Day 4.082: Wilderness and Wal-mart

We didn't go to Wal-mart. We went to the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.

It might be stretching a point to call it wilderness but it is something close and is very wilderness-like considering its location. We had a great time - even E5N1 who soon started complaining of being tired and needing to be carried ended up walking the whole way and enjoying himself. We were all ready for an outing I think.

As we set off down the trail I remembered that our bitterly-cold first visit must have been almost exactly four years ago - just before E5N1 was born and indeed it was - just four days off the exact anniversary.  It wasn't any where near as cold this time - although there was a stiff breeze again - so we were quite surprised that there was still a decent amount of snow on the ground in places

There wasn't much to see in the way of wildlife - we saw a few birds including a probable bluebird sighting but they were rather shy.  The wide open spaces and the trees were less coy and both very welcome. Even a close encounter with the Thruway (including Wal-mart trucks) couldn't take the edge off the experience.

We visited the Visitor Center too which is really excellent for both kids and adults. I loved the scale model of the center with a column of ice a mile tall. Apparently there was once that much ice over the whole of the area.  Outside we played a giant board game about the animals of the preserve which was great and inside we learned a bit more about the area and the prescribed (controlled) burns that we had seen some evidence of during our walk.

All these photos can be seen individually here.