fee, and got in a couple of good hours of skiing and a nice lunch. 

We desperately need some snow, or it might as well be spring.

More XC Skiing and back to biking - Time to catch up here

After the great skiing last weekend, Monday's mixed precipitation "event" left conditions quite a bit less desirable.  Nevertheless, the Tuesday morning ECOS XC ski outing went on as usual.  We spent two hours skiing around Featherstonhaugh State Forest, near Mariaville, in conditions that were fair to good, but we were thankful the terrain was mostly flat.  The minor downhills were much slicker and trickier than usual, but it was a good outing.

I'm scheduled to lead a ski trip on Saturday, at Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center, in Rensselaer County.  This place tends to get a LOT of snow, but still I wondered what that snow would be like after the recent foul weather.  So today I drove up there, with the skis in the car, to check it out ahead of time.  The skis stayed in the car.  There was, indeed, a ton of snow, but the surface was pretty crunchy.  That's not a good thing here where the ski trails are actually narrow hiking trails, and very few of them are exactly flat or straight.  Unless we get some significant fresh snow before the weekend to improve things, I will be cancelling this trip.

When I got home, since I was dressed for outdoors anyway, I dragged out the bike and pedalled a leisurely 8+ miles on the snow-free bike path in Niskayuna and Colonie.  Last year, I biked in 11 of 12 months, and this year, I'm hoping to hit them all.  January and February are now covered.  I'd rather be skiing, but it just seems not to be for the near future.

XC Skiing - Return to the Pine Bush

Great skiing only 15 minutes from my house.  This is what winter is supposed to be like!  After a great outing on the Great Dune trails yesterday with Holly, I returned there alone today to ski some of the other loops we'd missed.

Yesterday, we had skied the red and blue loops shown above.  Today I skied the outer yellow loop, and took a side trip to another connected loop near the Woodlake complex at the end of Madison Avenue Extension.

The trails were a little more beat up than yesterday, but the snow was still very nice.  The yellow loop had seen less walker traffic than some of the other trails.

On the outer yellow loop

Tomorrow, unfortunately, it looks like this all goes to hell, with all kinds of winter mixed precipitation falling from the sky.  If we don't lose this paltry snow altogether, it will certainly be a lot different from the perfect stuff of the last two days.

XC Skiing - Albany Pine Bush Preserve

Well, "Winter Storm Nemo" didn't do us any favors around here, dropping a measly 6" of new snow over the existing bare ground.  That's not enough to cover the rocks and roots in most local preserves, but the Pine Bush, with its miles of old smooth sand roads, might just be a good place to try.  So Holly and I headed over to the end of Willow Street in Guilderland to check it out.

There were plenty of other skiers and snowshoers out today enjoying the new snow, and the skiing was about as good as it gets around here.  We skied a big clockwise loop using the red and blue trails, roughly 3 miles, with some interesting ups and downs, especially on the blue trail.  The only place where the snow seemed a little thin was just west of the stream crossing on the red trail, an uphill for us, and definitely a better idea that way, with a few rocks and stumps showing through.

Monday looks like a sleet/freezing rain/rain day, with temps in the low 40s, so best to get out and enjoy this snow now.  I may even be going back tomorrow.

XC Skiing - Annual Vermont getaway

For about 20 years now, Holly and I have been spending a few days every winter in the Londonderry/Weston area of southern Vermont.  For most of those years, we've been returning to the Landgrove Inn, an old Vermont inn with lots of charm, and hidden away in the small community of Landgrove.  There are no paved roads in Landgrove, and it's about as rural as it gets.  It's a quiet place to spend a few days away and get in some XC skiing and snowshoeing, even if, like this year, we have no snow at home.

Upon arrival, our first outing was to the Wild Wings XC Center, in nearby Peru.  This is an old-time cross-country center, classic skiing only (no skating), and is located in something of a snow bowl that gets and holds more snow than the surrounding area.  Skiing was a little crunchy underneath, but with enough fresh snow to make the conditions at least fair to good over most parts of the trails we skied.

After a great dinner back at the Landgrove, some quiet reading by the fire filled out the rest of the evening.

The next morning, temps were pretty cold, so we made a trip to the Vermont Country Store, in nearby Weston.  I'm not much of a shopper, but it's easy to spend an hour wandering the aisles here looking at all of the unique hard-to-find items for sale.

