Clifford Johnson Tribute Post

In an effort to keep from turning into a total slug on weekends, I've taken to riding my bike on the Mohawk-Hudson Bikeway, which passes fairly close to our house. Getting on the trail can be a little nerve-wracking, depending on the traffic, but once on it, it's a pleasant ride all the way to Colonie:

That sign is roughly ten miles out, and is the farthest point I reached last weekend. (This weekend just past, I headed in the other direction, and got caught in a rainstorm. It wasn't photogenic.) For those who care, there are more pictures from the ride below the fold.

The trail itself runs along the river, following parts of the old Erie Canal, and some of the railroad right-of-way. For a lot of the trip, though, you can't really see the river, and are just biking a paved trail through generic New England woods:

plus the occasional tunnel...

There's also one stretch where the trail stops, and you have to ride for about a mile on regular roads. It's a fairly memorable mile:

(Click the picture for a larger image.) The bridge there is the Thaddeus Kosciusko Bridge, locally referred to as the "Twin Bridges" because that's easier to pronounce than "Thaddeus Kosciusko Bridge," and it's where Interstate 87 crosses the Mohawk River on the way north to Glens Falls, Plattsburgh, and Montreal. Riding under that is a little interesting...

Of course, the real attraction of the ride is the river itself:

(Click the picture for a larger image.) That's shot from a spot along River Road in Latham, and I'll definitely have to go back there and shoot another picture after the leaves turn, because I bet the view is spectacular. If you look in the big image, you can see a water tower poking up above the trees on the horizon toward the left-hand side of the picture. That's more or less where I got on the trail.

And, finally, for those who care, here's my bike:

Note the absence of a picture of me in the dorktastic bike helmet/ sunglasses ensemble.

And, for the record, I was planning to post this even before this comment...