Checking out the Holt Preserve and Thacher Park North

Friday afternoon the weather was nice, so I decided to bring my mom on a short hike at the Holt Preserve. It’s not too far from where I live and I’m am always wanting to find new trails to explore.

Located on top of a hill in southern Albany County, the trailhead is located down a dirt road, complete with old barn and a former farm house.

 

I parked my car across from the barn and walked down the dirt road to find another parking area and trail register.

We decided to walk the green trail (the boundary trail) and then the blue trail (the helderberg overlook trail).

The trails were well maintained but sometimes the trail makers were hard to see.

My favorite part was walking along the overlook trail–I can see Thacher from here!

This area used to be an old sheep farm, so there were many old stone walls all throughout the woods.

Overall it was a very enjoyable hike! My mom was glad I dragged her out of the house to go with me.

Speaking of Thacher, Saturday morning I met one of my co-workers for a hike in the North area of Thacher Park. We parked at the Carrick Road lot and walked part of the Long Path and the Hang Glider Loop.

The trail was muddy and covered in snow in some spots, and dry in some others. We joked that we were hiking through all the seasons.

We stopped for lunch at the Hang Glider lookout. I’ve been here before, while running with the Summer Trail Running Series, during the Hairy Gorilla Half Marathon and the Thacher Park Centennial 10K, but never hiking on my own!

After our snack, some other hikers stopped at the Lookout and mentioned that there was a cave nearby. So, of course we were curious and decided to follow them and bushwhack along the escarpment to see this elusive cave. Found!

This must be one of the many caves at Thacher. We hiked the rest of the loop and then eventually back to the car–a nice three hour jaunt of about five miles!