Cycling to the top of Cohoes Falls: The Waterford Flight of Locks

At the top of the Waterford Flight of Locks

Those in the Capital Region of New York might not pay much attention to the Erie or Champlain Canals; afterall, that which surrounds us is often least visible.

From the gatehouse of the first lock on the Waterford Flight of Locks

Waterford, New York is the crossroads of the Champlain and Erie Canals. It is also home to the worlds highest elevation gaining series of successive locks. There are single locks both on the Erie Canal and around the world that gain more elevation in a single lock than any of the Waterford Flight of Locks, but none gain the 169ft the Waterford Flight gains in about 1.5 miles to bring boats above Cohoes Falls, which is the Capital Regions version of Niagara Falls. A true engineering feat.

I've lived at the cross roads of the Erie and Champlain Canal for a good chunk of my adult life and like most people didn't pay much attention to it. When the Empire State Trail, which follows greenways and bike paths up the Hudson River from NYC to Albany, and then to Buffalo (west on the Erie Canal) and Canada (north on the Champlain Canal) was unveiled I also dismissed that. The main reason was I hate multi-use paths. Kids, pets, roller bladers, joggers and walkers all share these paths and as a cyclist you are non protected and most at risk for getting injured. A walker can step out of the way at the last second, but if I cyclist makes a last second, last ditch move, it could end with them planting face on the pavement.

The Empire State Trail which is formed by the Hudson River Greeway, the Erie Canal and the Champlain Canal

Over the last 6 years I've gotten deeper and deeper back into recreational cycling and along the way, I've become more and more road averse. Drivers are just very distracted today, even those who aren't on their phones, and cars are bigger, cycling infrastructure on road ways is still largely just a 3ft shoulder in most places, and less in plenty. As a result I've gravitated to gravel, trails, and bike paths.

The rebirth of the Erie Canal as a mostly protected bike path for a good chunk of it's 500 (NYC to Buffalo) miles and it's proximity to Amtrak service out of the Capital Region (there are 3 stations within 20 miles of the Erie and Champlain Canal intersecton) made it very appealing to me over time. I've both ridden the Empire State Trail \locally in the Capital Region and in sections via Amtrak.

Smelling the flowers on the Erie Canal Trail outside of Weedsport, NY

While not a wilderness experience by any means, there are plenty of spots on the EST that you will find yourself surrounded by nature.  

The White Mountains in 3.5

How long does it take to get to New Hampshire's White Mountains from the Capital Region (Albany, NY area)? 5 hours, 6 hours, 7 hours? Apparently, somewhere in that range for the uninformed and unimaginative.

Much to the chagrin of most, and after extensive route setting it is time for me to smugly gloat. I have it down to a very respectable sub 3:25 drive time to the Western Whites. Add in a gas stop and pee break and you are still at your destination in less than 4 hours.

I hear the bullshit calls, now go ahead and wipe the spit off your monitors because I have an independent witness, and my witness was also insistent it wasn't possible. As far as my speed, nothing crazy. I like having a drivers license, and some (however limited) money left in my checking account.

Why on earth would I blog about this? Simple, we met quite a few people on the trail this weekend, and each time where we were from came up, people said, “wow, Albany, that is a long drive to go hiking.” Well I agree (actually I don't but I hope others do and stay off my White Mountain trails, just like others hope I stay off their White Mountain trails), but 3:25 is very reasonable for a weekend of hiking. Bearing in mind that when I lived in the NY Metro area, at times I drove to NH and/or the Adirondacks 3-4 weekends a month, and those drives were in the 5 to 7 hour range, driving mostly on interstates at 65-75mph. We are talking 600-800 mile round trip weekends with 10-14 hours plus behind a wheel. It's been a long time since I had to do those, and I don't miss 'em.

As far as the route, well, it's too complicated to spell out. Honestly, there is no big secret except for my little shortcut at the end, which most people probably don't take because it's remote, extremely curvy, hilly and deep in moose territory. All I do is take the small curvy mountain roads that everyone else avoids like a case of herpes. Since I travel at the off hours (overnight and early morning) I am able to keep up my average speed on the back roads, and I shave many miles off the odometer. Moose and deer are my only significant impediments to arriving safely and quickly at the trail head.



Going via 90 and 91 like my kin from the NYC Metro, it would take me about 6 hours even though the average speed would be 20mph faster than the typical 45-55mph back roads. Cutting across VT 9 is faster and shorter but not nearly as good as going NE across VT. The total distance of my routes is less than 180 miles to Lincoln, so doing the math I'm averaging just over 52mph yet still getting there faster and using less gas.

