Amazing Ashokan

The morning today was just about as close to perfect of a hike as you can get. You know, right, that if there are 10 things that make a perfect hike and you get all 10 of them, it's a dream. Wake up. Nine would be amazing, probably 6 is about normal for a good hike. This was close to a 9. I guess you could wish for blue water instead of ice (but then we would have missed one of the most interesting things). You might have wanted natural surface and that we would have actually seen the eagle. But this was seriously wonderful.

The weather was great. Mid fifties, warming a bit more before we finished. We had gorgeous views. We got to watch something really interesting. I managed to ID some of the surrounding mountains. We met an interesting couple and had a surprising interaction with another man.

Marie took me out to the Ashokan Reservoir where we hiked once seven years ago (link at end). The reservoir was built in the early 1900s to provide water to New York City. This trail used to be a road, but was closed and turned into a trail when a new road farther from the water was built. This is the view east, and I think the jagged peaks are Snake Rocks.

But not so fast. First we tried to do another piece of the Ashokan Rail Trail. I had not been on that before. However, the piece that has views of the reservoir was totally ice covered, and we opted not to do that. We walked a bit the other direction. This is one of the old mile markers indicating 16 miles to Kingston.

But we wanted to see the water, so we turned around and went to a different trailhead. You can see what a beautiful day it was!

The whole edge of the reservoir is lined with native rock. It makes dizzying patterns.

Our first interesting people encounter was with a man to whom we said, "Good morning." He countered with, "Why is it a good morning?" I don't think anyone has ever asked me that before at least after the casual greeting! I quickly said, "Because I am hiking with my best friend and it's a beautiful here."

This is South Mountain (which is west of the reservoir) on the right, and the larger one is Ashokan High Point which is the tallest peak surrounding the reservoir on the left. Ashokan is 3,081 feet tall.

This is perhaps my favorite view from the Reservoir. The little nipple to the right of center is, I'm pretty sure, Slide Mountain which is the high point in the Catskills at 4180 feet. The eastern terminus of the Finger Lakes Trail has been extended to there, but I've not yet done that new piece. It will be an all-day hilly hike to get from the last parking area to the new terminus. At least 8 miles total. In front of that is Cornell Mountain with, I think, Samuels Peak in the front left.

This is the roadway that crosses near the middle, and I'm pretty sure the peak in the background (these are all part of the Catskill Mountains) is Ticetonyk (TICE-tun-ike) which is from the name Mattias TenEyk who owned it.

We walked all of the roadway today. This was where we watched the most interesing thing. The ice is breaking up, and there is one of the arches of that bridge where water is flowing from one side of the reservoir to the other. There were slabs of ice being swirled around in a huge circle on the downstream side. You can see a few in the picture above. It was like watching plate tectonics speeded up. We watched the slabs (plates) hitting each other. Sometimes one would go beneath the other (subduction). Sometimes the lower one would be tilted upright and some even flipped completely over. It was fascinating. I began to realize how big slabs of rock could get tilted and even flipped.

We even saw some mergansers.

Walking back to the car we met a couple who were training to walk the Camino de Santiago (in Spain) in the fall. (They were wearing backpacks and I asked if they were getting ready for a hike). The man has walked all of the Appalachian Trail, and they plan to walk the Superior Hiking Trail next year. They also have some other trails in Europe in mind because their son lives in Zurich. We traded stories and names.

We saw an eagle nest, but not the birds. The ice patterns were artistic. We saw an air boat that almost certainly belongs to New York City Department of Environmental Protection (which operates the reservoir) going over the ice to reach a buoy of some kind (water sampling?).

What a wonderful day! It rained in the afternoon, but that's OK. We played our game, fixed dinner, read a little in the book we are currently sharing, and then I had a Zoom meeting.

Miles walked in 2026: 87.8

New York, Ashokan Reservoir Rail Trail 1.2 miles, and Ashokan Promenade 4.2 miles. Total 5.4 miles.

See Ashokan Reservoir Hike

1.4 Miles, Two Counties

I was determined to at least put a foot on the Finger Lakes/ North Country Trail on this trip. It will be the first year in a long time that I won't get my 50-mile FLT patch, but I don't want it to be ZERO miles.

I had hoped to get on the trail between Irene and Elaine. No time. I marginally thought I might do so between Elaine and Diane. No time. Today, I made it happen. It wasn't much of a hike, but it counts.

On the way to Marie's, I crossed the trail on NY 79. Neither FLT parking was open. The snow was pretty deep on the trail. I put the car on the edge of a trailer park with a note on it because no one seemed to be home that I could ask for permission.

Then I basically hiked the road piece in both directions. I did post-hole in to the kiosk at the west end.

This pretty swale is called Mallow Marsh and it's part of the Cornell University natural area. However, you may be able to tell that the snow is deep, it's not clear that there's not standing water underneath, there is about a six-foot dropoff that may have steps under the snow, but who can tell?

So I walked back on the road.

This is West Owego Creek, the boundary between Tioga and Tompkins Counties. So I hiked in two counties.

I won't even bother showing the other end where the trail goes back into the woods. It was straight up a hill in unbroken snow. But, hey, I was on the trail. And, hey, no one towed my car away.

Just after leaving Interlaken this morning, I passed the house where I grew up that my grandfather built. It's being taken care of nicely, which makes me happy.

Other scenes on the way across the state include the Susquehanna River.

And the New York hills that you know I love.

I am safely at Marie's and here is the sunset out her back door. Pictures with her tomorrow.

Miles walked in 2026: 52.4
Hike 100 Challenge 2026: 11.6

Finger Lakes/ North Country Trail, New York, Tompkins/Tioga county border, 1.4 miles.

