the Way of the Turtle

RIDING THE TRAILS AGAIN
15 Mile Ride Through the Pine Bush
Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Albany Pine Bush trail map

About 2 1/2 weeks ago the rear axle on my ATB snapped, and it was an unusual enough size that the Downtube (one of the best bike shops in Albany needed to order it for me. I finally got the new axle a few days ago, installed it, and then spent a while getting the rear derailleur properly adjusted again. But today I was able to hit the trails again, so I headed over the Rensselaer Lake park with the plan to ride through several sections of the Pine Bush.

It was definitely fun to be trail riding again, even if the riding I do is considered basic beginners stuff by mountain biking standards. One nice thing about being out in the middle of the day - very few other folks on the trails with me! I rode through the Rapp Barrens as a warmup, then hit the road into the Fox Run property (a trailer park which is gradually being returned to the Pine Bush as the leases run out) to try to find the entrance to the overgrown dirt road that runs over to the Karner Barrens. No luck - everything was either overgrown or looked like somebody's yard, so I headed over to Columbia Circle and the Blueberry Hill sections via the road.

Blueberry Hill East was stripped down to bare sand last November to get rid of an infestation of black locust trees (restoring the native habitat, I think they call it.) I understand the rationale, but it destroyed one of my favorite sections of trail there and left the whole area looking like a desert for months. It's looking a lot better, now that the grass is growing back, but the trails are still a bit rough to ride. Made my way around the perimeter, then jumped on the trail to the Kaikout Kill Barrens, which was a bramble-fest. Ended up pushing my bike and getting my legs chewed to pieces by pricker bushes. (The same thing happened last summer... you'd think I'd learn better.) Fortunately the trail through the barrens was brush-hogged late last summer, so that was relatively clear.

From there I decided to head over to the Karner Barrens rather than going through the Madison Avenue Pinelands and the Great Dune sections (where I usually run and ride) - haven't been on the bike much this summer, and I was getting tired. Got to the trail heading back to the dirt road I'd been searching for earlier, and not only found it closed off, but could also hear the sounds of machinery and workers - probably something to do with the City of Albany's plans to expand the landfill (a huge money maker for Albany) into that section of the Pine Bush. Yup, just gotta love Mayor Jerry. So I continued on the trails and found a side trail over to the area I wanted to go. Explored for a bit, then took the overgrown dirt road down into the Fox Run property (through some sections that were extremely overgrown - no wonder I couldn't find it from the other side!), headed back through the Rapp Barrens, and ended up back where I started at Rensselaer Lake park.

One very cool thing - I saw a pileated woodpecker on one of the shaded trails in the Blueberry Hill section. What a huge bird! (When I was running in Thacher Park two weeks ago I glimpsed two large black birds with red heads flying away - now I know what they were!) Unfortunately all I got was a glimpse as he flew off into the woods, but still very cool.

JMH