Peebles Island in the Blistery Wind

Peebles Island

I was up visiting my Mom and decided not to bring the mountain bike this time :-( so I headed over to Peebles Island to check it out and hike. Its a fascinating place with a lone abandoned factory, two one lane bridges and a spectacular walk along the cliffs...

Aerial Views (on Kiosks)

You park at the former Cluett and Peabody factory. There's detailed signage out front explaining the factory history. Its where "sanfordization' was first introduced - invented by an RPI alumnus! Details here >

I hiked around the perimeter and had no idea of the scale of the cliffs in this area. Awesome!

Across the river is Polrump Island - seemingly one big cliff!

These trees were "clinging on" to survive - amazing resilience!

There are a few dams in this area - taming the powerful river...

The perimeter trail was very scenic but the wind was extremely cold and strong - at times I could hardly hold my cell phone to take a photograph and felt like I might get blown into the river! yikes...

Curiosity overwhelmed me trying to figure out what the huts were across the river. For bird watchers or for hunters?

The roar of the rapids even over powered the howling wind noise!

Finally, once I circled back at the parking lot, I snapped a photo of the Black Bridge. I had visited this in the past on one of my the railroad research explorations: Black Bridge Bust.

This is a great island and worth a visit any time of the year!

Waterford

Although I had intentions of scouting out railroad remnants in Troy next, my time was limited as I had promised to give a concert at Judson Meadows in the afternoon so I head up to Waterford to sniff out an Irish Pub - it was St Paddy's Day!

Waterford's a lovely town seeped in Erie Canal history. I found a very nice Irish restaurant and had their Shepherd's Pie along wth a couple of Irish Red ales -- mmm mmm good!

The coolest this about the place was the wall to wall paintings of local history! Check it out - its a great spot!

Senior Moment at pValley

It was a beautiful day and I was long overdue for a mountain bike ride. I headed over to Trumbull - Whitney Ave. On my ride in -- after crossing the bridge and heading up to the White Trail -- I was wondering: "Why does my headband keep slipping off my ears? How unusual!"  Suddenly it occurred to me - I forgot my helmet --DUH!!

It was a bit muddy but the ground was solid [not squishy] so I could have gone back to the car and got my helmet but I decided to just ride the rail trail instead.

There were quite a few trees down all across the roadbed and many sections still had an inch or so of soft snow you had to plow into at a fast speed in order not to wobble but all in all, it was a nice ride.

The ice house foundation was clearly visible this time of year

Downed trees

Good view of the Radcliffe Mill ruins 

I was even muddier!

Snowy Hike at Troutbrook

I  decided to take a hike and finally check the often-spoke-about Orchard Trail (Violet blazed).

I pulled into the Bradley lot late morning and hiked in sans snowshoes. The snow wasn't very deep and pretty much already packed down by other hikers everywhere.

I went in via the Green and turned right on the Blue for the climb.

The Orchard Trail

Getting into the orchard required unlocking the gate. There's a chain that you have to unlock manually.

Once inside the fence, you walk through the orchard to reach the top ridge. Here snowshoes might have been nice as the snow was deeper and hardly tread by anyone.

In the distance (barely visible) is the Long Island Sound (just a bit to the right of the center of the horizon).

There was a nicer view looking back once you've gone north and descended the orchard hill.

I then trekked out to the Blue and descended on the Blue pass the intersection with the Orange.  Once on the Green, I headed back to the car.

FCNEMBA pin flags for a future trail reroute to avoid the vernal pool

Finally - a bit of sunshine (short-lived :-( )

Blow downs from the recent storm were everywhere

I still prefer Pequonnock Valley for the scenery but it was nice to get out and explore...