Rochester to Albany
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
The drive between Albany and Rochester is old hat, no matter which direction I'm going. While the drive itself can often be more than a bit dull, one plus to driving during the day is that there's always something new to look at. Today, for example, I saw multitudes of geese flying back and forth, half a dozen hawks, two flying herons, and even a couple of turkey.
One sight which I see on any trip in daylight is the Noses just east of Canajoharie. These are two hills with a valley in between, with the Mohawk River and the NYS Thruway running through the valley. Route 5S runs under the base of Little Nose, which overlooks the Thruway, and Route 5 runs along the base of Big Nose on the other side of the river. The Noses stand out to me in part because several years ago while stopped at a rest stop, one of the karate instructors pointed to a historical photo on an information kiosk and wondered where it was taken. I recognized the outline of the Noses immediately and told her to be sure to keep her eyes open as we got closer to Canajoharie and she'd recognize it... which just goes to show that you can drive past something hundreds of times and not notice it.
Little Nose (L) and Big Nose (R), heading west on Saturday
Big Nose (L) and Little Nose (R), heading east today
I considered stopping somewhere along the way today to do a bit of exploring, but it was such a grey gloomy day that I decided to go straight home instead. With luck the weather will be nicer when I drive out west again and I can do either some hiking or some running along the way.
JMH
