the Way of the Turtle

6.4 Mile Run at Schodack Island State Park
Sunday, February 21, 2010

Headed to Schodack Island State Park just down the Hudson River before going home, hoping to get in some more snowshoeing... alas, all I found was mud and lots of ice, so I ended up running instead. It was cold and windy in the parking lot and down at the boat launch, but not so bad most of the time on the trails. Passed a decent number of folks walking dogs (a popular activity there, from what I've seen in the past) and one fellow with a birding scope on his shoulder (though how he expected to hear birds is beyond me, given that he had earphones on.)

Along the way I saw an old brick chimney that I missed the last time I was there, right on the banks of the Hudson... I suspect the remnant of one of the many ice houses that used to line the banks of the river. (See the map on page 3 of Daniel Calandro's Hudson River Valley Ice Houses and Ice Industry... there are ice houses marked on what it now the state park, between New Baltimore and Castleton on the map. Calandro notes that there were 13 ice house complexes on the islands that have since been combined to form the park.) Commerical ice cutting, storage, and shipping was a major industry in the upper Hudson Valley in the 1800's, with Hudson River ice shipped all over the world. The industry died out in the early 1900's with the advent of refrigeration/freezer technology and man-made ice. Calandro's paper is well worth a look for anyone interested in local history, as it not only discusses the ice houses and the industry as a whole but also describes in detail the techniques that were used to harvest, store, and transport the ice... the ingenuity of our forefathers was really quite impressive! The paper is part of the Hudson River Valley Institute library, which contains a lot of cool info about the history of the Hudson River Valley. Well worth checking out! The second time I passed the chimney I tried to bushwhack down to it to get better photos, but it was surrounded by brambles and after getting jabbed numerous times I gave up... running gear is not the clothing to brave a thicket of thorn bushes.

I'd been hoping to go onto the southern portion of the island which was restricted when I was there last time (eagles nest there; it may also be where the heron rookery is.) I vaguely remembered something about that part being open in the winter, but unfortunately, access is only allowed from Oct 15-Dec 31, so I turned around. No eagle sightings today, sigh.

I did spot chickadees, titmouses (titmice?), and downy woodpeckers... also heard a nuthatch and I think cardinals, and I may have seen some juncos at the very end (they were zipping from one bush to another.) There were crows and gulls by the river; when I finished up, a group of crows went over heading upriver, followed by a group of gulls. Spotted two pileated woodpeckers very briefly, flying deeper into the woods. But the sight of the day was a large group (several dozen) of robins digging around in the leaves along and off the trail looking for food. The racket they made was incredible, as was their persistance... they would be tearing through a section of leaves, then fly up the trail 100 yds when I came along and start all over again. They repeated this several times until finally they got tired of me interrupting them and headed off further into the woods.

Schodack Island is one of the parks on the chopping block if the current NYS budget proposal goes through; hopefully a way will be found to keep it open and I can get back there this summer to perhaps see the herons on the Schodack Creek mud flats again...

JMH