Don't even get me started on my shortcuts through VT when I hike or ice climb in the Green Mountain state. Forget the pavement, go dirt and cut your mileage in half!

Bottom line, I've said it time and time again, if you live between Albany and Glens Falls, you like the outdoors and you like to travel, in my opinion you live in the best part of the Northeast. NYC, Boston and Montreal are all 3 hours from me. The Catskills and Gunks are just over 1 hour from me. Lake Placid is under 2 hours.Most places in Vermont's central or southern Green Mountains are within 2 hours, and of course, the White Mountains are between 3:30 and 4:15 depending on eastern or western end of the range. And no worries, I can ski, ice climb, hike, bike and paddle 5-30 minutes from my back door.

So break out a map, and enjoy the back roads of VT and NH as you head off on a drive to get to your favorite mountain destinations.

3rd Time Is The Charm: Sunrise On Cascade Mountain

After 3 consecutive weekends of searching for a sunrise, I finally got one.

In my pursuit of sunrises, I am finally getting my fat ass in shape. After being in great shape to end the summer, my back was bothering me in October, nothing ever happened, but there is a feeling that anyone with disc issues knows, and I had it, causing me to put off my second 10 day paddling trip. It worked out because it rained torrentially for almost all 10 days.

I'm not a fair weather paddler or hiker, but 10 days of pouring rain is depressing, and even after my back was feeling like it wasn't an issue I bailed out and decided on work rather than waste a week.

Nevertheless, good intentions and excitement for winter turned to getting lazy as the winter was slow to arrive. Fitness is fleeting and once it's gone it's a pain in the butt to get it back. I'm going to venture to say, despite working out hard in November, by Jan 1st I was in the worst fitness I've ever been in.

So very slowly I am working my way into shape by chasing sunrises up some of the smaller Adirondack peaks, each one getting progressively harder (or easier if you look at it from a fitness standpoint).

Enough with the discussion of my seemingly 50 year old cardiovascular system, my weak muscles, and Krispy Kreme physique.

Sunday, I left home at 3:20am and got to the Cascade trail head at 4:55am.

After putting on my boots and gaiters, and making sure I didn't forget anything, I was on the trail by 5:20am.

I started to leave my snowshoes at the trail head, but since I took them I decided to wear them rather than lash them to my pack along with my 9lb tripod, and crampons. Big mistake! After about 2 minutes the trail turned to rock and mud. So I was forced to hike in the trees which was not too troublesome. The forest to Cascade is uniquely thin for the Adirondacks, and bushwhacking (albeit only meters from the trail) is relatively fast and unencumbered.

Walking on the frozen snow was like walking on styrofoam. No powder to be found in the Adirondacks after a week of record temps and rain.

At about 3000ft, approx 900 vertical feet from the trailhead, the snow coverage was more consistent and it was back on the trail full time. By 3500ft there was snow covering all of the ground for the first time.

The hike was under a star filled sky, which occasionally found me turning my headlamp off just to take in the starlight.

At about 3700ft there is a steep rock section which in a typical winter is covered with deep snow till the top of the slab where it is a sheet of 20* ice. Unfortunately, despite the great December, the mountains resemble early November rather than January.

At this point I removed my snowshoes, and put on my crampons, with the snow being rock hard and bulletproof, I ditched my snowshoes deep in the trees and hiked the rest of the way in crampons.

The summit of Cascade is a long fairly flat ridge, although somewhat slightly technical with a few scrambles to get to the high point. It's a typically non nondescript Adirondack summit that is often considered the easiest 4000 footer in the Adirondacks. It's not that Cascade is not a pretty summit, it actually reminds me of a mini Mount Mansfield when you come out of the scrub line on Sunset Ridge with the big expanse of exposed ridge, but it's not a conical summit like most people envision most summits to be.

What can't be minimized are the spectacular views which take in almost all of the 4000ft peaks.

I got to the summit at 7:15, although it's a bit deceiving as I wondered if stopping to photograph lower would have been better, I wasted a few minutes evaluating vantage points. For some reason I've always liked the views below the summit much better than on top.

After 45minutes up there, in what was an unusually windless day, and actually fairly warm in the sun, we headed down and I considered hiking to Porter Mountain about .7 miles further.

I started down the trail to Porter but about 5 minutes into it I turned around. Unfortunately while I felt great, my heels had blisters (feet need to get in shape too), and I decided to head down.

