2024-01-08: Colonie Town Highpoint

'Asher Ridge', elevation 502'. Colonie highpoint, Albany County municipal highpoints 10/13. Solo winter ascent via Newport Drive. 0.49 mi, 62' gain, 08m RT. 

Over the interterm, I had been working my way through town highpoints in Albany County, and had made pretty good progress so far. While a snowstorm swept through the area, I spent the day indoors, trying to see if it was feasible to complete the county's four remaining municipal highpoints in one trip. The next morning, I set out early in the day to attempt to finish the county.

There were three remaining towns - Colonie, Watervliet, and Green Island - and one city, Cohoes, whose highpoints I had yet to reach. All four of these are densely populated, built-up areas with highpoints on the sides of roads and parking lots, which made it possible to peakbag the area the day after a significant storm.

Naturally, I started with the most uncertain highpoint in Colonie. This is located along the access road for a water tower west of Denison Road. There are two candidate spots here that reach over 500' in elevation (although the western area's contour is erroneously unbolded on USGS maps), and I chose the larger contour area to the west as my highpoint. I've informally termed this summit 'Asher Ridge' based on the name of a private drive on its western flank.

My trailhead for this hike was at the end of Newport Drive, a dead-end street in a high-end residential community near the town's northern border. I was a little concerned about this spot, as it's directly next to a house, but it also sits at the base of a communications tower, so I figured a strange car there wouldn't look too out of the ordinary. 

Looking up the gravel access road from near my parking spot.

From here, I continued on foot along the gravel access road that leads towards the water tower. I could probably have driven up, as the road was unexpectedly plowed and easily accessible, but hiking is usually more fun anyway. This road passes through some forests - uncommon in a built-up area - and continues past several ground-level water tanks on an unexpectedly interesting walk to the summit.

Looking up towards one of the water tanks through the woods.

The highpoint is at the crest of the road just before the water tower.

The highpoint is very easy to find at the crest of the road, although I tromped around in the snow a little bit in case something slightly higher was buried to the east. After taking my requisite summit pictures, I headed back to the car at a leisurely pace, enjoying the nice walk an the welcome departure from my usual high-intensity bushwhack climbs.

A nice, wide view through trees to the east.

Looking back down the trail towards the developed neighborhood.

Once I was back in the car, I pulled out the GPS to get directions to my next highpoint, what I anticipated to be a very easy summit at the top of Cohoes.