October Jaunts

I just returned from New York after meeting my beautiful and newest granddaughter.  Since I have three daughters in the area, I moved from house to house weekly.  This gave me the opportunity to immerse myself in family activities and spend time with the grandchildren.  It also, hopefully, provided the families with some semblance of normalcy, as their company (me) was not around all the time.  I took the following picture in my daughter's yard in Beacon.

Rainbow from the sprinkler

With the warm summer in New York, Fall seemed arrive later than usual.   In Fishkill, the tree below was striking as its colors changed from the top down.

In Beacon, the Blue Jays had arrived and seemingly taken over.

  

On October 6 (Columbus Weekend, I went with my LaGrange daughter and her husband to Hunter Mountain to the October Fest.  We had rain.   After examining the venders' wares, we stepped outside to see the mist over the Mountain.  Then, as the skies started to clear, I caught the sun showing through the heavy clouds.

Hunter Mountain, NY

Hunter Mountain, NY

                      
The next day, I accompanied my Beacon daughter and her family to Belleayre Mountain (photo below) for their Columbus Day celebration.  The whole family met there and we all enjoyed checking out the sales of the vendors, as well as the food.  I enjoyed walking part way up one of the trails with my 15 year old grandson.

Belleayre Mountain, NY

During my seven week visit, I took some walks in Beacon and LaGrange,  returning to the Rail Trail in LaGrange.   While on weekends the lane has a good amount of walkers and bikers, during the week, it is quieter.  I was disappointed that I didn't see deer in the woods.  I did see one while I was driving.  A deer poked its head out of a line of bushes on the side of the road, but thankfully didn't come out any further.  With the deer surrounded by greenery, it would have been a great photo op.

I was also able to visit the Walkway over the Hudson State Historic Park.  The Walkway's website states that "it is the longest pedestrian bridge in the world." (http://www.walkway.org/visit-walkway)   It was built on top of an old abandoned railroad bridge, which spanned the Hudson River from Poughkeepsie to Highland.  It had been damaged by fire in 1974.   You can check out its interesting history by looking up the "Poughkeepsie Bridge" on Wikipedia.  If you use the parking lot near the Eastern entrance on 9G in Poughkeepsie, there is a charge of $5.00.  There is another parking lot at Pulaski Park on Washington Street.  This lot is free, but you will have to climb about three levels of stairs to get to the Walkway.  Either way, your walk should be quite enjoyable.

On my last weekend in New York, my grandson accompanied me up Mount Beacon, which is about 1,500 feet high.  He chose the Hemlock Gorge trail.  My grandson judged this trail to be easier for me as opposed to the fire road we took last year.   However, to me it was a rock filled creek with runoff from the mountain in several spots making it slippery.  We managed to get up about 750 feet with him holding my hand and helping me over some large fallen logs.  I think he developed more arm muscles that day.  To our left, as we climbed, was a lovely creek with waterfalls. We decided to end our trek, as the path was narrowing.  We thought we'd have to cross the creek on some rocks, which I was not prepared to do.  Even though we were deeply in the woods, I tried to take some pictures because the colors were beautiful.   As we descended the mountain, I thought the reflection of the tree line on the pond near the Water Tank was beautiful. 

                                                                                                        

                                                                   

I haven't made it up to the top of Mt. Beacon, yet.  If you look at the Scenic Hudson website, you can see the awesome view of the Hudson Valley that I want to see personally.  I'll try again next year.

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