COVERING FREE! UPSTATE NY MAY SINCE 2000 2019 Capital Region Tour de Cure CONTENTS Kivort Steel 1 Bicycling or Run/Walk KIVORT STEEL DIABETES Capital Region Tour de Cure: Cycling Team Raises REVOLUTION AND FRIENDS Kivort Steel Raises Over ALONG THE WAY AT THE 2018 CAPITAL REGION TOUR DE $1 Million CURE. CLIFFORD HOPKINS 3 Kayaking, Canoeing & SUP Over $1 Million PHOTOGRAPHY Paddling NYS Canals: Earth Day on the Mohawk River to Fight Diabetes 5 News Briefs & From the Publisher By Mark Wahl was, what I called, an old man bike – it had shock absorbers in the front and on the seat post. It was very comfortable, but very heavy! 7 Running & Walking At the same time, my wife brought home a pamphlet about the Spring Potpourri of Races very 23 seconds someone is diagnosed with diabetes in the US. It’s the seventh leading cause of death, more than AIDS Kivort Steel Cycling Team and some event called “Tour de Cure” 9 Hiking & Backpacking and breast cancer combined. Won’t you help by joining given to her at work by Howard Katz. What I didn’t know was that Cat Mountain Pond: E the American Diabetes Association cause by registering to ride, this little pamphlet was about to change my life forever! At the Heart of Wildness run or walk? If not, could you donate for the cure to this very wor- I rode my bike a little bit on my own, but I soon found out that 11 Multisport thy cause? With 1,500 participants, the Capital Region Tour de there were organized group rides though the Mohawk Hudson This Year, Try a Try or Do a Du Cure is a great event on Sunday, June 9 at the Saratoga County Cycling Club. I thought that I could ride with a “no drop” group 13 Bicycling & Mountain Biking Fairgrounds in Ballston Spa. and get some more miles in the saddle. So, I decided to go on one The Capital Region Tour de Cure is for all abilities, featuring of these rides in mid-April. To say I was in over my head was to A Community Bike Park: five well-marked cycling routes of 10, 30, 50, 62 and 100 miles, overstate the issue. Here I am in a bicycle that weighed as much Town of Caroga and More with safety marshals and vehicles, and fully-stocked rest stops. as a small car, wearing shorts, T-shirt and sneakers with toe cages, 15 Athlete Profile There is also a 5K Run and Walk with a water station. Last year, trying to ride with riders in spandex, clipless pedal systems/shoes, Running with Olivia Frempong more than 200 volunteers that dedicate countless hours to make and bicycles that appeared to weigh less than my sneakers. I was 16-21 CALENDAR OF EVENTS Tour a great day for everyone. The Tour de Cure would not be assured it would fine and that someone would ride with me. Well, May to July: Many Things possible without the volunteers who dedicate countless hours to the entire group had to wait for me at every major turn for several to Do! make it a great day for everyone. The total fundraising goal this minutes and as soon as I arrived, they were ready to go. I felt very year is to raise $725,000 to fight type 1 and 2 diabetes. 23 Great Walks & Day Hikes bad that I was holding them back from getting the ride in that they The Tour has corporate teams, friends and family teams, and wanted that day. Overlook Mountain: individual participants. A team can also be a combination of rid- Outdoors in the Catskills I finally said that if they just pointed the way, I would head ers, runners and walkers. The minimum fundraising goal for each back, and they could get on with their training ride. To my sur- 25 Open Water Swimming participant is $200. There is a festival afterwards with lunch by prise and relief, one of those riders volunteered to ride back with Conquer Fear and Mazzone Hospitality, plus the New Belgium Beer Garden, and live me, no matter how slow or how many times I needed to stop! His Tame Water entertainment by Body & Soul. name was John Casey (Athlete Profile, January 2019) of Latham, 26-27 RACE RESULTS I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 20 years ago and who it turns out was a member of the Kivort Steel team. When Top Finishers in 10 Races it had progressed to the point that I needed daily injections of we got back to the starting point, I had ridden over 20 miles! The insulin. In early 2012, I needed to add more exercise into my daily compassion he showed towards me meant a lot, and when I got AdkSports.com routine, and remembered that I loved cycling when I was younger. home, I signed up for the Tour de Cure