See Did You Guess Diane?

Conservation Trail - Niagara River

  We started in Tonawanda, and discovered that the CanalFest was in full swing. However, it wasn't open for the day yet, so we got a parking place.

I have to brag that in order to get there early, we got up at 5 am. And I'll tell you the end of the story too. We did not get rained on when we were hiking. But we did drive "home" in some serious rain.

Of course, this is all along the Erie Canal, and it's history is entwined with the trail and the villages along the way.

One of the most fun railroad and bridge "artifacts" is this swing bridge that allowed railroad access to Goose Island, across Tonawanda Creek. It still sits in the river in a perpetualy "open" position.

Believe it or not, it was hand operated. I liked that the mechanism is so visible. There were several of these used on the Miami-Erie Canal, but none are still standing. I only saw interpretive signs.

Our trail all day was paved urban route. But it was attractive. You can see the river beyond the trees.

There were even gardens to be seen along the way.

Early in the day, we turned to follow the Niagara River. If you squint into the distance, you can see the blue arc of the south Grand Island Bridge.

Soon we were even closer.

Yup, we walked across it.

A couple more miles and we finished for the day before 10:30 in the morning.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 321.1. Finger Lakes Trail miles hiked in 2024: 52.9

Conservation Trail, Western NY., Main St, Tonawanda to Oakfield Ave. 7.8 miles

In the afternoon I had time to finish getting the book file uploaded and accepted. Now I'm waiting for the e-proof, but if it looks good, then I'll be ordering books. We played Quiddler again in the evening.

See Tonawanda

Conservation Trail - Tonawanda

 Today was a short hike because of a lack of parking in appropriate places. That's OK. It was hot.

The trail is very urban here, but it sometimes winds through parks where there is nice shade.

Soon, we reached the Canalway Trail- the route of the old Erie Canal system. You may recall seeing these signs before. I was on a portion of this on the big hike near Rome, NY.

The canal followed Tonawanda Creek in this section. This is heavily used by pleasure craft. We saw lots of yachts, and houses built on the water. But there were people paddling, too. Beautiful walk.

You know I have to throw in a little railroad history. This jack-knife bridge (a one sided drawbridge) was built in 1919 for the New York Central to cross the creek. it could raise enough so that even masted ships could pass through. But after it was tested a few times, it's never been used again!

Very trite, I know, but this water lily was looking especially nice.

In the afternoon, we went to visit Marie's niece Melanie who only lives a few miles from here. She's a veterinarian.

She is also big into crafts. She had made these two jigsaw puzzles from photos of hers. So I had to do them, right?

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 313.4. Finger Lakes Trail miles hiked in 2024: 45.1

Conservation Trail, Western NY. Forest Rd to Main St, Tonawanda. 5.0 miles

See Not All Paved

Conservation Trail - Not All Paved

 Today's miles were tough only because it was impossibly humid. We got out early enough to beat the real heat, but it didn't really matter. About the first third was still paved trail.

After that, it was still the rail trail, but it was a grass surface. Nice to walk on! Our only real complaint was that the grassy trail had no benches. We walked and walked til we found a place we could sit for our break.

Some cute little white mushrooms looking like scarecrow hats.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 307.4. Finger Lakes Trail miles hiked in 2024: 40.1

Conservation Trail, Western NY. Shimerville Rd. to Forest Rd. 7.1 miles

BONUS SECTION: Ann's Garden

We went to host Joyce's sister's garden the other evening. It was beautiful! Come along.

She has waterfalls and ponds. This one has pink lights in the water.

This one is even larger and has blue lights in the water.

Container gardens on the steps are always nice with a number of different coleus and other things.

I really like the gooseneck loosestrife.

But the garden phlox and daisies are spectacular too.

The new one to me was a large bush called sweetshrub with big flowers. It's supposed to be aromatic, but I didn't smell it. Next time.

I'm in the very last stages of getting How to Hike the North Country Trail ready. The final check of the pdfs just happened. If I can stay awake, I'll upload them to the printer tonight. If not... tomorrow.

See Peanut Line and Stella T. Rex

Conservation Trail - Peanut Line and Stella T. Rex

 We started on the really urban part of this hike today. Paved rail-trail.

Our host, Joyce, hiked with us.

You can tell for sure that we are getting more urban. About 5 planes were coming in for landings while we hiked.

We got out early so we could be done hiking before it got really hot. In a few places there was delightful shade. We actually managed to find benches in the shade for our two breaks. It was all pretty easy, really, especially with someone new to talk with.

This rail trail was called the "Peanut Line." It was originally a 32-mile line between Canandaigua and Niagara Falls. But when that was bought in 1854 by the New York Central, the vice president called it "a mere peanut of a line." The nickname stuck. Interestingly enough, this track was wide guage, with the rails 6 feet apart. When NYC bought it, they had to change the track to standard guage. At great expense. The last section of this line was decommisioned in 1976, and by 1996 portions were being converted to trail.

After hiking, we went out for pizza.

However, in the midst of our lunch, we were attacked by Stella T. Rex! She chased Marie right away from the table.

She wanted our pizza!

I tried to rescue it.

But I really had to fight her for it!

But in the end, we made up. She let us eat the pizza.

What a day! Hiking, pizza for lunch and sweet corn for dinner. (Actually a new plant too, but I have to nail down which species before I share.)

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 300.3. Finger Lakes Trail miles hiked in 2024: 33.0

Conservation Trail, Western NY. Clarence Center Rd. to Shimerville Rd. 7.4 miles

See Murder Creek Re-re-re-re-visited See Dinosaurs Didn't Read