Backyard backcountry

It’s been an excellent winter for out-the-backdoor nordic skiing. I've been kicking and gliding around the few hundred acres of woods that I call my backyard since before Thanksgiving, often solo at night with my headlamp. There's not a ton of vertical relief, but there’s one particular ridge with beautiful hardwoods and a perfect pitch that I’ve been waiting to ski until conditions were just right. Our 10-year-old son Daniel has joined me on some of my cross-country tours through the woods this winter, and with the lifts at Gore and Whiteface on windhold, Sunday was a perfect opportunity for a father-son backyard backcountry trek to earn some turns on the ridge.

Riding out the back door: May 2014

After a slow start to my mountain biking season, May has turned out to be a pretty good month. I’ve been getting out two or even three times a week all month, mostly on the trails out my back door. I’ve logged a couple rides on the Luther Forest trails (three actually), but haven’t hit Spier Falls or SMBA yet (that should change this week).

First ride

The first ride of the season, like the first ski of the winter, is more than just a shakedown outing. It’s the symbolic start of a new season, the closing of one chapter and opening of another. Ski season was great, but I’m ready to move on to mountain biking where just about every day can be a powder day.

There’s no better place for the first ride of the season than my backyard trails. There might be more exciting places to ride, but these are the trails I know best. No drive to the trailhead, just a glide down the driveway and 60 seconds of pavement pedaling leads to “my” 8 miles of single track. The trails here are rolling and flowy with a few twists and turns, fast and fun, perfect for logging a bunch of base miles, perfect for a quick weekend ride, a mid-week night ride, or a first ride of the season.

K-P night patrol

There’s a lot of things I love about skiing, but at the root of it all is the simple joy of being out in the woods, in the snow. The nicer the snow, the bigger my smile. And when the snow is good around home, my favorite thing to do is to head out the back door for a tour of the woods that surround our house on my cross-country skis. But the short daylight hours of mid-winter and my job in Albany make it difficult to get out in the snow as much as I’d like, so when the snow is good I grab my headlamp and go on night patrol.

Connecting the dots: Two new local trails

New York State’s recent acquisition of 200 acres adjoining Moreau State Park was highlighted last week in both the Saratogian and the Times Union as an important link in an eventual long-distance Palmertown Ridge Trail that would link Moreau State Park and Saratoga Springs. That trail could ultimately connect to the Zim Smith, creating an “alternative Northway” spanning Saratoga County north to south. Very cool. Here’s a look at two more recently opened trails that enhance another long-distance trail network just outside of Saratoga Springs.

Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park, Frawley Trail. Last summer and fall, volunteer trail crews marked and cleared more than a mile of trail connecting WWPP’s Fox parcel trailhead on Route 50 (see accompanying map or click here) to Ruggles Road. The new trail traverses land (the Frawley parcel) that was added to WWPP in 2011 and represents a key linkage that could ultimately be made between WWPP’s core parcels (Fox, Old Gick Farm, Camp Saratoga and Opdahl Farm) and additional protected parcels south of King Road (the Neilmann and Kalabus-Perry parcels and other adjoining protected lands).

Mountain biking at SMBA: when is riding no longer “just” cross-training?

I haven't posted much about mountain biking this summer, but I’ve been riding once or twice a week since April. Recently – since June - I've been splitting my time between SMBA and the trails on the Saratoga County forestland (the Kalabus-Perry parcel) out my back door. The two are only about 5 miles apart as the crow flies, yet the terrain and trails couldn't be more different. The K-P county forest parcel is part of the Saratoga Sandplains and the trails are smooth and fast, not a rock or a root in sight. SMBA’s terrain, on the other hand, is what you’d expect from the foothills of the Adirondacks: bedrock is close to the surface, there are beaver flows and wetlands, rocks and roots are everywhere, the trails are technical and challenging.

Kalabus-Perry Mountain Bike Ride: 07/14/2011

I cheated on my wife today. No, not like that. I took the day off from work to catch up on a multitude of indoor and outdoor projects that needed attention around the house. She was home too, but left for a couple hours in the middle of the day to run some errands. While she was gone, unknown to her, I put down my paint brush, parked the mower and hopped on my mountain bike for a quick spin through the several hundred acres of county forest that starts at the end of our block.

Snow!

We woke up this morning to snow coming down at 1 to 2 inches per hour, and I wanted to get out on my cross country skis before the snow got too deep. I've been out on the Kalabus-Perry trail a few more times on skis and snowshoes since I wrote about it last month, and this morning I made a quick circuit past some interesting terrain that the K-P accesses.

Hardwood glade, about 150' vertical

Dual XC Tours: 01/23/2011

This past Sunday, family commitments kept us close to home. On days like that Beth and I sometimes each get in a quick nordic workout on trails near home by skiing one at a time, in shifts, while the other stays home with the kids: dual cross country ski tours. Beth did a 3.5 mile circuit of the groomed trails at the Wilton Wildlife Park and Preserve's nearby Scout Road parcel, while I opted for a woods tour through Saratoga County forestland that I can access right at the end of our block.

You can read more about my tour in a guest trip report here.