Hello Hikers!
Wednesday Sept 2
Upper Treman SP, mixed woods, roads and streams walk
This is a hike we pieced together a few years back one day when we got lost in the back part of upper Treman. It’s a hodgepodge of sections with no real rhyme or reason, but it’s lots of fun and it gets us into areas that aren’t used much. Above is the meet-up on Woodard Road.
First leg of the walk: Heading down Butternut Creek Road from the parking spot. The Google Maps page will make you believe this is a live working road unless you pay very close attention.
Crossing Fishkill Creek. There used to be a nice bridge, but it was destroyed in a storm. It’s possible to cross in low water like we had this time — though I still managed to soak both feet and to fall over — no damage to me or my camera.
Van Ostrand Road — lovely rural feeling, no cars
Thomas Road — pretty much completely deserted
Finger Lakes Trail on the edge of the park — some fantastic woodland scenery but a little too dark for good photos under the trees —
Normally I don’t like to go on the trails where everyone in the county brings everyone who comes to visit, but the park was quite deserted and the chance to visit this fabulous gorge area was too much to pass up on.
Official head count: 11 hikers, two dogs
You can see eight more photos by me online here.
You can see Jack V’s online photos here.
Saturday Sept 5
Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area
Another great walk with Dave on a poorly marked ski trail in this beautiful wild part of the county
This was our first hike with leaves on the trees on this particular trail, officially known as Connecticut Hill Hike #3 — it’ll take me a few more times here to get any kind of a grip on what we saw, but my first impression was that it’s exceptionally pretty
Everyone else seemed happy too, so I’ll declare this walk a big success
Lots of gorgeous woodland scenes …. almost all in the shade so it was very pleasant even though it was pretty warm out in the sun
We had a special hiker with us, Boomer (far left), making his second walk with our group — he’s famous for having fallen off the high bluff at Monkey Run where we hiked the Sunday before, with no ill effects — he clearly loves to be out in the woods and it was really fun to have him along.
Dave seems to have a real knack for pacing these Connecticut Hill hikes — he brought us back to the cars in almost precisely two hours for the second time in a row — this guy is good.
Official head count: 21 hikers, five dogs
You can see nine more photos by me online here.
You can see Jack V’s online photos here.
Sunday September 6
Lindsay Parsons Biodiversity Preserve
Goldenrod in full bloom just like I hoped — fabulous effect — even better, there was a complex fragrance of goldenrod in the air, with a subtle but delightful sour note, that I never noticed before — loved it!
The huge fields are the prime attraction here but there are a number of other good sights to see — the big beaver pond on the yellow trail is always striking but it was really weird this time, probably because of the long dry period we’ve had — Reyer always hikes in Tevas so it was nothing for him to pull off his shoes so I could get this shot — ground gooey, he reported
There are also two beautiful back-to-back ponds that have been hit really hard by the drought — the water level was extremely low
There’s a good deal of lovely woods on this hike that can get overshadowed by the other sights — nothing spectacular, but very nice
There was a good deal of fog or mist hanging on the hilltops on both sides of the road when we shaped up — great atmospheric touch — some hikers told me beforehand they weren’t going to do this hike because they were afraid it would be too hot — in fact it was a bit warm but it didn’t actually get uncomfortable, and I thought it was a great morning.
Two hikers got stung.
Official head count: 23 hikers, two dogs
You can see 10 more photos by me online here.
You can see Jack V’s photos online here.
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We now have photos up on our hike photo web page from Bud and Scott’s Montana fishing adventure — click here.