with the Kivort Steel team. Facebook.com/AdirondackSports So, 38 years after my last bicycle ride, I bought a new bicycle. It See BICYCLING 25 ▶ 2 Adirondack Sports Mountainman Outdoor Supply Company presents the First Annual Adirondack Come Visit Paddling Symposium June 21-23, 2019 Old Forge At Mountainman Outdoor Supply Company Old Forge, New York Your Adirondack Base Camp! Improve Your Skills, Paddle Further, Paddle Smarter! agle ay • tillwater A comprehensive weekend of paddling instruction for paddlers, E B S offering Beginner and Intermediate course tracks for ig oose • eaver iver Kayaks, Pack Boats, SUPs, and Canoes. B M B R It’s Our Nature! Customize your own instruction plan! Experienced, expert instructors. Small Class Sizes. Register early! Participation limited to first 60 paddlers! Make your own fun, “Serious Boats for Serious Paddlers” or let us help you! New York’s Largest Canoe, Info-Webcams-Vacation Guide MountainmanOutdoors.com Kayak & SUP Dealer ld orge .com Learn more at ADKPaddlingSymposium.com • (315) 369-6672 O F NY Adirondack Paddlefest & Outdoor Expo 2019 Old Forge, New York • May 17, 18 & 19 • Test Paddle Before You Buy! America’s Largest On-Water Canoe, Kayak, Outdoor Gear & Clothing Sale! Over 1,000 Canoes, Kayaks & SUPs on Sale! www.MountainmanOutdoors.com • Rt. 28 Old Forge • (315) 369-6672 MAY 2019 3 ● KAYAKING, CANOEING & SUP PASSING THE TWIN BRIDGES OF THE NORTHWAY. ALAN MAPES MORE PHOTOS @ ADKSPORTS.COM A GREAT BLUE HERON IN FULL BREEDING PLUMAGE, STANDING ON A MUSKRAT LODGE. MICHAEL KALIN Paddling NYS Canals Earth Day on the Mohawk River A DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT DRIES ITS WINGS AT WAGES POND. MICHAEL By Alan Mapes JULIE HEADS FOR WAGER'S POND, KALIN PASSING UNDER THE NEW TRAIL he first paddle trip of the spring is BRIDGE AT VISCHER FERRY always a joy! This year, I had inspira- NATURE PRESERVE. ALAN MAPES Ttion for that paddle from the newly published New York State Canalway Water Trail Guidebook and Navigational Map Set by the Erie Canalway Heritage Fund. In honor of this new resource for paddlers, two friends and I decided to launch at one of the sites listed in the book. Alcathy’s Boat Launch in Waterford puts you on the Mohawk River, which was running high and brown on our paddle day, but the sun was warm and nature was busting loose. It was not the first paddle of the year for A MUSKRAT, COMMON IN THE Julie and Michael – they are perhaps the CATTAIL MARSHES ALONG THE RIVER, HOLDING A WATER MANY PAINTED TURTLES WERE SUNNING ON most active kayak paddlers I know. They CHESTNUT SEED. MICHAEL KALIN LOGS ALONG THE SHORE. MICHAEL KALIN had been out on the Hudson River six times already this year. Michael is an avid wildlife as we passed under the bridge and head- around 1,000 strokes to go a mile. Someday photographer, paddling with an SLR camera ed for the channel to Wager’s Pond on the I will have to count, but I’m sure that small and long lens resting on the bottom of his north shore of the river. Once out of the changes in your technique can make a big boat. Muskrats were his hoped-for quarry wind, the warm sun took over and every- difference, given how many times they are that day, and the critters did not disappoint. thing was pleasant. Michael photographed repeated in the course of a day’s paddle. Alcathy’s is a nice large launch site, with a double-crested cormorant drying its out- It’s a sad fact that the bays and marsh- a double boat ramp, and parking for 30 cars stretched wings. They do not have the water- es along the Mohawk are best explored in or more. It’s found at the end of Flight Lock proofing oils for their feathers that ducks spring, before the floating water chestnut Road in Waterford, right near the top of the handling) or download it in sections or in its have, and must spend time drying out after plants cover the surface, and make boating famous Waterford Flight of Locks. The flight entirety at eriecanalway.org/watertrail. diving for food. on the margins of the river difficult. This inva- allows boats to rise from the level of the Although the river was at high flow, the Entering Wager’s Pond, we passed under sive plant, native to Asia, was introduced into Hudson River (essentially sea level), up to current was not too strong to paddle against the new pedestrian/bicycle bridge, part of Collins Park Pond in Scotia in the mid-1800s, 165 feet to pass around the Cohoes Falls – in this dammed section of the Mohawk.