Paid a late afternoon visit to the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy's 148 acre Winifred Matthews Holt Preserve to get in a little snowshoe hiking today. Parked at the winter entrance on Lower Copeland Road and headed out, elevation 650 feet, under mostly sunny skies. Took the white trail from the road, where it enters the woods and quickly comes to a handsome wooden footbridge.
Just a couple minutes in, I picked up the yellow blazed Ravine Trail, which steadily climbs above a small stream bed and woods road down below.
Although there was a bit of a windchill, the conditions were near perfection. A nice snowshoe trench made for easy going.
Climbed up to the blue blazed Helderberg Overlook Trail, where there are aptly enough some nice views to the west to be had. The Conservancy has done some solid work creating these views since the last time I had visited back in 2019.
A short distance further, I hit View #2, which is equally nice.
Even where there aren't cleared view points, peek a boo views can still be found from the steep west facing slopes.
Continued up to the green blazed Plantation Trail, which is highly scenic and passes through gorgeous conifers as it heads north, then east.
Decided to leave the green Boundary Trail and bushwhack up to Copeland Hill's summit. From where I left the trail it was less than 2/10 of a mile up, but the snow was deep and made it more challenging than it would have otherwise been. The summit sits almost directly on the edge of public land, where signs are aplenty.
The wooded 1072 foot summit of Copeland Hill is actually pretty flat. Surprisingly, it looked like there were other snowshoe tracks up here, that had long been covered by new and drifting snow.
After hitting the summit, I bushwhacked back down to the green marked Boundary Trail, then continued south to the snow covered pond along the red blazed trail.
From the pond, I headed back west on the blue trail then on over to the orange blazed trail, where it makes a sharp left hand down the steep west slopes, utilizing a couple of switchbacks to ease the descent.
Back down low, I took the red marked Dr. Holt loop, with the late afternoon sun slowly fading behind the trees.
Hiked a touch under 3 miles total, with over 700 feet of ascent on a gorgeous winter afternoon. Even on a blustery, cool day there is a subtle feel that spring is on its way. Maybe just wishful thinking...for now I'm enjoying the great snowy conditions.
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