Did You Guess Diane?

I would suspect that you had prior information if you guessed Diane because she hasn't been part of my regular circuit until recently although we knew each other as children. We have so many interests in common that we became instant adult friends.

We packed the day just about as full as possible. It began with a puppy fix for me. The white puppy is Nola and the black lab is Tula.

Their owner is a man I also haven't seen since childhood. His name is Gary. He is younger than I am, but I was quite good friends with his older sister. We are no longer children as you can probably tell. (I think the last time I saw him, I was taller than he was.) He treated us to coffee and homemade lemon cookies. Yum!

Next up was a little hike. Diane has been able to up her mileage quite a lot since last summer. She gave me local choices and we walked to a place I've featured on the blog quite often, but I think the last time I did this particular hike was around 1970.

We walked up the Taughannock gorge. It's hard to get a sense of the perspective, but those rock walls are about 500 feet high.

This trail takes you to the base of Taughannock Falls. This is 215-foot free fall drop, considered the highest free drop east of the Rockies.

The walk in to the falls and back was 1.9 miles.

All the pictures I've shown on the blog before today were taken from an overlook that is along one of the edges of the bluff. I took another of those today, but I won't post it. The one I will share is that if you walk a short way along a different trail from that upper overlook you can get much closer to the falls. I think this shot gives you a better sense of the power of the water. It was really noisy from this vantage point. All the sound of the falling water and ice was rising right up the rock walls!

Then we went up to the museum. Diane is Village Historian. I gave them the quilt made by Frances Leary.

And she wanted to show me this. It's an accordion that was donated. I've never seen one like it at all, so I wasn't very helpful. But it was fun. A few of the buttons still play notes.

The day was not done, but I didn't take more pictures except the selfie. We listened to a web seminar about trails, we got chicken wings for dinner from the local Sportsman's Club (honey mustard), and then we looked at some more of my family's genealogy. She has discovered a few more things that I didn't know. She's amazing!

There is no clue for tomorrow, because it's so obvious it needs no clue except maybe this- who is my best friend in the universe? I'll head out first thing in the morning.

Miles walked in 2026: 51

Taughannock Falls SP, New York, gorge trail and part of north rim trail, 2.3 miles.

See Did You Guess Elaine?

Transition to Civilization?

The day began with a civilized and very good (and huge) breakfast at a cafe next to the motel.

Then we had to say goodbye to Marie (always a sad event for me). But we drove to Diane's where were were welcomed and hosted yet again! Yeah, we are on the way home, but in stages.

Diane has pretty flowers on her deck...

... and a cannon in her driveway!

Perhaps this is one of the reasons Diane and I have become friends so fast... she has as varied interests as I do, and she isn't neatly predictable.

OK, it's a reproduction cannon, but it really fires. She and some of her family members have been taking part in civil war reenactments for years. It's in her driveway waiting for the paint to dry after its yearly touchup.

No hiking occurred except a short walk around the block for Bill and me after dinner (yet more delicious food provided by Diane).

See Low to High

Day Nine- to South Lake

Getting ready for another two days of backpacking. Diane fed us french toast and sausages for breakfast (early). We are living pretty high on the hog. Worst part of the morning was that it rained quite a bit during the night, but things looked like they were going to improve for the day.

It took three hours to spot the cars. Only 17 trail miles, but not many roads to connect them. Along the way, we had to do more tree clearing. Some sawing of limbs again (do we get paid by the road commission?), but one place there were chunks of a broken limb in the middle of the road. I hopped out to sling them off the side and discovered a small semi-casualty of the fallen limb.

It seemed to be only dazed, but barely able to fly, if at all yet. I think it's a chickadee. We moved it to the side and hope mama comes to find it.

This kind of landscape looks so much like northern Minnesota. Not a lot of places like this, but interesting.

This wetland seems to be on the way to becoming a bog with mats of sphagnum moss collecting on the surface.

A beautiful pitcher plant in full bloom.

Our main goal was to get past South Lake. This is a favorite spot of mine just because the bridge is so weird. It spans the lake, and it was damaged somehow in the past (ice?) so it's all at crazy angles. But it's sturdy, just slopey.

It was the weekend, and we saw some other hikers. Two were notable in that they seemed to not have a brain between them. They knew where they had started hiking (where we were headed), so I knew what trail they must have followed. (But they didn't know where they were hiking to.)

I asked them if they had crossed South Lake bridge. (It was less than a mile behind them). They had no clue. I ask you, "Is not that bridge memorable if you had just crossed it?" Anyway... we had hoped to stop for the night at West Canada Creek shelter. But the other hikers thought it was occupied.

So we were walking along trying to decide where we wanted to stay when this campsite appeared beside us. We had no problem making the instant decision to make it ours.

