Friday, August 17, 2007
Albany Pine Bush trail map (PDF)
photo slideshow
Ended up at the Pine Bush for my run today, mostly because it was convenient... I could get in the distance I wanted fairly easily without running too many repeat loops (which ruled out Five Rivers) and there aren't any really long, tough hills (which ruled out Thacher... I'm trying to give my legs a break before the very challenging Savoy 20 miler on Sunday.)
I was a bit surprised as I drove to the Willow Street trailhead to see a flock of turkeys dash across the road in front of me... fortunately I had my camera on the seat next to me and managed to get a couple of shots before they disappeared into somebody's back yard. Seeing them brought back memories of living down in Taghkanic when I first moved back to NYS - every so often I'd see the cats sitting in the window entranced and knew that meant there was a flock of turkeys out in my very small front yard.
I haven't run that much in the Pine Bush this summer, so it was nice to be back on familiar trails... in the 2 1/2 hours that I was out there, I saw two other people, and one of those was leaving as I arrived! It was a great day for a run, mostly sunny with a cool breeze... actually, there were times when I was running on the shaded trails and felt a bit chilly, but out in the sunshine the temperature was just right.
The massive part of the Great Dune section that was cleared last fall for habitat restoration (mainly to remove an infestation of non-native black locust trees) has developed a reasonably nice cover of vegetation, so it's no longer a desert to run through. Something similar was done along the powerline right-of-way two years ago, so perhaps that provides a glimpse of what this portion will be like with another year of growth... not the wonderful shady woods it once was, but much nicer than the barren stretch of blowing sand that marked the area for the first half of 2007.
Sections of the powerlines trail were lined with wildflowers, so at times I was running a narrow path through flowers, butterflies, bees, and other insects... with some great photo opportunities. There were some gorgeous larger butterflies (swallowtails and possibly a monarch or two) but they never seemed to settle long enough near the trail for me to get a good picture. But I'm very pleased with some of the shots I got of the smaller butterflies and bumblebees.
Best of all, when I'd finished running... my legs felt decent. I'd definitely gone running, but wasn't totally fried and useless for the rest of the day (a good thing, since I'm helping with karate class tonight and then teaching a bo class!)
So this was a week without a long run... 11 miles, 13.5 miles, and 10 miles... which overall felt pretty good. As the fall progresses, I hope to keep my shorter runs to around 10-11 miles, which feels like a good base for longer distances (though, scheduling-wise, I'll probably have to bite the bullet sometimes and only do 6-8 miles... given that it takes me at least 2 hours to run 10 miles!)
JMH