The hike out was uneventful. Other than of course the typical weekend hordes that hike to Cascades summit. The solitude of 5am starts suit me, but it's always nice to talk to a few people on the way down, and more so with the smug satisfaction of knowing it's around 8am and you are done with the day!!! In all about 12 people were hiking up on my way out.

There is no such thing as a bad day in the mountains, but it's occasionally nice to see the sun rise, to see blue in the sky, and to see a few feet in front of your face. What was sad was the drive home through the mountain passes. Typically filled with waist deep snow, frozen ponds, and ice covering the cliffs, which in turn are covered by ice climbers. Instead it looked like late fall or early spring. Had I been in a coma for the last few months, I'd have guessed it was November.

technorati tags:ADK, Adirondacks, hiking, climbing, winter, snow, snowshoe, Pentax, K10D, Blue Mountain Lake, sunrise, Fire Tower, cabin, summit, caretaker, Border Collie, dog, photography, night hiking, NY, NYS, New York, 518, upstate, North Country, Daks, DEC, forest, wilderness, Cascade Mountain

Capital Region Fans Suck

Wow, talk about getting to the point.

What is the deal with Capital Region folk? They have this chip on their shoulder that they don't have any of the big sports or nice stadiums, but when they have something that is good they lose interest.

I've heard this about stores, "we want Macy's to stock the nice stuff." Macy's complies, people don't buy the stuff, Macy's goes back to selling what it had been selling.

When you want something, you have to support it. Albany isn't a vibrant metropolis, it's a 8-4, Monday thru Friday city. Most people living in the burbs of this shrinking city never have a desire to head downtown. The sad thing is, Albany has done a great job revitalizing itself, IN SPITE of the fact that the suburbanites don't support this. Believe me, you won't get shot walking from the car to the TU. As dead as it is, you might not even see another person on your short walk.

The most interesting stat about Albany, a telling tale, is that over the last 20 years the Capital Region population has remained fairly steady while the urban sprawl has increased drastically. One the flip side, the city of Albany's population as dropped like a rock.

I'm guessing the spread out of the population has made it inconvenient for this work day based population to get to the arena. Unfortunately, arenas are designed to put fannies in the seats. When they don't, they stop selling tickets and the team leaves.

Albany does a great job over the summer with various festivals in Washington Park, at the Empire Plaza, and Live At Five at Corning Preserve. All of course free, on weekend days, and always well attended.

I've always defended people of this region. When they chased out the Albany-Colonie Yankees, a team filled perpetually with up and coming stars (Jeter, Williams, Rivera, Petite and many others), I said baseball is a sport that needs a quality stadium to draw the casual fan. Heritage Park was at best a decent high school field and not proper for this region.

Then came the Joe, Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, in Troy and baseball fans have come out every year for the last 5 years. Not only that, they have increased attendance yearly. Of course, you have a beautiful stadium, a team that has won 4 out of 5 years, and if you didn't show up you'd have no excuse.

What I can't understand is why at an arena as nice as the Times Union, with a quality hockey team that is run by an organization that lets the team play to win, cannot draw a decent crowd.

Arenas are arenas, nothing special about any of them. There is only so much you can do to a giant warehouse with a sports court in the middle of it. But the TU is legit pro arena, it seats close to 20,000, and you can fill it when Billy Joel comes, or Hanah Montana. So why can't you show up to watch a few hockey games a year? Maybe support your Albany Conquest as well.

It can't be the ticket prices, because they are fair. Nope it's not NHL, but it's not NHL prices. You can afford to take the family to a Rats game, but how many can take a family of 5 to an NHL game???

Sure the Devils sucked the life out of the River Rats, but Carolina is letting the Rats play, and the hockey is good. The team is winning. It's not a great offensive team but they are physical, and can play defense.

Why can Rochester draw 7000 a night, but Albany only 3000 on a good night. Rochester also regularly sells out it's AAA baseball games. And Rochester is just 1 hour from Buffalo with an NHL team and another AAA baseball team. I use Rochester as an example because it's very similar in size and location to larger cities as Albany is.

Bottom line, Albany-Schenectady-Troy if you don't support your teams you will lose them, and while I'm sure you all fantasize about pro teams and the big city...AHL hockey, NY-Penn League baseball, and arena football are all you are going to get, unless you want to take a 3 hour drive every time you want to watch a live sporting event.