In the afternoon, we decided to ski up Forest Road 21 to Mad Tom Notch.  Here, the road intersects the Appalachian and Long Trails on the ridge between Bromley Mountain and Stiles Peak.

It's a gradual uphill climb, but the downhill run back to the car is especially sweet.  The road was firmly packed by snowmobiles with just enough fresh snow on top to let us feel safe and in control.  This trip was over so quickly that we stopped at the Hapgood Pond Recreation Area on the way back to Landgrove to add on a little snowshoeing.  Dinner at the Swiss Inn and more reading finished off another great day.  

Today, we got an early start toward home, with Winter Storm Nemo (stupid idea, Weather Channel!) heading our way.  Looks like we may have some local skiing for a while, at least until possible rain messes it up again after the weekend...

Snowshoeing - ECOS weekly XC ski outing

Every winter, ECOS holds a weekly Tuesday morning XC ski outing at a local nature preserve or state forest.  This year, responsibility for finding skiable snow nearby is rotating among several different leaders, and this week was my turn.  Not looking good.

Over the weekend, I drove quite a few miles visiting 6-8 possible areas, but only one looked at all promising on paper.  So, on Sunday, friends (and co-leader) Roy, Sue, and I headed to Rockwood State Forest, west of Johnstown, uncertain of what we'd find.  Online snow maps implied 4-6" of old snow and an inch or two of new snow on top, and that's basically what we found.  We skied for about 90 minutes, testing a few of the smaller hills, but found conditions pretty slick and fast.  Knowing the makeup of the group we'd be leading, we recommended a snowshoe trip here on Tuesday instead of skiing.  And today was the day.

The day dawned sunny and seasonable, with temps around 20F and no wind, a perfect day to be out.  A total of 12-13 of us wandered the forest for about 2 hours, testing some of the bigger hills on snowshoes, and being glad we weren't on skis.

There's now some talk of a snowstorm later this week, and with this being the only nearby location with any snow base left, we'll be watching this storm closely and hoping for a return visit here when the snow is better.  4-6" of additional snow would make some very nice skiing here, so fingers are crossed.

Walk - Niskayuna Bike Path

With temps approaching 50 today, but with high winds and maybe even a thunderstorm expected later (this is January??), I got out for a quick-paced 4.5-mile walk this morning on the snow-free bike path in Niskayuna.  Lots of others had the same idea, with or without dogs, some running, others walking.  Most of our local snow is now gone, and with heavy rains expected overnight, it's hard to know what we'll find even farther from home.

More snowshoeing and skiing before January Thaw II

After a very cold week last week, the weekend weather was a little more seasonable.  The local XC skiing was getting pretty sketchy, so Holly and I got out snowshoeing both days instead, first at the Hennig Preserve and then a shorter outing on Sunday at Featherstonhaugh State Forest.  Both places had 6-8" of snow remaining, but it was a little thin in many places for skiing, so snowshoeing was a good alternative.

Yesterday, much of the area got another inch or two of heavy wet snow, topped by some sleet and freezing rain, further limiting local skiing options.  Holly thought that the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park trails in Wilton might be skiable today, since they're groomed semi-regularly and might even have some firm base left.  They're also mostly on smooth-surfaced woods roads, so they don't need a lot of cover.  So we decided to give a it a try.

There wasn't a lot of cover in many places, but the skiing in  general was surprisingly good, all things considered.  We did a few miles worth of loops, and headed home just as a light rain began to fall.  The rains and temps in the 50s tomorrow should pretty much finish off our local snow, so we'll be starting over yet again.  Crazy winter...

Snowshoeing - Homestead County Forest

Today, I joined a Schenectady ADK trip to Homestead County Forest, in Providence, Saratoga County.  It was going to be a very cold day, and several people had already cancelled because of that.  But 4 of us braved the sunny single-digit temperatures and enjoyed some nice snowy scenes not far from home.  I didn't take any pictures, though I had hoped to, because the camera was in a pocket a couple of layers inside to keep the batteries warm, and my fingers never really warmed up all the way beginning soon after we got started.  It was better to keep moving on a day like this, and that's mostly what we did.  We visited a partially frozen waterfall on Cadman Creek, and not far downstream, the ruins of an old sawmill and dam.  Three of us took shelter in the leader's Bothy Bag for lunch, and it was quite a bit warmer in there, even though we were standing up and not fully covered.  We hadn't wanted to remove and re-don the snowshoes to sit down, so this worked quite well instead.  All told, we were only out for about 3 hours, but it was definitely enough as stronger winds moved in later in the trip.

