Quickie At Luther Forest

After my impromptu concert yesterday upstate at The Indian Kill Nature Preserve, I headed over to Luther Forest for a quickie Sunday morning. I had agreed to meet my mother for a chat late morning so I only had time to do the south loops. Needless to say it's always fun bombing on the trails at Luther. 

I hadn't been there in quite a while and there was a lot of evidence of forestry activity (large swaths of cut areas). The weather was a but chilly but the sun was out. It as a great (but too short) ride :-)

Entrance (southside)

Lots of cut areas (forestry)

I always love ferns!...

Evidence of Forestry Activity

Iced off!!

Iced off the trails... ARRRGGG!!!

Luther Forest

What a bummer - I showed up at Luther and rode both south loops as well as a bit of the north side but it was terribly icy almost everywhere and very difficult to ride (unless I suppose you had studs…), After two hours, I called it quits.

Schenectady Central Park

After a break for lunch and a visit with an old friend, I decided to check out the trail at Schenectady Central Park but once I got there—despite the fact that the forest ground was completely snow free—every trail and fireroad was a non-stop sheet of ice so I headed up to Hawkwood (Anchor Diamond trails in Burnt Hills) to hike instead.

Hawkwood

But that was iced over as well and really needed crampons to keep from slipping  -- Crazy!!!!!!

Luther by Foot and a Round Lake sideshow

Luther Forest

After a very rainy trip upstate on Sat morning and freezing temps Sunday morning the dreaded inevitable happened!. When I rolled into Luther Park for a morning ride, I could not get the bike off the rack as the lock was frozen! Bummer! I really wanted to GPS the new flat loop on the south side that I had discovered last time so I hiked in instead.

The main trail in was pretty icy and the icy crunchy footprints would have made a bad ride in but once I got to the flat loop, it looked deliciously rideable and I regretted not having the bike.

A fat biker passed by me quite a few times - he was grooming the trail for others but otherwise I saw no one in the park. The sun came out and although it was cold... it was a pleasant hike.

A thin layer of ice was on all the conifers. They were bent from all the extra weight and leaned in everywhere into the trail.

 

 

 

Curiosity led me to climb up this bank and see the dirt pit on the other side...

After finishing the GPS on the flat loop, I ventured down on the loop that leads to the bottom on the canyon. With no foliage, it was amazing how much of the whole area was visible.

(click to enlarge)

After finishing my hike and getting only 9975 steps :(bummer) --  I decided to drive around the Forest Roads a bit and then I headed to Round Lake.

Round Lake

This little village is such a unique anomaly. Built ages ago as a Methodist Camp, tightly-spaced colorful gingerbread houses and a huge ancient auditorium give it a fairy tale quality.

The tracker organ in the auditorium is one of the oldest in the country and I remember the thrill of going to a concert here with my parents when I was younger...

 

New Trails at Luther

Took a quickie ride at Luther this morning and discovered a lot of new trails! The weather was ridiculously beautiful; sunny and in the upper 70s - I rode only wearing a short sleeve jersey!

Off of the easy south loop there is a whole new fairly long easy loop. No hills but lots of fun if you bomb it. (see #1 on the map below - need to GPS it!)

In addition  I rode #2 on the map below - it was great--and from the looks of other pin flags I noticed around the park--there are more new trail additions as well.

#3 is still a problem as a new house has closed off a section of the main rail there and the run around is a only a short makeshift unbenched nasty drop and climb in and out of the ravine. Knowing the good work the trail gnomes have done in this park elsewhere, I imagine eventually something nice will be built here as well.

Luther and 909

Nice mid morning ride at Luther. I snitched today 4-5 photos for this panorama:

 Took the trail to the bottom (for a change)

After lunch with a high school classmate at Carneys in Ballston Lake  - I got a ride in at Taconoc 909 before returning to CT. I took the same route as last time (BykHead Nirvana) . Descending BykHead is always exhilarating! Saw an owl on the drive out on Tyrrel Road.

Luther was rough today!

In the parking lot, I asked a hiker -- just emerging from the trails: "How are the trails today?" His reply "Icy under a thin layer of snow-- No dead biker bodies or bike bits strewn about so go have fun!!"

I charged on in and discovered even the South Loop was tough. A groove set by a fat bike was frozen solid ice and a good amount of random snow built up here a there on the trails made the ride a lot harder than usual. I ended up bailing halfway thru the the South Loop and headed back to do some of the trails north of the ravine instead.

Some of the trails on the north side were virgin -- I was the first to ride them!! Needless to say  despite being a bit exhausting, it was exhilarating. Luther is so peaceful in the winter.

Quick Hits at Luther and Colonie

I was upstate for the weekend to visit my parents and popped out for a couple of quick hits on my mountain bike.

Luther Forest

Man it was chilly to start off - I almost wish I had full fingered gloves but after about 20 minutes or so it started to warm up. My morning ride took exactly one hour - I rode the whole park. Also had the good fortune of seeing a deer. She whizzed by in front of me on one of the ravine trails. :-)

At the start of the bowl

The trails along the ravine are easy but squeezing thru the trees keeps it always fun :-)

Colonie Shale Trail

I did a 40 minute quickie over at Colonie mid afternoon. The weather still was a bit chilly but the riding was fun. The three panoramas below are two-photo combos.

Pasta Loop starts on the right (Note trail sign on tree)

After the Pasta Loop, the Yellow Trail skirts along the edge of the encroaching new development 

This is at the old east entrance - you can still exit out this way from the Yellow Trail.
There are trail signs on the trees in green indicating this as the exit trail.
If you look closely in the photo you can see the old entrance.

Tradition

A Stewarts Mountain Brew - I am at the7 Rt 9 Mohawk River Crossing.