We only hiked 8 miles, but they were difficult. Lots of mud and rocks and a big climb. We were happy to eat dinner and crawl in the tents away from the bugs. However the weather was great. We are being smiled upon.

Miles hiked in 2025: 282.3
Miles hiked on NCT 2025: 166.1

New York, Adirondacks, North Country Trail, Indian River TH to just past South Lake, 8 miles

See Being Flexible

Day Seven- Food, Friends, Fire

One of the requirements for a day off is ice cream!

Then Bill and I went hunting for our next free campsite, east of where we had been. We found an adequate one that was quite nice. Next event was the arrival of Diane, here to spot us for the next few days.

Bill and I had set up our tents, and the potty cabana out in the trees. Diane quickly added her tent and we are suddenly a village.

Some actual resting occurred!

Diane wanted to bring food for us for the evenings and breakfasts. Sounded good to us! I forgot to picture the dinner, but it was a yummy bean and veggie one-pot meal, and homemade cookies for dessert.

For the first time in a long while an evening on a hike was relaxed enough that we built a campfire.

The mosquitoes haven't been as terrible as usual for June in the Adirondacks, but they ramped up a little yesterday, and the smoke helped keep them at bay.

With storms predicted or not, and every weather site disagreeing and changing every ten minutes, we will decide which phase of this trip to do next in the morning.

See Racing for the Motel

A Ludington Day

 It was miserably hot today. I had to do some work in the morning, but then we headed for Ludington. It's usually 10 degrees cooler in Ludington in the summer and that was true today. We went for lunch at House of Flavors and split a Great Lakes Cranberry Wrap. Yum.

Then we drove around and looked at a few historic buildings and places. The beach was next. Pure Ludington, although things are winding down for the season since many schools have already started.

The goal was to walk out to the Lighthouse, which we did.

Nothing but blue lake and sky behind us!

Then we went back to House of Flavors for ice cream. I mean, we do know what HOF is for!

After that it was home again to do a few tasks around the house, but it was so hot we ended up watching a few funny videos.

The goal of the evening was to watch the Badger come in. That's a favorite Ludington pass-time, but I haven't done it anytime recently. I'm glad we went. Here she comes. See her?

I'm pretty sure you can find her now. She's being escorted by a Sheriff's boat. Also the Ludington Harbor Patrol was on duty. There have been some problems lately with small boats not staying out of the way, so they may have upped the escort presence.

Just a reminder. This is the only remaining coal-fired passenger ship in the U.S., and it's a registered Historic Landmark. The Badger and its sister ship the Spartan (also docked at Ludington but not seaworthy) are the two largest such ships ever built.

It has to turn around to dock because vehicles and any cargo are loaded off the back. You may remember that part of the docking system broke last summer and they lost about a third of the sailing season. But that's all fixed, with a new "apron" and counterweights. Watching it do that maneuver is quite interesting. Here is it almost backed into place in front of the Spartan.

It was still hot, so we drove around to the other side of Pere Marquette Lake for the view of the ferries from that side and also to visit the memorial to Pere Marquette. This is one of the most likely places for his death, although there are a lot of theories pointing to other locations.

Home again, salads for dinner- it was just too hot to eat, some visiting. Today was as full as it was going to get.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 372.8.

Ludington breakwater to the lighthouse and back 1.0 mile

See Working Our Way Home

Lehigh Valley Black Diamond Trail

 This morning, Diane and her granddaughter Dani, Marie (yes!), and I headed for a piece of the Black Diamond Trail for a little hike.

And why does it have that name, you ask? It's on the bed of the former Lehigh Valley railroad, in fact, the very piece that ran in back of my farm if they ever manage to extend the trail that far.

So far, they only have about 8 miles of trail. When the Lehigh Valley shut down in 1976, most of the ROW reverted to the owners whose land was crossed. So getting the linear "pathway" back is presenting challenges.

The Black Diamond was the name of the signature passenger train of the LVRR. Here's a picture from about the 1960s, I would guess

The four of us walked two miles out and then turned around. Very level (rail trails are) and easy walking. It was plenty hot, but we were walking at 8:30, so we certainly got out there before it got really hot.

This end of this piece of trail is located at Upper Taughannock Falls, where Elaine and I hiked 12 years ago (wow- how can it be that long ago?). It's hard to believe. This is a "cauldron" of rock where the water spirals down. It's difficult to get a good picture, and the light certainly wasn't right at that time of day.

Here are Marie, Dani, and Diane.

I spent a fair amount of time working on the final edits for the book, and we visited with Dick and Darla. Tomorrow Marie and I head out for our yearly hike.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 271.1

See Lehigh Valley