'Starbuck Hill', elevation 66'. Green Island highpoint, Albany County municipal highpoints 12/13.
I was nearly done with a project to climb the highest points of Albany County's 13 towns and cities over interterm, following my successful climbs of Green County's town highpoints last summer. I was trying to bag the last four highpoints in a day, and Green Island was my second to last.
Green Island is an interesting town. With only 0.75 mi2 of land area, it's the smallest town in New York by area, and despite its density, has a population similar to that of a small town. Much of the township consists of Starbuck Island, a small island in the Hudson River covered in apartments, condominiums, and stores. Starbuck Island also contains the town's high point at an unimpressive 66'.
Recent construction on Starbuck Island has muddied the highpoint a bit, covering it in apartments and leveling what was once natural ground. Visitors aren't technically supposed to just wander around the River's Edge Apartments at the heart of Starbuck Island, but I figured I'd only be there a few minutes and I wouldn't bug anybody.
Riverview Drive forms a bit of a loop road that runs through the maze of apartment buildings with little parking lots shooting out at various points. I quickly navigated to the centermost of these, pulling in to a parking lot between some buildings. The highpoint I believe is just between two buildings at the center of the island, but it was hard to tell with how much construction work has been done here.
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| The highpoint would seem to be along this stretch of sidewalk between the identical grey-sided buildings. |
I probably looked a little odd taking summit pictures in the middle of someone's driveway on a snowy weekday afternoon, and I got some strange looks from some residents who were leaving at the time. After a slow climb around the rest of Riverview Drive, and passing the official 'guest parking' area, I drove on west towards Watervliet to finish the county.
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