18.9 Mile Ride on the Mohawk Hudson Bike Path
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Headed over to the bike path shortly after getting home, hoping to get my ride done before the rain moved through... unfortunately I was headed toward the dark clouds, and less than a mile after I started riding the rain began. Good thing I'd packed a rain jacket, because it got heavy pretty quickly.
It didn't last long, maybe 15 minutes or so, and then the storm moved on and the sun reappeared. So maybe I should have goofed off at home for a while, I might have gotten to the path after the storm moved through! On the other hand, there was definitely something enjoyable about riding in the rain and not letting a little bad weather get me down. Though I can't say I minded when it let up...
After dropping the rain jacket back in the car, I headed east to SCCC and back. Easy riding the entire way, my legs are still grumbling about Sunday's trek at Soapstone. When I got back to the car, I picked up my camera and rode out to Scrafford Lane one more time.
During my 1st leg along the old canal, a tiny turtle was scrambling across the bike path... unfortunately it was raining too hard to get a picture of him. I left the camera in the car when I dropped off my rain jacket, which turned out to be unfortunate - on the way back from SCCC I passed a 2 ft milk snake with some absolutely gorgeous colors. After watching him for a while I herded him off the pavement before someone came along and ran him over.
I did take a few shots my second time along the old canal... a baltimore oriole perched in a tree long enough for me to get some pictures (usually they just tease me by calling from behind a bunch of leafy branches) and a wood duck hopped up on the leg where one of the geese is nesting while I was there. The oddest thing was it appears one of the nests has been abandoned... no geese in sight, and the eggs are clearly intact. I wonder what happened to the female and her mate?
On a totally different note, the last few times I visited this section of the path, it was "closed" from Mabee Lane to Scrafford Lane due to a spot where the pavement had become undermined and collapsed. I was worried that the powers-that-be would just leave it that way... but today it had been repaired, which made me very happy. This is one of my favorite local areas to visit, so it's good to see that someone is willing to put some money into keeping it repaired. Maybe they're finally serious about putting a tunnel under the tracks... though that's been "in the works" for at least as long as I've been in the Albany area.
JMH
