Friday, August 29, 2008
The weather turned out to be better than predicted today, so after some delays due to my street being closed by the fire department dealing with a fire next door, I headed over to the Pine Bush with my mountain bike to do something I've done very little of this summer - trail riding.
I wasn't entirely sure exactly where I wanted to go, but I started at the Blueberry Hill East trailhead and headed off into the woods and fields. I rode the perimeter over the the West trailhead, with a detour up to the hilltop to look out over the fields, which were mowed sometime in the last month, like the rest of the Pine Bush fields I've seen recently. Then I headed off on the Kaikout Kill Barrens loop. I was a little concerned that trail would be overgrown with brambles, but it had been cleared not too long ago and was great to ride, though the unofficial conecting trail to Rte 155 was badly overgrown - one brush with a plant left my right glove, seat cover, and trail jersey covered with tiny green burrs that I'll be picking off for months!
Crossed the road and headed off on the Great Dune trails. With the blue and yellow trails closed due to habitat restoration (removal of invasive species, particularly black locust trees) all I did was a basic loop along the red trail before heading over to the Madision Avenue Pinelands. Didn't ride many of the trails there, because they tend to be very sandy and more often than not I end up pushing the bike in those sections... so I took a fairly direct route to the trailhead and then headed off on a somewhat scary road ride to get to the Karner Barrens.
Instead of trying to cross Rte 155 again (which is extremely busy at that time of day) I took advantage of the wide shoulder and rode facing traffic the short distance to the entrance to the west Karner Barrens. Had a fun if challenging ride through the fields - the paths are somewhat uneven under the grass cover, and the recent mowing left some slash in spots, which meant I ended up stopping several times to pick sticks out of my wheels and derailleur. (After destroying my rear derailleur by riding through slash back in 2005, I tend to be careful about that now!) Passed under the bridge over the Thruway and made my way through the fields and woods of the east Karner Barrens. Since I skipped the worst hills in the other sections, this was some of the toughest terrain I rode today, and I definitely started feeling it in my legs.
Paused briefly outside the Pine Bush Discovery Center, then headed back out on the trails to make my way over to the Fox Run trailer park and some road riding to get to the last section of Pine Bush I'd be visiting the Rapp Barrens. The smell from the nearby Albany Landfill was nasty - I have to feel sorry for the folks living near there, who end up smelling that all the time and have the landfill looming over them. The landfill has been a hot topic over the last couple of years. Since the City of Albany gets approximately 10% of its yearly budget from landfill revenues (generated in a large part by non-local companies that pay to dump waste there) and the plans to build a new landfill in Coeymans will probably be blocked forever by the residents there, the local government has a vested interest in keeping the landfill running as long as possible and has on several occasions attempted to expand the landfill onto land that is either already protected as part of the Pine Bush Preserve or is promised to someday be a part of the Preserve. Needless to say, local conservation groups, especially Save the Pine Bush, have fought these plans every step of the way.
The Rapp Road section of the Pine Bush is one of the first parts I ever visited, and is also the spot where the Albany Running Exchange's annual Dodge the Deer 5k race was originally held, until the ARE had a major falling out with the Pine Bush Commission and moved most of their events to other venues. The 2005 Dodge the Deer race was the first one I ran when I resumed running and riding on a regular basis, so I have a lot of fond memories of the trails, though I don't run there very often - the trails are fairly short and I have to run multiple loops to run any appreciable distance. Today I rode the main trail twice, mainly because they're wide and fairly flat, so it's easy riding, plus I was having a good time and wanted to delay the end of my ride. Along the way I spotted a fairly large toad (eat lots of bugs, dude!) and spent a while watching a group of ducks eating plants off the bottom of the narrow waterway connecting the main body of Renssellaer Lake with its extensions into the Preserve.
click for larger image
From there I had a quick ride along the paved bike path over to Rapp Road... after struggling along sandy trails, buzzing along pavement seems a breeze! Then I had the last road leg to ride. Initially I was worried this would be the hardest part of the ride, in terms to dealing with traffic, but it actually went very smoothly, and I quickly found myself back where I started at the Blueberry Hills East trailhead.
I really enjoyed having a chance to see a lot of the different sections of the Pine Bush today - as I've said previously, I haven't spent as much time on these trails as I have some other summers, so it was nice being there today. Today's ride also reminded me that I'd like to spend more time riding trails - I've only gone out on my ATB twice this summer. I definitely need to put in more time on it before the Black Diamond Offroad Duathlon in October, though much of the riding in that race is on well-graded rail trails that I could probably ride my road bike on. My ride today also left me once again considering getting a bike without rear suspension - I think I waste a certain amount of energy and momentum in the rear suspension bounce, and since I'm riding an inexpensive department store bike it can't be tightened any more than it already is. In nay case, I'd still be looking at a department store bike to replace it - I'm too novice a trail rider and I don't ride off-road often enough to justify spending too much on a mountain bike.
JMH
