[Journal Entry for January 22, 2011] Dallas and I drove up to the Anthony Wayne Recreation Area, off of the Palisades Parkway in Harriman State Park, at about 9AM. The day is mostly clear, but with some thin clouds, expecially in the south, and rather cold, around 15 Fahrenheit. About a foot of snow is on the ground. The snow quality is pretty good, although in places the surface is a bit crusty. I travel on snowshoes and Dallas on cross-country skis. We head east and join Beechy Bottom Road, a one-lane woods road that parallels the base of West Mountain, a north-south striking ridge. I am testing a new pair of Scarpa Inverno mountaineering boots. They are warm and reasonably comfortable, dispite the stiffness conferred by their plastic shell design. I am pleased that the snowshoes hold on them well; they all too often slip off of other shoes I own. We ski south for a mile or so. All the tree - mostly hardwoods - are casting long shadows in the low morning sun. We pass the Appalachian Trail crossing and then a little brook, before we turn around and head back. We pass a few stands of Phragmites grass, a species, which if not technically invasive, nevertheless seems to be expanding in its range and making quite a pest of itself. About an hour and a half.