the Way of the Turtle

13.7 Mile Ride at the Corning Preserve & Schuyler Flatts
Friday, November 27, 2009

Since I'm not not ready to risk running, I hustled my backside out the door this morning to get in a short ride down at the Corning Preserve and Schuyler Flatts before the predicted rain blew in (as it turned out, the rain never amounted to more than a few spatters.) I seemed to be moving at a better clip than yesterday, though it was also definitely a bit colder - still, I got used to that fairly quickly. Took a few photos along the way, though the grey skies didn't really lend themselves to much in the way of sunning scenery.

Last year the Watervliet section of the bike path was repaved, and it was always a rude jolt to go from the nice smooth new pavement to the crumbling, bumpy old path in the Albany portion of the trail. Apparently this summer Albany finally got with it and repaved their section... and also decided to spend a bunch of money on a huge sign letting everyone know that they're entering the Corning Trail and the Albany section. I like the repaving but the sign seems like a waste of money designed more to trumpet "Albany!" and Mayor Jerry more than anything else.

After riding through the two parks, I headed south along the river to the riverfront park and then down to the dock where the retired destroyer escort the USS Slater is docked. I've driven past it dozens of times and find it even more interesting after reading about it in Jessica DuLong's captivating book My River Chronicles (DuLong is an engineer on the fireboat John J. Harvey out of NYC and describes visiting the Slater which has a similar powerhouse.) One of these days I think I'm going to have to do the tour, maybe sometime when Ann's down here visiting, since she'd probably be interested too.) I rode a bit further hoping to see Island Creek Park, but stopped when the sidewalk ran out and I didn't feel like risking riding in traffic.

JMH