For roughly six months out of the year — from the first significant snow storm until the end of mud season, the gates to many of the most popular roads in the Adirondacks are closed to prevent idiots from getting stuck, and to keep the backcountry roads from getting too torn up.
Yet, that season has come to an end. Mud season is now just history. Okay, maybe the roads are somewhat sloppy from recent rains, but at least now the opening of the gates marks the start of Adirondack Summer 2012.
So many adventures are ahead. So many summer time memories to be created as we proceed through summer. Most places in the park now are open, with so many chances to get away and freely explore whereever and whenever we want.
1) Slowly, but surely been working on the next-generation of the blog, which seems to be more on paper then actually coded into a workable product. It’s a dream of a lot of neat things that haven’t made it to the reality stage.
2) I am too much of an alcoholic, and it’s difficult to compose a good blog post after you’ve been drinking. But evenings are a whole lot less stressful after 3 or 4 beers, especially if you not drive anywheres.
3) It’s still only the start of spring, so my list of adventures is fairly limited, and therefore, there are relatively few things to blog about.
4) It’s spring time, and I like going down to the park and reading in the evening, rather then blogging. Staying inside sucks on nice days.
5) I’ve kind of run out of good things to blog about. Most of the really cool and interesting posts are long done, and now all I can do is run them in re-runs, that everybody is sick and tired of, much like microwaved left overs.
6) I’ve been sick a lot. This past winter and spring, it’s been one non-stop sinus infection or upper-respitatory infection of some sort. Blame it on the mold in my apartment, smoke floating in my neighbor dragging on a cigerette next door, or maybe just stress.
For the past couple of months I have been looking at going back to school eventually to some formal training in geographic information systems, or computers more generally. I have a bachelors of arts degree in Political Science, and what I view to be a pretty good liberal arts education. I read a lot, and are always looking for new information and facts.
But what I lack is any kind of technical training or knowledge. I am a generalist at everything I do. I understand big picture things, and have a vast knowledge of how political systems work, but no specific technical knowledge. I would like to be an expert as something fo ronce, have soe real skills, and not just be a generalist at everything I do.
I like my job and it pays really quite well. I like having the money and a very nice truck for getitng out of town on the weekends. I like having the ability to travel and experience things. It sure is nice to able to catch the bus in on snow and icy and days, and keep my truck nice. And hell, I like my run down apartment.W In many ways I sould be happy about things.
But I really aren’t that happy. I don’t really like living that much in the city, not having much place of my own. I may live on te outskirts of urbanized area in Delmar, but it’s nothing like a rural community. Albany is nothing like a small city, it’s problems seem greater and impossibly difficult to address. Politics and policy are so much more complex in the big city…
I really want to escape the city, move out to rural hinderlands, in a state with a lot more freedom then NY State. I don’t want to work my whole life to pay taxes, and have restrictions on everything I do. I want to be able to shoot guns off my porch, burn stuff in my backyard. I want land, I also want to be able to get to similiarly great public lands to hunt, fish, and camp.
Albany is fine for now. I need to save a lot more money up for college. I probably can’t seriously think about going back to school, and moving to a more rural community until I have $20,000 or $30,000 in the bank. But then I want to have the freedom to disassociate myself from the big city, live out in the country, and live only in the sphere of a small city where people are far more connected to the land, and not dominated by clueless urban folks.
Several years back, the D&H Railroad abandoned the Slingerlands Railroad, that runs from the Port of Albany out to Altamont. This route had fallen out of favor for main freight line that runs from the Selkirk Railyard, north through Altamont.
I wasn’t a supporter of the rail trail, as I believe it will be an impediment in the future to preserve the right-of-away, for whatever future needs might come along — be it a bus rapid transit, a new rail line, or some future method of moving people and freight
I also maintain that rail trails are boring, overly straight routes, built for the convience of large locomotives pulling freight at high speeds, and not for recreational hiking or biking, at much lower speeds. Being that one can only bike or walk at speeds less then 25 MPH — and that bicycles aren’t even allowed yet — the trail seems relatively uninteresting at a walking speed.
Currently the rail trail runs from Slingerlands Fire Station down to the Delaware Avenue Bridge. West of Slingerlands Fire Station, the trail is posted No Tresspassing by the county, but east of Delaware Avenue Bridge, the trail is unmaintained but not posted.
Hiking under the Cherry Avenue Extension Bridge.
One of the filled in areas where the rail line once run.
Gully as seen from the rail trail viaduct.
Delaware Avenue as seen from the former Delaware Avenue Railroad Bridge (this ends the maintained section of the trail).
Elsmere Avenue as seen from the Railroad Bridge.
As a whole, I am very under impressed by the Albany County Rail Trail. I have heard the views
I thought some Excel spreadsheets might be of use to you. Obviously, there is a lot besides the cost of gasoline in owning an automobile, but we as a society have a fixation on gas prices, and they seem to effect out behavior a lot.
The Cost to Drive calculator can help you with specific trips.
Note: Before attemping to kayak the Hudson, make sure you review the tidal charts first. The Hudson River, even in Albany, can have very strong currents either heading north or south, depending on the tide.
The river increases and drops on average of 5 feet per change of the tide, with the strongest currents at roughly 3 hours after the last tide change. Expect especially strong currents around that time. And do not expect to be able to easily paddle against the tide. When the tide is going out, and water levels are dropping, the river pulls strongly to the south, when the tide is coming in, the river pulls to the north.
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