Roger Perry Memorial Preserve(Dover, NY)

Got out for a short snowshoe trek in rural Dutchess County this morning to break the snowshoes in this season.  A moderation in temperatures to the mid 20's felt nice, but overcast conditions with light snow moving in put a damper on the day. The preserve is owned by the Nature Conservancy and can be found just east of the village of Dover Plains on Sand Hill Road.  A small parking lot with a kiosk can be found on the south side of the road.  Unfortunately, there is no winter parking for the preserve, so I parked along the shoulder of the road, as far as I could off the road.  Just past the kiosk the trail begins, clearly blazed with red trail markers.

Almost all recent snow remains on the trees and bushes because it simply hasn't warmed up enough in a couple of weeks.  Today would be our first reprieve from the Arctic freeze.

A limestone outcrop provides a small overlook towards the long ridgeline of East Mountain,

Looking northerly towards East Mountain's ridge beyond a dense conifer forest.

I passed by some sort of berries that really caught my eye.  Appear to actually be blueberries, but they must be some kind of unedible winterberry.

The trail loops back directly below some of the ledges that provide the views up above.

While the upper loop has seen recent snbowshoe activity, the lower loop had only been previously broken by deer prints.

A nice, short loop in an area I haven't been to in a while.  Light snow began to break out on my drive home.