Not Jimmerson Hill - Day 130

  First, just some logistical details. I'm now hiking in New York, even though I haven't yet crossed the border. We have discovered issues with seasonal roads that are gated. So, I'm swapping what was originally planned for Monday and Tuesday with today and tomorrow. Then, we discovered we still had an issue with what I had decided to do today, so I hiked farther. The next roughly 400 miles will be concurrent with the Finger Lakes Trail. It is blazed in white, so I have to switch my brain to watching for white instead of blue. Now, for the point of the title... Not Jimmerson Hill.

In 2000, the year I first hiked the miles I did today, I was with Marie and a friend of hers named Bess. We backpacked from the NY state border to Portageville, NY. It was tough. Cataraugas County, NY is nicknamed by the FLT "The Western Wall" for a good reason. For us, the very worst climb of the hike was over Jimmerson Hill. It about did us in. In fact, it's become my euphemism for any nearly-insurmountable problem.

The difficulty of any hill is subjective. In 2000, I was younger. However, it was a hot day, we were hiking it in the afternoon. After we got up it, the descent was on a bulldozed, torn up logging track. It was awful. This is Jimmerson Hill in 2000.

And Jimmerson Hill this trip? Ha! The trail no longer goes over it. I was disappointed because I wanted to show it what for. However, I am willing to settle for the hill that is just north of Jimmerson with no name. Jimmerson was an 800-foot climb. Today's first hill was 900 feet. Maybe it's the one lurking in the mist in the picture from 2000.

Let's talk about hills a minute. If you've been a follower of my blog, you know I love the hills of New York. They are "home." Even when I have to walk over them.

Today's climbs were up 900 feet, down 600, up 500, down 500, up 400, down 600, up 700 and down 400. I showed those hills what for!

The best feature of today is Little Rock City. I LOVE this place. Here is the crack that used to be part of the trail.

When I saw the trail no longer went there, but followed the road, I was afraid I was going to be horribly disappointed. Had someone decided the trail was somehow going to damage the area?

Here are Marie and Bess going down that crack in 2000.

The alleys between the rocks here are just opening wide enough a person could walk between. I suspect seeping water and ice are responsible for the rocks separating. This is the birth of the boulders. Rocks calving off the Allegheny Plateau.

Here, the splits are even newer, and the rock on top is bare.

Hooray! The trail turned and went down into the streets and alleys of Rock City. In fact, it wandered around among the rocks for quite a while.

Most of the splits were straight lines, but I liked this curvy one. Too narrow for passage.

However, the trail goes between these two!

I just like this picture. However, these rocks have already tilted.

I took a lot more pictures. Most of the big squares that split off seem to have just slowly slid down the hilside without tilting. Their tops were still level. I could see that ice and water keep splitting pieces off the bottoms of these big rocks. Perhaps when their front edges lose enough material, they begin to tilt and then they slide down the hill faster (faster in a geological sense), and end up lower down as all those slanted rocks I've been showing you for days. I feel as if I've seen geology in action today.

Are you ready for this? Even with those hills, here are today's numbers.

Miles today: 16.7. Total miles so far: 1701.3 1700!

And now I have to get the maps ready for tomorrow.

See Reservoir and the Runs