When the days get shorter, my battle to avoid cabin fever begins. The fight starts in fall for me. I found myself just gazing at google maps, one of my favorite tools. I zoomed in and out of my location looking for green blobs close enough to home to visit with the waning afternoon sunlight. Avoid golf courses, playgrounds, places I’ve been…not too many options close by, but zoom out just a little more…and I discovered Lawson Lake County Park [Lawson Lake Rd, Feura Bush, NY 12067], never heard of that one before. It’s website headlines: “Welcome to this underused natural resource.” Let’s use it. So we took an afternoon trip to brighten up the mildly chilly fall day, just under thirty minutes from Center Square, still in Albany County. We got to the park and everything seemed so nicely maintained. New shiny looking signs, large parking lot, okay – this is going to be good!
I read into the site pretty thoroughly, I knew that there were marked trails, but when we arrived I couldn’t intuitively find them. Maybe we parked in the wrong spot? There was no one around to ask, not a soul. So we walked around a bit, followed a path along the road and then it crossed the street. We headed up a gravel road and I began to think, are we getting anywhere?
We contemplated turning back, not knowing if we were on public or private land, there were some cabins along the way. We persevered and popped out into a campground, an eerie, empty post-summer campground.
If nothing else I thought, let’s walk around the spooky abandoned cabins. Then suddenly, thankfully, I saw a red blaze! *Celebration* We made it! We hiked up the hill and onto the loop trail through the green, delicious smelling woods.
I knew it was a short loop, but it was full of chirping birds and partial views.
We descended a good little chunk of elevation completing the loop, and made our way back down the gravel road. We were going to go back to the car but…isn’t this place called Lawson Lake? Now with a knack for finding little paths, we took a short well maintained spur down to the lake!
The sun was just about done for the day, but walking around the water at this time was different and beautiful, so very still.
Feeling peaceful and accomplished from our little time in these newly discovered (by us at least) woods, we got back into the car.
Driving down the quiet country roads we pulled over to watch the pink clouds like fire in the dusky sky. So no one seems to know about Lawson Lake? Maybe that’s the best part about it. You have to set out and find the trails on your own, rejoice in discovery, and simply enjoy the quiet nature of the land. If you’re looking to get out of town and see some new sights, get a bit of fresh air and exercise, head to Lawson Lake County Park.