Keleher Preserve(Berne, Albany County)

Headed into the Alabany County hills this afternoon to hike the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy's 447 acre Keleher Preserve located on Gulf Hill Road in the town of Berne. Elevation was 1500 feet at the trailhead and the sun was shining, but the temps were struggling to even hit 20 degrees at this elevation.  Oh yeah, and there was a lot of snow...A LOT.  

 I started on the white trail "west", which actually heads more north before swinging east.  Snowshoe conditions were ideal on a well trodden trail.

The white blazed trail eventually heads towards the northeastern slopes of Wolf Hill's summit area, where  there are screened views north and east from the steep slopes above the valley of Route 85 and Osequethaw Creek.After about 1.7 miles I came to spot called the America Juncture, where aptly enough, the red, white and blue trails all converge.

I opted to take the red "Overlook" trail which hugs the very steep escarpment on the east side of Wolf Hill.

There aren't exactly million dollar views from the Overlook trail, but there are decent views to the east.  One small spot in particular does offer up an unimpeded vista, where the Albany skyline can be picked out.

After enjoying the steep slopes along the red trail, I picked up the white trail again, but decided to turn back NW slowly climbing towards the blue blazed trail.  From the blue trail, which comes near but not quite to the summit of Wolf Hill, there are many through the trees views to the east.  The snow is quite deep up here too, but the trails are all broken out making for great hiking.

The blue trail heads SW for about a half mile heading through a gorgeous high elevation mixed forest. 

From the blue trail, I hit the white trail "east", and followed it all the way back to the car.  Hiked about 3.2 miles RT on a cold, but beautiful mid winter day.