February 10, 2012: Water made the Plotter Kill Preserve 10,000 years ago, and water is still the main event. The Preserve is a 2.5 mile long water feature with dozens of little streams, rivulets, and arroyos carving cloves into its sides. Each one is wonderful in its own way.
***Maybe PKP is such a waterpark because it is located inside the boundary of the Great Flats Aquifer of Schenectady, one of the wettest spots in New York State.
***Ian Miller said that he saw some water taking a 15 foot leap somewhere off the eastern part of the scenic loop trail. I didn’t find that place but I hiked a lot of pretty brooks in that area. The trails are icy, take care, wear spikes. —Ed Atkeson
Places of interest
Plotterkill links
PKP Cloud
Botanizing Bushwhack Catherine Kielb Coggeshall Convergence Danger! Efts! Fairy Staircase Falls Fall Forest Spirits Geology Gore-tex Grandma Gregg Rd. trailhead Highland Trail Hiking Horse's Head loop Ice Jacob's Ladder Landslide Long loop Loops Microspikes Mileage Mosquitos Movies Mud Paradise glen Photos Picnic Rynex Scenic loop Sergeant's Falls Snowshoes Springtime Steinmetz Stone Wall Stream crossing Summer The Isle of Scree The Long Path The Small Falls The Upper Falls Three Falls and Back Thunderstorm Tropical Storm Irene Uncategorized Unicorns Waterfall Loop WinterArchives
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pretty pic!
The tree roots look like hands–long thin hands washing themselves in the ice water.
And it really is an amusement park for water!
Ice is transient, sometimes unexpectedly lyrical. So glad to have noticed this little bunch of ice art.
OK, so what I see here is several elephant trunks sharing some sort of expression into the flowing water of plaful ancient existence and/or a series of old car mufflers straggling out their last emissions……ploofgh….!
wisdom of the ages, perhaps,,?
In any case there is a lot of communication going on!
Nice, Ed!
xox allie
I first thought of bananas, but they’re more like beanpods than anything.
In all the 3 times since Summer that I have returned to the 15 foot leap, I initially miss the easiest path down. Directions.
1. Go to Northeast tip of “Scenic Loop Trail”.
2. Hike down easiest path to Plotterkill Creek, toward the four triangles on Ed’s map (completely avoid scouting the rushing stream currently on the right).
3. Ascend the bank of the Pkill’s main southern tributary in the area of the 4 triangles. Voilà.
Please be safe and wait for Spring!
Hi Ian, I still have your map and photo, thanks. I’ll have another look.
Hi Ian, I found the falls today. We’ve had some rain so it was pretty active. Don’t know how I missed it before. Pretty spectacular, I think they must be 25 feet tall.
Yay! Congrats on finding them.
I love winter hiking, great photo!
Thanks J.
Funny, just the other day I hiked through this place again. I recognized it because of all the discussion and the photo. But totally different in spring of course.