13 Mile Ride on the Mohawk Hudson Bike Path
Thursday, August 28, 2008

The first day of pre-school-year meetings finished early enough that I had some time between getting home and teaching class at the karate school, so I loaded the bike on the car and headed over to the bike path to get in a short easy ride (my legs were feeling a bit tired after the last three days of riding and running...) Naturally I ended up pushing harder than I intended... the overcast weather helped, since there wasn't much temptation to stop and snap photos.









Probably the coolest part of the ride was the very end, when I got back to the Niskayuna Lions Park and spotted what looked like a cormorant at the edge of the water down at the boat launch. Parked the bike and made my way carefully down there... definitely a cormorant! Initially he hopped in the water and swam out a bit, then submerged and came up a little ways away... when he saw I was still there he took off, flying downstream until I couldn't see him anymore.

















JMH

11.9 Mile Run at Grafton State Park & Pittstown State Forest
Wednesday, August 27, 2008

8.8 Mile Run in the Albany Pine Bush
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

It seems fitting somehow that I went to my favorite section of the Pine Bush for one of my last runs of my summer vacation... despite all the changes that have been made to the Madison Avenue Pinelands and the Great Dune, I have a lot of good memories running those trails (though I really miss the acres of woods that were stripped for "habitat restoration.")





I guess it was also symbolic that I ran the last couple of miles in increasing darkness... summer draws to a close and the days get shorter... and yet the wonderful fall running season is right around the corner, and the snowshoe season after that...





I haven't run in the Pine Bush much this summer... I think that's partly because I know that over the next six months or so the Pine Bush will be one of the main places I go, because I can run there after dark. So it was nice to see the trails in daylight... even if it was rapidly fading daylight.





Spent a little while checking out the current habitat restoration project... more acres of woods stripped to bare ground, and major sections of trail blocked until they clear out the fallen trees. I managed to find the rather overgrown blue trail and followed it out... it was tough going for a while, since the brambles have pretty much taken over while the trail's been closed. It's going to take some work to clear that path once the work is done this fall - I suspect they'll end up brush-hogging the path.





One more day of freedom and then it's back to work!





JMH

27.8 Mile Ride on the Erie Canalway Trail, Camillus to Jordan
Monday, August 25, 2008

Two of the fun things about spending lots of time outdoors are seeing new places (something I've done quite a bit of this summer!) and revisiting places I've already been (ditto!) This summer I've spent quite a bit of time on the Erie Canalway Trail, a 380 mile path that when completed will run from Albany to Buffalo with very few (and fairly short) on-road segments. At the present time approximately 70% of the off-road portions of the trail are complete.

For obvious reasons I ride the sections in the Albany-Schenectady area most frequently, but in the summer I also try to spend time on some of the more distant portions. This year I've ridden most of the trail from Amsterdam to Fort Plain, a section between Utica and Oriskany, and a short portion in the Old Erie Canal State Park between Chittenango and Manlius. I've also ridden some of the sections near Rochester, heading both east and west.

A number of years ago (in either 2003 or 2004) I rode a section between Camillus and Jordan, and found the trail conditions to be widely varied... some parts were easy riding, one section was singletrack so overgrown that I needed to walk my bike in spots because I couldn't see what I might ride into in the undergrowth, and another stretch was a complete mud-pit. Needless to say, I hada pretty good time... Back in March 2006 I also rode a bit around Jordan, but ended up doing a lot of that ride on roads because the trail surface was too loose to ride without incredible effort.

The decision of where to ride today was a tough one - I also wanted to ride the Ontario Pathways trail, especially since they've opened a number of new trail segments since I last rode there in August 2005. But in the end the Erie Canalway won out, mostly because it's a bit more distant from Rochester - there's at least a slight chance I may convince Ann to come ride Ontario Pathways with me sometime this fall.

I parked at Warners Park, near the midpoint of the ride I hoped to do, and headed east on the trail toward Camillus. The stone dust was a little thick in spots, but I was still able to ride comfortably on my road bike. After about a mile and a half, the path merged with a fairly bumpy dirt road, and at about 2 miles I found myself at the Camillus Erie Canal Park. The main feature of the park is the Sims Store Museum, a rebuilt canal store which also has numerous exhibits about canal history. I spent a few minutes wandering around the exhibits, then continued east along the path.

The next notable point I passed was the Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct, which used to carry the canal across Nine Mile Creek.

A Short Walk at the Mason Valley Trails
Sunday, August 24, 2008

Town of Perinton Crescent Trail page

In 1996 Perinton was named one of the top ten "Trail Towns" by the American Hiking Association, in recognition of the 35 mile Crescent Trail system which runs throughout the town and gives hikers access to a wide variety of terrain and habitats. I picked the Mason Valley trails (called the Wetlands Section in Rich and Sue Freeman's Take a Hike! Family Walks in the Rochester Area) out as a nice place to go for a short walk this weekend. The description said that the trails passed through streams and woods, near several ponds and streams, and an active beaver area, as well as varied bird habitat, so I hoped we'd have the opportunity to see some wildlife.





