Pictures from bike ride...

[Doug Kitchen]

Here are a couple of pictures from a bike ride yesterday. The trees in our area (near Albany, NY) have gone from green to yellow/brown this year which is a little disappointing. Usually there is a lot of variety in the color but the heat and rain this summer seems to have changed the process.

My family enjoys bike riding through an area called the Albany pine bush preserve. It is a unique habitat. It is primarily sand dunes that have existed since the last ice age. Now those dunes are tree covered. Riding a bike on the trails can be tricky - the tree roots can protrude quite far out of the ground and can be quite a surprise sometimes. Also, riding a bike in sand is quite a work out.

The first picture shows a pretty dense area of maples and oaks. The second shows a stream that is probably about 30 feet down.

Doug

[BobHunt]

Doug, thats ok, at least I know that you guys have white birch there, wereas we hardly have any in Indiana! Makes great smelling wood for the fireplace!

[Dave McClung]

Thanks, Doug. That looks like a good area to hike.

[Doug Kitchen]

Doug, thats ok, at least I know that you guys have white birch there, wereas we hardly have any in Indiana! Makes great smelling wood for the fireplace!


I think you are right about that area of the pine bush - there are many birch there. We have quite a variety of trees in this part of the hudson valley. It's a little surprising given the fairly brutal winters and extremely sandy soil. The first picture is actually in the city of Albany and less than a mile from Interstate-90. It's probably quite different than Schagticoke where you grew up.


We have had a few river birches in clusters that became diseased and we have taken them down. We didn't try burning them.

Doug

[Doug Kitchen]

Thanks, Doug. That looks like a good area to hike.

We will be hiking it as an extended family around thanksgiving. All my sisters, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews will be here and we will walk over to my parents house on this trail. It will literally be over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house. We ski there in the winter (snowshoe as well).

Feel free to stop by sometime and we can hike it together - we are right down the road from you. (ok - the road is I-90 and it is a few thousand miles but the directions are easy ;) )

Doug

[Dave McClung]

I may surprise you. I intend to do a lot of hiking, and I expect to be in Upstate NY from time to time.

[Doug Kitchen]

Here are a couple of pictures from a bike ride yesterday. The trees in our area (near Albany, NY) have gone from green to yellow/brown this year which is a little disappointing. Usually there is a lot of variety in the color but the heat and rain this summer seems to have changed the process.

My family enjoys bike riding through an area called the Albany pine bush preserve. It is a unique habitat. It is primarily sand dunes that have existed since the last ice age. Now those dunes are tree covered. Riding a bike on the trails can be tricky - the tree roots can protrude quite far out of the ground and can be quite a surprise sometimes. Also, riding a bike in sand is quite a work out.

The first picture shows a pretty dense area of maples and oaks. The second shows a stream that is probably about 30 feet down.

Doug
Here are a couple of pictures from the same area, but last week. After our thanksgiving meal, many of us took a hike "over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house". Since our parents live on the other side of the pine bush, we go over there for desert. It is a 1.5 miles through the woods and the next day we added about another 2 miles to walk to the woods. I think that ended up being 10-12 miles over two days - I didn't feel nearly so guilty about eating 3-4000 calories on Thursday ;)

Doug

[Doug Kitchen]

I thought I would update this thread rather than start a new one (it's only been two years).

We had a snowstorm on Valentine's day (nearly two feet of snow). The first picture is of a sand dune. The pine bush area is around my house and it was once an ancient glacial lake. Under that 2 feet of snow are huge sand dunes.

The second picture is taken in the same area as the fall pictures that I posted above. I believe my 12 year old daughter took this picture - I like the spot of sunshine and the shadows of the trees.

Just last week we had another snowstorm on St. Patrick's day. We had about 14 inches of snow. On Saturday, we had temperatures near 30F. I was the only skier out (there were two snowshoers who seemed to be avoiding me!). I had to be my own trailblazer - it was extremely tiring since the snow was pretty heavy. The third picture is of the trail ahead of me.

As I was skiing I was reminded of General Knox. He dragged cannon from Fort Ticonderoga (about an 1.5 hours by car from here) to Boston (about 3 hours by car over the mass. turnpike) in the winter in early 1776. He went through Albany and then over the Berkshires. It was truly an amazing feat. I was only out for an hour and a half and I was exhausted.

The last picture is of the "helderberg escarpment" in Thatcher State Park. You may recognize it from the film the "last of the mohicans". It overlooks the city of Albany. James Fennimore Cooper lived in Cooperstown about 1 hour from here.

It was 65F last week and will be in the 50's by Saturday. We didn't have any significant snow until February but now it appears that I won't need to start mowing my lawn until well into April.

Doug

[BobHunt]

That had to be quite a feat, dragging those heavy things all that ways! If I remember Ft Ticonderoga is star shaped and commands quite a view on the Lake!
Also, the Saratoga Battlefield is just about even, across the Hudson River from where I grew up. That was the turning point of the American Revolution. They will show you the actual area where the troops from both sides dug in. Our neighbors have dug up uniforms, cannon balls, etc from that era, as they were preparing their garden.