Saturday, January 31, 2009

FIRST RIDE OF 2009
8.0 Mile Ride at the Corning Preserve
Saturday, January 31, 2009

I went back and forth about stopping on the way home to visit one or two parks along the way I'd never been to before... but in the end I came back here, changed into cold weather riding gear, and took my ATB down to the Corning Preserve for a short ride to the far end of the preserve and back. The weather was just too nice to pass up a chance to spin the pedals a bit, and apparently the path is being plowed for its entire length now (it used to only be cleared for a mile or two.) There was a light layer on snow from the squalls we had last night, but that was no big deal.

It felt good to be on one of my bikes again... I've got to put in some miles if I want to ride in the du's at the National Duathlon Festival at the end of April!

Along the way I saw beaver tracks (at least, I assume they were... they went between two streams and were along a flat drag mark that looked like it could have been made by a beaver's tail) and a huge flock of crows (who flew further away whenever I stopped to take a picture of them.) And two mallards looking rather chilly and lonely along one of the few open stretches of water... despite the fact that I've seen ice-breakers going down the Hudson, the river was frozen over and covered with snow.

JMH
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