Snowshoeing - Featherstonhaugh State Forest

Several times each winter, snow and weather permitting, I lead a moonlight snowshoeing outing for Schenectady ADK.  Featherstonhaugh, unlike other local preserves, doesn't close at dusk, and at a relatively high local elevation, is a perfect place for these outings.  Since this month's trip is scheduled for sometime in the next several days if we get a clear night, and since there is very little snow remaining down here in the valley in Schenectady, I thought I would take a short scouting trip to see if this trip would even be possible.  I was surprised by what I found.

Aside from the 1" or so of new snow coating everything, there was a surprising amount of old base remaining, firm but not concrete-like underneath.  All of the wet spots of the past few weeks have frozen solid in this week's cold weather, and the ski trails are very well-covered.  I wouldn't want to ski on them right now, but snowshoeing was great, and would be even better under a bright nearly-full moon!  Fingers are crossed...

XC Skiing - Rockwood State Forest

After the paltry snowfall of a few days ago, grass is showing through again here in Schenectady, but Holly and I still had hopes of finding some skiable snow nearby.  Rockwood State Forest, less than an hour away west of Johnstown, has surprised us in the past, and from the latest snow depth map, it looked like it was worth a look, with potentially 6-8" on the ground:

But what kind of snow would this be?  Was it old crusty junk from the storm we had Christmas week, before the big thaw?  Each dot on that map is a snow monitoring station, so I checked the snow density graph for the nearest one, in Ephratah:

It looked like there was about 3" left of that earlier base, but a fresh 2" on top of it!  This could be excellent!  Almost all of the trails at Rockwood are on old roads, so it doesn't need deep cover to be skiable.  So off we went to Rockwood, also taking along snowshoes just in case the skiing was terrible.

It wasn't terrible.  It was less than "excellent", and probably not even "good", but the computer model for the graph above was pretty close to right on.  We found about 6" of old base, and 1" on top of it.  The trails were lumpy and crunchy underneath from a whole lot of bare-booted walkers over the past several weeks, but with the fresh snow, it was certainly at least "fair" skiing.

We stayed off the bigger steeper hills on the southwest corner, both because of time constraints and concerns that they might be a bit too "adventurous" under these conditions.  But we got in a couple of loops with some smaller hills before we called it a day, skiing back downhill to the car along NY-29 in the untouched snow.

A return to winter

After several balmy days above freezing, and a complete loss of any snow that was left from our only previous storm, we got a fresh 3-4" overnight, turning everything white again.  Over the past several days, I've gotten out by taking a fast 5-mile walk on the snow-free bike path, and then returning there the next day for 11-12 miles of biking.  This was starting to look a little too much like last winter.

This latest storm seemed to come from nowhere.  I heard nothing about any expected snow until a day or two before, and then suddenly, here it is.  It's a heavy wet snow that's clinging to everything as it falls, including, fortunately, the large spruce above my almost-clear driveway.

Holly and I got out this afternoon for a short walk in the Indian Kill Preserve, in Glenville.  There wasn't really enough snow for snowshoes, but the footing was a little sketchy on the steeper slopes, so some sort of traction would have been useful.  We just took our time and enjoyed the beautiful winter scenery.

Biking - Mohawk River Bike Path

Last year, when December rolled around, I discovered that I had biking miles in 2012 in every month except January.  I decided then that 2013 would be different.  With XC skiing rapidly becoming impossible during this January thaw, it seemed like a good day to get that little item checked off.  Last winter, the Mohawk River Bike Path was plowed and snow-free for about a 6-7 mile stretch in Niskayuna and Colonie, allowing an out-and-back 12-14 mile ride.  So, I headed to Lions Park in Niskayuna for a short ride and some January miles.

It turned out to be a shorter ride than planned.  Niskayuna had cleared the path from Lock 7 Road to Lions Park, but hadn't continued to the Colonie Town Line, about a quarter-mile further.

Since I had no idea whether Colonie had cleared any of the path, I headed west to Lock 7 Road and back, and settled for a very short ride of under 4 miles.  I could have gone back and forth a few times to bump up the total, but there were large numbers of walkers also out today on the path, and it just would have been more trouble than it was worth.