Well, the trails did pass through fields and woods and near three ponds and some streams, but overall this was a fairly disappointing walk. It didn't help that the weather turned hot and extremely humid today. The trails are essentially at the edge of the large housing development, so for part of the time we were walking just beyond peoples' backyards. Didn't see much in the way of wildlife... robins, some small frogs and toads, and one snake. Oh, and lots of mosquitoes and in one spot a large group of honeybees. Ann didn't realize it, but she disturbed them as she walked through the area where they were gathering pollen, so I ended up waiting a bit to carefully pick my way though and hope I wouldn't get stung again this weekend... my swollen toe is annoying enough!





We did have a decent view of one pond, but the rest were pretty well hidden behind marsh grasses and cattails. Maybe this would be a nicer walk in cooler weather, when the bugs and bees are gone and there's more visibility. Perhaps we'll try coming back in a different season and see if it's more enjoyable then...





JMH

Freakin' Bee!
Saturday, August 23, 2008

I rarely wear sandals... mostly just after races, when I want to give my feet some fresh air to cool off or dry off, or sometimes if I'm just running outdoors quick to do something and expect to come right back in. But today I figured they were a sensible idea, since I'd be changing into and out of my paddling shoes.

After we arrived at the Churchville Park "boat launch" I walked over to the edge of the water to check out the two possible sites to put in. The closest was small and looked a bit muddy, so I headed over to the larger spot and decided it was a better choice, with a layer of gravel extending out into the water.

As I walked back to Ann's truck, something jabbed my second toe on my right foot, so I shook my foot figuring I'd picked up some type of biting insect, got jabbed again, and out popped a bee.

That really didn't put me in the best mood...

It could have been worse. I generally only have mild reactions to bee stings (though the last few have stayed swollen and itchy for quite a while) and this one was at least in a spot that wouldn't interfere with my paddling (or riding over the next few days, though it remains to be seen if I'll be able to run.)

I had a bunch of choice words to say at the time, but at this point I'll settle for "sigh."

JMH

6.2 Mile Paddle on Black Creek
Saturday, August 23, 2008

For today's paddling adventure we headed over to Churchville Park to put into Black Creek a ways above the Churchville dam. According the Rich and Sue Freeman's Take a Paddle - Western New York the creek upstream of the dam is deep and wide, and as of publication of the book the channel was clear at least as far as the Bergen Swamp. Given the fun time we had paddling Black Creek down in Chili, we expected to have a good time on this upstream stretch.







Quite a bit of traffic on the creek, a couple of motorized fishing boats, a couple of canoes, and a few kayaks. Not as much as over in Irondequoit, but still busy compared to some of the places we've paddled.







The creek was wide and sunny, which made for hot going... the channel twisted and turned, and in one or two places it was even tricky to pick out the main channel - at one point I paddled down a wide section only to find the route through blocked by a tree, but fortunately the other route was clear.







Lots of wildlife along the way... turtles galore, plus a few herons and egrets. Ann may have even glimpsed a beaver at one point. After the initial stretch past houses, the sides of the creek were mostly wooded, though we did pass a very nice campsite down near the spot where we turned around.





We stopped at the Route 19 bridge. I'd hoped we'd be able to paddle into the Bergen Swamp and see if the creek has been cleared recently (the Freeman's reported it as a paddling nightmare of constant portages through nettles and poison ivy due to all the blow-downs, but noted that other paddlers had mentioned the channel being clear at times) but between the heat and the distance we'd already covered we decided instead to head back. The creek through the swamp will have to wait for another trip...





JMH

7.5 Mile Run on the Genesee Valley Greenway
Friday, August 22, 2008

map of the northern section of the Greenway

I had originally thought to run at Black Creek Park or Mendon Ponds today, to get some hill work in, but the way my legs felt while I was taking care of some chores and errands this morning convinced me that my best bet was to stick to more level ground. In the end I headed over to the Genesee Valley Greenway... some summers I've done a lot of running and riding there, but over the past couple of years I haven't visited the trail all that much.







After the cool weather we've been having, today's heat was tough to deal with... add in the fact that I got off to a late start and didn't want to get home too much after when Ann got back from work and I kept the run relatively short. I first ran north to the railroad tracks, in part because I wanted to see the culvert we'd paddled under earlier in the summer. Along the way I saw several frogs and quite a few grasshoppers and listened to the kingfisher chattering away down by Black Creek.







One of the nice things about this time of year are the numbers of wildflowers in bloom - the old Dumplig Hill Lock was filled with spotted touch-me-nots, and the noise from the bees collecting pollen was incredible. There were even a few butterflies out, which is always good to see.







One of the major minuses to my summer vacation being almost over is that I won't have nearly as many opportunities to visit all the great spots that I run and ride at out in the Rochester area... but I hope can manage another visit to the Greenway sometime this fall, ideally on my mountain bike so I can cover a little more ground.







JMH