Back in the day, taking a beer run involved driving into town and picking up a few sixes of something cheap. My, how that has changed! The other day I decided to mix up my run a little bit by running down on the Corning Trail. It was a gorgeous day and the breeze off the river felt fantastic on my bare shoulders. I ended up running about 6 miles in an up and back route and felt really happy with the experience. So happy that I started imagining running the trail all the way to Troy…
Sunday was my first entire day off since the school year wrapped and I decided it was the perfect opportunity to get some solid miles in. I asked a friend to meet me in Troy and decided to start my run from home rather than driving my car to the parking lot by the trail. It added a few miles, but really it was all downhill from the DelSo to the river, making for an easy warmup. Other than the blazing sun, of course.
I ran for about an hour and 40 minutes and covered close to 11 miles, great training for the half marathons I’ve decided upon for later in the summer and through the fall. The Corning Trail is super flat and fairly lightly traveled. There were just enough cyclists, walkers and runners to prevent me from feeling isolated, with most of them on the southern part of the path. Surprisingly, there is no evidence of all the heavy equipment traffic that was present during the recent construction and maintenance of the I90 bridge. It’s a wonderful place to get in some scenic miles and we’re lucky to have it available.
When I reached the parking lot in Menands where the trail kind of dead ends, I followed the bike path route on Route 32, as I would if I were cycling. I’m not sure if the path continues beyond that lot along the river. Do any of you know? This part of the run is the least scenic since you’re basically running alongside 787, but there are some interesting homes and I now know where Sadudee is for future reference. I made my way below 787 to the Green Island Bridge urged on by the thought of a cold beer, having depleted both water bottles I had brought along.
I had remembered Wolff’s Biergarten as being a bit up the hill in Troy but, as I crested the bridge, I was thrilled to see that beer was even closer than I had imagined. With one final push, I ran the remainder of the bridge knowing that a cold beer and a warm friend waited. I think I want to run this again. Who’s in?
DelSo 
If you want to make that a loop, run down through Troy towards the Rens Jail, keep going south until just before the water plant, start following the trail along side the train tracks and it takes you to Rensselaer, keep going south and cross back into Albany at the Dunn Memorial bridge.
Wow! A loop sounds like a challenge I just might want to take on once the weather cools down. Is a beer midway an appropriate pit stop? 🙂
“I’m not sure if the path continues beyond that lot along the river. Do any of you know?”
The mohawk hudson trail (http://www.cdtcmpo.org/mohhudns.pdf) picks up again in Cohoes as a segregated path after some street travel, and follows the Mohawk at least to Rotterdam, mostly on a segregated path. There is also a path extending from Green Island to Peebles along Delaware Ave in Cohoes.
Hey – thanks for the comment. I’ve ridden my bike that route to Schenectady, but was wondering if a foot path continued along the river beyond that parking lot. It looked both a little sketchy and promising, but I was ready for a beer at that point and didn’t want to explore solo.
Yeah, the “path” dies out pretty quickly after the parking lot; it’s not part of the trail. You could probably, carefully, work your way north between 787 and the river, but it wouldn’t be worthwhile. It would be pretty great if the path continued onto Hudson Shores Park, but I don’t think there’s room for one there.
I prefer taking the 378 bridge into troy rather than running or riding through watervliet as the scenery is a little better (and no 787 exhaust), but that requires going up the switchback hill to get on the bridge.