I don't know what the rest of the winter (or the year) will bring, but I now at least have January under my belt, and will hope for 11 more months of the same.

Snowshoeing - Thomas Mountain

The Cat and Thomas Mountain Preserve, near Bolton Landing, has been getting a lot of good press over the past couple of years, but we still hadn't had a chance to check it out.  So yesterday, with XC skiing looking more and more marginal as the thaw continues, Holly and I set off for the relatively short hike to Thomas Mountain.  We decided to do this hike as a loop, ascending via the blue-marked Two Brothers Trail, and descending by the old road marked with orange markers.

It was a foggy murky day in the woods, and we didn't know if we'd get any views today or not.

As we reached the side trail to the viewpoint on the blue trail, there were hints of milky blue sky and sun above us, but that viewpoint was still solidly socked in.  So we continued on to the cabin near the summit of Thomas.

There are reportedly very nice views from here, as shown on the Preserve's web page:

but our fog looked more like this:

This was definitely the most civilized summit I have ever hiked to, Whiteface aside.  The cabin was open to hikers, and even had a couple of comfortable chairs facing the large window and today's non-view.  It made a great lunch stop.

The walk back down the road was much faster than the trail we'd taken up, and soon we were back at the car.  This one definitely deserves a return visit on a clearer day, and maybe even a trip down the ridge to Cat Mountain as well.

XC Skiing - Saratoga Spa State Park

Every winter, the Environmental Clearinghouse (ECOS) holds Tuesday morning ski trips to various places in the local area.  Most of these locations are decided on the fly a few days before, based on snow conditions and some pre-scouting by volunteers.  But the first trip every year begins at the warming hut at Saratoga Spa State Park, and adjourns there afterwards for hot drinks, snacks and socializing.  Today was the day for that trip, and the kickoff of the season.

The day dawned very cold and clear, and we were a little concerned that the previously thawed snow might be a little icy on the park's golf course, where tracks are set around a total of a 4-mile course.  The 40+ attendees split into three groups (fast, moderate, and not-so-fast), and headed off in several different directions from the warming hut.  Holly joined the moderate group, and I joined the fast group, doing the entire 4+ miles, at a pretty good clip.

Our route in orange

The tracks were hard and fast, even icy in spots, but there was just enough grip to get a good kick/glide going, and once your speed was up, it stayed up.  Golf course skiing is not my favorite, but being able to fly along like this is a real treat sometimes.  Our group covered the route in under two hours, including regrouping time, and then we all got back together at the warming for the apres-ski snacks and a roaring fire.

XC Skiing - Clapper Hollow State Forest

Today, I led a ski trip for Schenectady ADK to Clapper Hollow State Forest, in southwestern Schoharie County.  It seems like a faraway place, but with I-88, it only takes an hour to get there, and at over 2,100 feet in elevation, the snow can be superb.

Another group had skied here earlier in the week, and I had gathered some intelligence from them about trails that would be pre-broken for us.  As it turned out, one of those people joined us today for a return trip.  Our goal was a lean-to on a small pond, where we'd have lunch, check the time, and decide what to do next.  Overall, we were only looking for 2-3 hours of skiing total for this early in everybody's season.

We left the cars, and skied trails 4-1-5-1-6, approaching the leanto from the north at about the 3.2-mile mark, where we stopped for a nice lunch break.  Then came the real fun.  One nice thing about this place is that the start of the day is a long uphill climb to a relatively flat hilltop, and then the run back to the cars is a long sweet mostly gentle downhill. 

We retraced our tracks, but opted to skip #4 on the way out, to stay within the comfort zones of some present, and exited by the longer gentler #1 instead.

The trails here are all numbered and easy to follow, provided you have a map like the one above, available in the ECOS publication Ski and Snowshoe Tips, available at several local bookstores in the Capital District.  It's also very easy to get turned around, especially without such a map.

The snow was great, and we had a good group, so this was a very enjoyable day.  More playing in this ephemeral snow will surely follow in the days to come.

XC Skiing - Schenectady County Forest

Between a tiring ski outing yesterday, and leading a Schenectady Chapter ADK ski trip tomorrow, Holly and I got out for a short leisurely ski around the Schenectady County Forest, near Mariaville this afternoon.  There are several loop possibilities here, and we chose the longest one, which takes somewhat less than an hour.  The snow was still excellent, and the trails had been well-skied, making for a pleasant circuit through the snowy woods.