So support your teams (or don't cry when they are gone)!!!!

technorati tags:Albany, River Rats, Tri-City Valleycats, Troy, Schenectady, hockey, AHL, NY-Penn, League, NHL, Rochester, New York, baseball, NYC, Buffalo, Times Union Center, Times Union, Pearl, Albany Sucks, fans, Carolina Hurricanes, Hurricanes, Carolina, sports, K10D, D1H, Pentax, Nikon

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Climbing Is Inherently Dangerous: Poke-O-Moonshine Cliff Claims Another Life

10/08

CHESTERFIELD, N.Y. (AP) - A man well-known in rock climbing circles was killed yesterday when he fell about 200-feet from a mountain in the eastern Adirondacks.

State police say Dennis Luther of Morrisonville was descending Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain in Essex County when the 54-year-old veteran climber fell while repelling on the mountain's north face. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Troopers say the fall was accidental.

Mountain climber dies in fall from Adirondack peak - 13WHAM.com

The Adirondacks haven't had a ton of fatal climbing accidents, but certainly many non fatal accidents go unreported. If it doesn't require a rescue there really isn't any reason to contact anyone.

When I went flying down the Trap Dike in March 2006, I was one of 3-4 climbers who took several hundred foot falls on less than vertical technical climbs in the Adirondacks that winter. I was the only one that didn't require rescue, despite my fall being at least as far, if not further than the others.

I was lucky, and others have been luckier. Falling hundreds of vertical feet into deep snow or brush and walking away. Other people aren't so lucky, a 30ft whipper and they're dead. Someone I climbed with a single time, many years ago, had this happen to him a few years later in the Gunks. He fell 30ft, hitting his head and then hung inverted. Though the rescue was rapid, he died from his injuries.


The odd thing about most climbing fatalities is they aren't some NOOB, a slang term for newbie, or someone new at a sport, profession or activity. Heck, even doctors get the NOOB label, it's just classier: resident.

Ironically when a NOOB gets injured it's acceptable because it's expected. The problem with climbing is no one is allowed basic mistakes; gravity doesn't care if you've been climbing 6 months or 20 years.

In spite of the extreme sport perception of climbing, it's really not a dare devil sport. Most long time climbers are the most cautious people you'll ever meet. Climbing is about calculating risk and solving problems, and it's why many of the great climbers in the world are scientist and engineers.

In 2002, a Canadian from Toronto, decided to ice climb on Poko in known bad conditions during a warm spell, and an entire ice pillar came down as he was climbing it. I'd heard he made long drive and decided to give it a shot.
Even though that might sound like a terrible decision, this happens every day all over the world. People take a vacation somewhere and the conditions are terrible, but they spent their money and their limited time offm so they decide to climb anyway. The only time it looks like a bad decision is when you don't go home alive. We are all guilty of it at least once.

On October 8th, 2007 Dennis Luther fell 200ft on Poke-O-Moonshine. It's a steep cliff, highly visible from I-87, and I've only had the chance to climb there once myself. I climbed Neurosis, which is a moderate NEI 3+ ice climb close to where Dennis died. Dennis was an experienced climber with years spent on vertical rock faces.

Climbing is sort of the ultimate rubber necking, arm chair sport. Never has there been a sport where people on the ground think they have the answer to something going on hundreds of feet above them. Likewise, when an accident happens it's written about, and critiqued, and then hopefully learned from. Most of the time, everyone that wasn't involved shakes their head and says, "bummer, but that would never happen to me."

There is even a book that covers all the noted accidents in North America.
Accidents In North American Mountaineering

Thus far I don't think an official accident report has been released about the circumstances of Dennis Luther's accident, but state police said it was on a rappel.

Descent is always the most dangerous part of climbing. And rappelling is when you have the fewest links left in your protection system and it's when most avoidable fatal accidents occur.

There is no way to undo whats done, but hopefully people remember getting complacent means getting hurt.

technorati tags:Dennis Luther, climbing, Adirondacks, accidents, mountaineering, rock, climbing, cliffs, Poke-O-Moonshine, rappel, rap, descent, ice climbing, Neurosis, I-87, fall, fatal, ANAM

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Bombers Birthday

Once a year Bombers on Lark St. in Albany gives you a present for getting older.

The photos tell the story:

technorati tags:Bombers, Lark, Albany, NY, margarita, cherry, 2007, giant

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Photographing Under The Stars In Albany

Below are some photos I took the other night in downtown Albany. Mostly around the Capitol Building and the Education Building. Lots of interesting architecture for night photography in and around Albany.

Photos: