the Way of the Turtle

A BARRED OWL & NASTY LOGGING
8.6 Mile Run in the Albany Pine Bush
Thursday, June 30, 3016

A pleasant surprise during today's run in the Pine Bush - I startled a barred owl which flew to a branch where he (or she) was visible and stayed there, occasionally calling, for long enough that I was able to get some photos and a short video. And then a little later I saw a group of deer that included two bucks.

Unfortunately I suspect I also found out why the Albany Running Exchange moved their Brave the Blizzard snowshoe race away from Guilderland Elementary again. The race was originally held on Preserve trails after a short bit on privately-owned land between the school & the preserve. Then it was moved for a couple of years over to the Parker School in Troy, before returning to Guilderland, but this time run entirely on trails on private land adjacent to the Preserve. What I learned today is that may of those trails are gone... a large section of the property has been logged and the trails have been torn up. I spent a while making my way through the mess in hopes of finding some of the trails intact, but no such luck - it almost looks like the work was done in a way that deliberately wiped out the trails (not that I can blame the landowner, since the trails had been made there illegally by the Pine Bush mountain bikers.

I was a bit surprised at how fried my legs were... earlier this week I'd thought to do 10-11 miles either yesterday or today, and I was hard-pressed to do the 8+ that I did.

JMH