Five Rivers adventure (Comments: 8)

We had our first bike camping adventure this weekend, and it was great!

We decided to start easy, with a family camping event at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center in nearby Delmar, New York. Here’s a bit of history about Five Rivers, which started out as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in the New Deal era:

Five Rivers is a place where conservation began, and today the Environmental Education Center proudly carries forward this long legacy of environmental stewardship. From 1933-36, a resident Civilian Conservation Corps built brooder houses, dammed streams and fenced fields to create New York’s first and only State Experimental Game Farm. For 40 years, state biologists conducted a comprehensive and widely acclaimed study of the ruffed grouse, while raising a variety of game species for release.

Research biologists at the site’s Wildlife Resources Laboratory, established in 1941, field tested new techniques in wildlife management, many of which revolutionized the profession and put New York in the forefront of a growing national conservation movement. The technique of aging deer by dentition, the use of cannon-nets for live-trapping, and the abundance of mallards in the eastern flyway are all directly attributable to this early work on the grounds. Today, the careful visitor can spot many elements which recall the storied Game Farm era.

Five Rivers is 8 miles from our house. We rode the entire way on Delaware Ave, which is hilly, but not too bad. We’ve had a ton of rain this summer in Albany, and it rained on Thursday and early in the day on Friday. As we headed out on the road, we noticed rain clouds coming in. By the time we’d gone a couple miles, the clouds were really coming quickly:

Soon we were riding through a light rain. We pulled into the Bethlehem Public Library and waited for a few minutes under an overhang near the entrance. It seemed clear that the rain wasn’t going to let up, and that was the moment to decide whether this was an FFA (Fun Family Adventure) or an HHM (Horrible Horrible Mistake). We decided to go for it.

Delmar is a pretty little town, but Deleware Avenue leaves something to be desired. Some of the time, there’s a wide shoulder. Some of the time, there are two lanes. And other times? Curves and no shoulder. Huzzah! We eventually decided to use a sidewalk that was otherwise unoccupied, making a nice bike path:

Later that evening, Jen told me that at just about the point where she was thinking about turning back … we arrived! Wet, but happy, we made it to Five Rivers. The staff members were quite surprised to see us ride in. In fact, they were trying at that point to figure out whether to move the camping outing into the visitors center. They decided not to because, as a staffer said later, “We figured you campers must be pretty hardcore if you showed up on bikes.” (They were talking about us. Weird!) We pedaled over to our campsite.

Within a few minutes — and with help from another camper, Kevin — our tent was set up. We hadn’t used it since last summer, and we’d only used it once then, so weren’t even sure we’d remember how to put it together. It was easy though, even in the light rain. By the time we finished, the rain had stopped and never started again.

Ten families signed up for the camping trip, but half of them canceled because of the weather. The folks who came were great. Bernie immediately befriended a boy named Jake and they spent the rest of the time chasing each other and kicking a ball around. John took a quick liking to Allie, a Student Naturalist at Five Rivers. One thing we didn’t realize was that the fire wasn’t going to be made until 8:30 at night. We brought hot dogs for dinner, so we dug into our snack food and figured we’d appreciate the hot dogs that much more when we ate them later that evening.

At about 7:30, Five Rivers staffer Anita led us on a nature walk. We saw fields full of gorgeous wildflowers, deer and slugs. That’s right, slugs. The kids got to hold the slugs and learn just how sticky they are. It was great.

The fire was ready by the time we finished our walk, so we broke out the hot dogs. Other folks had marshmallows and Jiffy Pop popcorn. As you know, I’m all about making it easy, so I roasted three dogs at once using my patented Three Weenie Roaster (TM):

We went on a firefly walk after dinner. One of the staffers was collecting firefly data for the Firefly Watch sponsored by the Boston Museum of Science. We counted fireflies and wrote down the numbers so that she could submit our totals.

Then it was back to camp for a good night’s sleep. Bernie and John — and their parents — fell asleep very quickly.

This morning we were up at about 7 or so. We snacked on organic pop tarts, gorp and juice. Jen and I broke down the tent and packed the bikes. We took one more hike…

…took some photos…

…and then pedaled home.

In total: 16 miles, 18 hours, 4 happy people!

You can view all our photos from trip online:

080808 Five Rivers

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