Bristol Branch - Evangeline

  There were several really cool parts of today, but I'll concentrate on one of them for this blog post.

We had another perfect lunch spot if we hiked fast. We wanted to make it to the Evangeline Shelter. The Finger Lakes Trail System has quite a few shelters, all named. I'd heard this name before, but hadn't heard how it got it's name. It is indeed named for the poem of the same name by Longfellow. These quotes are on the wall of the shelter. "This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks." And "When she had passed it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music." This is meaningful to me because it was my grandmother's favorite poem. This is Granny Rowe, the one who raised me on epic poetry and stories of all kinds. The shelter itself is wonderful. Here's a long view. The little pavilion in front of it houses a block fireplace with a grill. In this picture, you can see how the inside is laid out. There is a sleeping loft with carpet! There is a table and some chairs, books, various utensils, things hikers might need (bandaids, bungie cords, t.p., etc). There was even a porch swing mounted inside that I found quite comfortable. Marie had to coax me out of it to get me back to hiking. It was a day of many hills, but most of them only in the 200-300 foot range, and unnamed. Here, we had just come down one and were starting up the next. Faber Pond, a small body of water we passed. Water features always look nice. Of course, right after that we climbed another hill. This is looking back at the hills we had just come over. The last treat of the day was the Huckleberry Bog nature loop. I'll tell you more about that another day. For now we'll settle for "the hugging trees." These two are a white pine and an oak. By their ages, someone has speculated that loggers spared them and twisted them together long ago.

9.3 miles for the day. It was hotter than yesterday, but we felt better because the humidity was not as high. It was Marie's birthday. We had ice cream!

Tomorrow is going to be another play day. Stay tuned.

See Bristol Branch - More Italy Hill