Thursday, July 30, 2015

CHECKING OUT A NEW TRAIL
6.1 Mile Run in the Albany Pine Bush
Thursday, July 30, 2015

I really should have gotten out for this run either Tuesday or Wednesday, but today was really the final chance, to see how my knees might hold up for one or both of the races this weekend (People's Forest on Saturday, Indian Ladder on Sunday.) I'd thought to ease back in with the relatively easy trails at Schodack Island State Park, but time got away from me and I opted for the much closer Pine Bush trails - plus no one would lock me in if I took too long.

The Albany Pine Bush Commission has been making some pretty big changes to the trail system that I've known for close to 15 years now... eliminating connecting trails, moving trails closer to the boundaries of the various areas, all in an effort to minimize human encroachment on the rare pine bush ecosystem. They've also done a lot of invasive species removal and more recently tree thinning (ie. getting rid of lots of native trees as well) in hopes of restoring the pine bush to a state more like what it would be if natural burning occurred. While I support the goal, as I've said before - I still miss the trails and woods that I've spent countless hours on over the past decade or so. Oh, well... as someone wiser than I said, the only thing constant in life is change.

One of the new trails runs from the Madison Avenue Pinelands trailhead over to DiCaprio Park in Schenectady - about 3 miles one way, according to the new trail maps. While I don't generally run out-and-backs, this seemed like a reasonably good opportunity to both explore the new trail and cut my run shorter if needed (simply by turning around and heading back.) In the end, my knees and legs mostly cooperated with my curiosity, and I went all the way to the official trailhead at DiCaprio Park before heading back.

Overall, it's a fairly nice trail... only a couple of hilly spots where it drops down into ravines to cross two streams on a pair of very nice, newly constructed bridges. The rest is flat or slightly rolling. After the first half mile it's wooded, which is a nice change from the open meadows that many of the previously wooded spots have been converted to. There are two road crossings, and at least one is probably pretty busy at the various 'rush hours', and the last 3/10's of a mile or so in the park skirt along the edge of the soccer fields.

All that remains now is to see how much my knees grumble tomorrow... and then decide which (if any) races I'm plodding my way through this weekend...

JMH

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