Lake Lila Canoe Camping

Early morning

Bear print

View from the trail to Mt Frederick

Fishing with a headnet

Where's the DEET?

http://tupperlake.net/lakelila1.htm

Albany Bicycle Coalition Meeting, Thursday, August 28, 7:00 PM, Muddy Cup Coffee House, Albany

Albany Bicycle Coalition Meeting, Thursday, August 28, 7:00 PM at the Muddy Cup Coffee House, Madison Ave, ( near Madison Theater), Albany. Help to improve bicycling in the Capital Region.

Critical Mass Bike Ride, Friday, August 29, meet at 5:15 PM at the Civil War Memorial, Washington Park at State Street, Albany. All welcome. Join in a cruise through the streets of Albany.

Lorenz M. Worden(518) 489-0866

Gothics, Armstrong and Upper Wolfjaw in the Adirondacks, late summer

Ausable Club

Bike Trails in the Capital District - Times Union 8/22/08

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?

storyID=714167&category=B

Among the new legs identified in the report is the Patroon Greenway Trail, which would follow the Interstate 90 corridor from downtown Albany to Rensselaer Lake at Fuller Road in Colonie, providing not only a link west to Schenectady and the Erie Canalway Trail, but also giving better bicycle access to the high-tech mecca at Albany NanoTech.

THRUWAY TRAFFIC INFORMATION

Thruway traffic information comes from the authority's Advanced Traffic Management System, which also feeds updates to the Thruway Web site

http://www.nysthruway.gov and TRANSalert, an e-mail and text message notification system.

Eventually, the info also will be automatically transmitted to electronic message signs and the 1-800-THRUWAY telephone information line.

A View of Mt Mansfield from Tooley Pond Mountain

There's a little pamphlet available in the Star Lake-Cranberry Lake area with 10 favorite hikes in the Clifton-Fine area. It includes Rainbow Falls and and Copper Falls. There's a third hike on that road that's listed in the pamphlet: Tooley Pond "Mountain". It says that you can see the mountains of Vermont from the top. I read that last year and didn't believe it. After all, I'd climbed that "mountain" as a Cub Scout, and didn't remember seeing Vermont. OK, that's not exactly proof that it's not visible. So I went one not-too-hazy day last summer and saw some mountains to the east which were too far north to be the 'dacks. I jotted down a compass bearing for what appeared to be the highest peak of the range I was looking at. The next time on the computer I called up Topo! and traced that bearing. It came within a very few degrees of Mt. Mansfield! I was amazed! Tooley Pond Mtn. is not much of a mountain. The ascent may be about 400', but with nothing higher nearby on the east, it gets the view. Those of you doing the fire tower peaks can still climb the Tooley Pd. Mtn. tower, but you'll have to climb it in Wanakena.
Mark Lowell

Overlook Mountain Fire Tower Summer Lecture Series continues on September 7th

On Sunday, September 7th, Michael Kudish, the Catskills forest historian, will lead a walk to examine the three kinds of forests found on Overlook Mountain that reveal both human and natural history. There's an oak forest that has grown up after many burnings by the Esopus people and European settlers, a northern hardwoods forest of beech and maple that's typical of the central Catskills, and a boreal forest of spruce and fir that may never have been felled by fire or ax. In four decades of field research Michael Kudish has found more old growth forest in the Catskills than anyone would have expected.

A retired professor from Paul Smith's College in the Adirondacks, Michael Kudish has written The Catskill Forest: A History, published by Purple Mountain Press. The Catskill Center recently honored him with the Alf Evers Award of Excellence for his work, which began in the late 1960s and continues today.

The walk will begin at noon at the summit cabin, take two to three hours, and cover a mile or more. The group size is limited to 20. Reservations are required. RSVP to Will Nixon at will@willnixon.com or 845-679-5853. The Overlook Mountain Fire Tower Stewards are sponsoring this walk as part of its series of nature talks. http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/overlook/overlook.html

Bikes vs Cars Horror Stories: Best to Smile and Wave

"For the media, and for the new cyclists who, lured by the combination of warm weather and high gas prices, are venturing out onto the road for the first time, these stories of road violence, one after the other, may indeed have seemed like “a new kind of road rage.” For seasoned cyclists, the stories were more an indication that the daily violence cyclists encounter had finally managed to capture the attention of the public-at-large. But underlying the “bikes vs. cars” eruptions of violence, the larger questions remained unasked, and unanswered in the media: Why are cyclists the daily targets of road violence, and what can cyclists do to change that reality?"

http://www.velonews.com/article/81778/

legally-speaking-with-bob-mionske---bikes-v-cars

Federal Rule May Open AT and Backcountry to ATVs and other "power-driven mobility devices"

Message from 3500 Club:
Deadline for Comments Is August 18 regarding
Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in State and Local Government Services:

The Appalachian Trail and other traditional backcountry areas in our national parks and forests may be opened to All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) and other “power-driven mobility devices.” We face imminent danger of a fundamental alteration to our backcountry trails including the A.T.

YOU MUST ACT SOON to tell the Department of Justice that this initiative is potentially devastating to the silent, challenging and primitive ideals and standards of the A.T. and other trails and backcountry areas in our national forests and parks.

On June 17, 2008, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We are writing our clubs and partnering agencies to urge that you respond to the NRPM by August 18. Your own, personal responses will be most effective.

Be sure to point out that we would never want the Department of Justice or others to misconstrue our opposition to other-powered devices as opposition to persons with disabilities. The hiking community encourages and is inspired by the achievments of hikers with disabilities who seek quiet and nature on footpaths. Several, including blind AT thru-hiker Bill Irwin and his service-dog Orient, have completed thru-hikes on the Appalachian Trail.

Indeed, these hikers inspire us to appreciate the challenge of a backcountry trail that is not compromised by All Terrain Vehicles or by machinery that will compromise the A.T.’s silent, challenging and primitive values.

All comments must be received by August 18, 2008. Submit electronic comments and other data to http://www.regulations.gov/search/index.jsp# Then go down to Web Results and under that you'll see regulations.gov. For some reason the URL does not take you directly there. Anyway, search for and then reference CRT Docket No. 105. You will be required to include your full name and address. You can type your comments in the box provided or attach previously written comments.

Now take a look at the damage All Terrain Vehicles and Off Road Vehicles do to trails. These pictures were taken on the Taconic Crest Trail in August of 2004. And then there is the noise.....Click on photos to enlarge.....