the Way of the Turtle

2.3 Mile Walk on the Mohawk Hudson Bike Path
Friday, November 18, 2011

I had planned to go for a ride tonight after work - even left early enough that I could have started in daylight - but as has been the case far too often this fall, I was just too darned tired when I got home. But after eating a bit of dinner I did manage to pry myself off the couch to go out and run some errands, with the understanding that I'd also go for a walk.

Started out at Buckingham Lake, and spent a few moments tossing cracked corn to the ducks - took them a while to figure it out, since it was getting dark and the corn fragments were really tough to see. But in the end I just didn't feel like walking two loops around the pond, so I headed over the the bike path instead and walked down the to Niska Isle bridge and back.

It was a really good night for a walk - I actually found myself wishing I'd dressed to run instead. Chilly but not too cold, lots of stars visible... I heard muskrats and geese out on the river and flushed a heron under the bridge; I couldn't see him, but I heard the sound of his wings as he took off and he squawked angrily at me when he got a ways away.

All too soon that section of the bike path may be one of the few places I can run without snowshoes at night, and no doubt I will be quite tired of it by the time winter is over... but for tonight it was the perfect place for a walk.

JMH