First Day of Spring in Keene Valley

Winter is over, both meteorologically and officially for the 46ers*, so Kathy and I toted around Keene Valley and Keene (New York) enjoying our last day here. We first stopped at Marcy Airfield, which is a working grass airfield, as a brief snow squall passed over us, Lower WolfJaw, and Giant Mountains to the south. After a brief visitĀ for a hatĀ and maps in the Mountaineer, we stopped again as the sun came out on the same scene.

I took a set in infrared on a regular digital camera by using a long shutter speed and tripod:

Compare those to the visible light shots of the same scene:

We then spent some time looking at some of the shops in Keene before heading back to the cozy Random Scoots cabin. If you’re looking for a place to stay while exploring this area, you can’t beat Random Scoots or its sister cabin Mercy. Nicely uphill from the noise and traffic on Route 73 and still only 20 minutes to either Whiteface Mountain (for skiing) or Lake Placid. It’s also almost perfectly equidistant from St. Huberts and the High Peaks Information Center, covering the main hiking trailheads.

Some shots from our browsing:

* Note: The 46ers recognize any hike between December 21 and March 21 towards the ‘W’ winter designation, even though the actual spring equinox was on March 20th at 12:30AM. Many other hiking groups only recognize as “winter” hikes ending prior to the actual equinox.