Category Archives: Nature

Nature, nature photography, Running, Trail Running

Tanglefoot Trail Run

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Today I ran my first 20k trail run, the Tanglefoot 20k. It didn’t actually end up being a complete 20k, however, because many of us managed to get off course and cut off like a mile on our first lap. But anyway, here are some nice photographs from one of my favorite places, Tanglewood Nature Center,  where I love to visit, hang out, run and enjoy nature.

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This Trail down the hill is much steeper than it appears in the photo. Do not let your eyes deceive you.

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Seriously I have to go UP this? That was a steep tough climb on the second lap around.

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Some of the best views around.

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You can see across the valley and out to the river from the bluffs.

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Then you head down this trail along the cliffs. I love it. Maybe the best part of the whole run.

Hiking, Nature, nature photography, Outside, winter

Winter Hike

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Its been too long since I have gotten out for a good hike, and this winter has been too long. With this last snowstorm that blew through New York it feels like winter will never end despite spring being just around the corner. The only thing that makes it any better is that after this snow storm I was able to get out to one of my favorite places and experience what the storm left us.

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Tangelwood Nature Center is one of my favorite places to go to just be out in nature. It provides some of the most beautiful scenery in our area. I never seem to find my way there frequently enough. Today I went there to hike through the snow and enjoy being alive and being outside. Being that I am both a nature lover and a photographer I brought cameras.

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I wanted to not only hike around and breath the fresh are and experience the wonders of nature I wanted to try to capture some images that I could share with everyone. There are so many different reasons I love Tanglewood and that means in order for me to capture everything I want in one trip I need a variety of equipment. To capture the full scenic view that is Tanglewood I brought my Nikon 1 J5 mirror-less camera with the wide angle zoom 10-30 mm lens. I also like to try and isolate certain elements of the scene from others. For that purpose I brought my Nikon 50 mm f1.8 lens on my Nikon D300 DSLR camera body. Then perhaps my favorite aspect of Tanglewood is the wildlife, particularly birds. For that I used my Nikon 300 mm f4 lens with the 1.4 teleconverter on my Nikon D500 DSLR camera body. With that gear I set off.

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The snow was deeper than I expected and it was warmer than I was expecting. I was fine while I was standing still photographing some bluebirds. But with the sun out and shining I quickly heated up as I trudged through the deep snow. The deep snow and recent cold weather had me thinking I needed to bundled up. Turns out I was overdressed. But, too warm is better than too cold I guess.

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There had been people there prior to my visit cross country skiing. I started off staying on their tracks. It made the hiking a little bit easier. Eventually as the ski tracks became more frozen and hard it was just easier to hike through the fresh snow. I don’t care who you are but it is one of the coolest feelings to be the first one to put tracks into virgin snow. The snow had drifted and was quite deep in places. it was up to my knee as I sunk in at times, but the varying depth was another challenge because you never knew what the next step was going to be lie. I went from sections of deep snow over my knee to a patch where I could see grass in just a short series of steps. When I was in areas of open field I couldn’t even tell where the actual trail was supposed to be, so I just did my best.

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I just hiked around on some of the more open trails closer to the main complex. I didn’t get down into the woods. I was so happy to just get out and enjoy the day. No real plan, just be outside, do something, and enjoy.

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Landscapes, Nature, Running, Trail Running, winter

Mt. Tom Challenge

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One of our friends decided we should take on the Mt. Tom Challenge instead of our regularly scheduled local trail run. So at the last minute the night before the event we decided that was just what we would do.

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The View from the top of Mt. Tom as another person reaches the summit.

The Mt. Tom Challenge consists of going straight up a mountain. Then going around and down the other side. And you do this as many times as you can in two hours. There is no warm up to the incline. You immediately start going up the mountain as soon as the race starts.

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The view down the trail we ascend up to the top of Mt. Tom.

You quickly discover that most likely this is nothing like anything you have done before. Well, at least thats what I discovered. The incline is a climb of 1100 feet over a distance of .8 miles. Someone good at math figure out what the angle of that ascent would be.

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Once you get to the top you head down this very brief but flat trail. It was so nice to be on flat ground again. No more climbing. Each lat is about 2.5 miles. So once you get to the top you still have over a mile to go to get back to the bottom and start again.

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As you leave the flat land you come to this nice depression that was filled with snow. I couldn’t resist stopping to take a photograph here. It was such a nice spot.

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The uphill climb was snow-less. Thankfully for me as my trail shoes are virtually bald. I never would have been able to get up a slick snowy slope. On the way down it was a different story. It was muddy in spots and there was varying amounts of snow. The snow could be just a dusting, to half frozen/half melted ice, to ankle deep or more amounts of snow. It was pretty tricky for me picking a route down the mountain and watching my footing. Trying to figure out where I would have the best traction. I was constantly varying my speed and stride to maintain control on the way down. And it almost worked too. At one point on my way down I over stridded and my front foot slide out in front of me and I went down. I basically sat down on my back leg bent right under my butt. I slid down the slop a little on a frozen hard snow that felt more like gravel and cut up my knee a little bit. But I was able to bounce back up and continue running. No real injury, thankfully. As I was getting close to completing my race I stepped in a thick mud hole and lost my show. As I was going downhill I ended up taking about three shoe-less steps downhill in the mud and then I had to walk back through the mud to retrieve it. (Check out my Instagram for that photo.)

When I looked at what the incline was like I was nervous I wouldn’t even be able to complete one lap. So I was very happy with the two laps I was able to complete. I completed my first lap in around 45 minutes and my second lap in about an hour and a half. I could have went for a third lap but I just didn’t have it in me mentally to go back up that hill a third time. Plus I was battling a cold, so that didn’t help. Maybe if I do this event again my goal will be three laps. It was a great but challenging event. Check out the Tyoga Running Club and the Mt. Tom Challenge.

 

 

 

Nature, nature photography, Nature Preserve, Photography, Running

Todays Trail Run

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While a 70 degree day in near the end of February does make me concerned for other reasons. I am not opposed to going outside and taking advantage of the unusually almost disturbingly warm weather. I was able to see what it would be to run with my new Nathan Vapor Air hydration pack in some warmer weather. The answer is hot. It will be hot. This might take some getting used to. I have never run with a hydration pack, until recently and I have never run with one in warm weather.

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The thing that I love most about he Nathan Vapor Air and one of the main reasons I wanted this specific hydration pack is that it has lots of storage. It has two front chest pouches that can carry my iPhone 6 plus, my Olloclip,  and when I bring it my Nikon J mirror-less camera.

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One of the aspects of trail running I love is that it allows me to get out and enjoy nature even more and I think it will allow me to get out and see places I would never see otherwise. And with this pack I can get out there and capture great images of the natural world. Today we were on the trail at Personious Woods provided by Tanglewood Nature Center in Upstate, NY.

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My growing love for running combines perfectly with my love of nature and photography.

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All but one of these images was taken with my Olloclip attached to my iPhone 6 Plus. I am excited for the the opportunities I will have in the future to explore trails and capture some amazing images and share them with everyone.