the Way of the Turtle

4.7 Mile Ride at Papscanee Island Nature Preserve
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Open Space Institute Papscanee Island site

Papscanee Island is one of two parks/preserves along the Hudson River just south of Albany that used to be an island, but due to dredging and filling is now an extension of the shoreline. The floodplain was farmed by the Mohican Indians until the mid-1600's, when Kiliaen van Rensselaer bought the land from the Mohicans. The area continued to be used primarily for farming, and in fact sections of the preserve continue to be used for agriculture today. (For more information see both the OSI Papscanee site and RTLC/ECOS's Natural Areas of Rensselaer County New York, 2nd Edition.)

I had been to the Papscanne Preserve twice before, but never ventured very far from the small parking lot. Since it turned out to be a fairly hot humid day I decided to do some riding instead of running, and packed my ATB to explore the trails at both Papscanee and Schodack Island State Park, which is just a few miles south.

The trails in the southern end of the preserve were fairly narrow and twisty, which made for some fun riding - fortunately no one else was there when I started out, as there was no room to pass! Took one trail down to an small open area near the river, which was nice. Heading north, the trails became dirt and grass access roads, which were much easier riding, though muddy in a few spots. I had two more opportunities to go down to the Hudson, with better views north and south along the water.

I might come back here sometime to go for a short run... it's a fairly nice area that would be easy running, the main disadvantage being that it's fairly small and one loop would only be five miles or so... but that's a decent short run.

JMH