Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Another day of awful heat and humidity... initially I thought I was just spoiled by all the nice weather we've had so far, but then I saw reports describing this as "record-breaking heat" and "more like south Florida than NY" and realized that it's pretty reasonable that I spent much of the day not wanting to do much more than melt into a puddle of sweat. Gah.
I had planned to run this evening but decided that a ride made more sense, so I headed over to Lock 8 to put in a few miles on the bike path. Only a few other folks on the path tonight, mostly on bikes... I guess no one wanted to be outside under these conditions, though I thought it was pretty comfortable while I was riding and even wondered if I should have run instead.
The shoreline of the pond they built for wetlands mitigation (I believe to make up for a patch of wetlands that was destroyed when they started building the new bridge at exit 6 on the Northway) was covered in yellow flowers with burgundy centers... very nice, especially with the sunlight coming in at a shallow angle due to it being late in the day.
Lots of critters around... several bunnies, including one that was unusually calm about me being only a couple of feet away. Just after I crossed route 5 and started riding along the old Erie Canal there was a gorgeous milk snake stretched almost across the entire path... I imagine he was enjoying the warm pavement. I took some pictures then chased him into the grass before someone came along and ran him over.
I saw several groups of wood ducks and ducklings in the old canal, including a male still in breeding plumage. And down at Gateway Landing Park near SCCC I spent a few minutes watching a heron hunt... he seemed to be finding a lot of possibilities for dinner in the shallow water.
JMH
