Connections in Shirtsleeves!

Today was gorgeous! It got to about 68°. Marie and I decided to connect up a couple of the previous hikes on the Empire State Trail.

This was mostly a roadwalk although it has a pedestrian/bike lane on the side of the road. Very noisy. But you can see the rocks, which are ordinary Hudson Valley Precambrian gneiss.

We were connecting what we did yesterday to the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, and as we approached the bridge, there was actually 0.6 mile of off-road trail, which was quite nice.

This is just to prove we made it to the bridge. We walked across it two years ago.

The elevation of our hike went from 13 feet above sea level to 126 feet, almost all of that in the first half mile. This is looking down that hill on our return to the car. The peaks in the distance are on the other side of the Hudson.

It was so beautiful, we went and took Selma outside for a little while. She is now 97, and really can't see anything. But she enjoyed the sunshine, and she's still sharp enough to make jokes.

Marie had a harder day than I did. She started at the dentist. I stayed here and edited some. Then we hiked, visited Selma, and played our game. We have also got our camping reservations for the NCT/Buckeye Trail Fest this fall.

Stay tuned- it may snow again on Wednesday, but summer for a day was pretty darned nice!

Miles walked in 2026: 80.6

Empire State Trail from Sojourner Truth north parking to Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge and back. 6.0 miles

See Empire State Trail Again

A Hike with Lisa

Today we hiked with Marie's long-time friend Lisa. I met Lisa once before about 20 years ago. We met up at a different trailhead from where Marie and I walked last week on the Ontario & Western Rail Trail. We connected today to that hike.

The trail is 27 miles long (and I've now done 4 of them). Today's miles were different, so that is good, but the trail here is so close to the busy road that we could hardly visit for the noise.

This is pretty cool. The low hills in the background are just that- hills. One of them is called Morgan Hill. Directly behind them is the Ashokan Reservoir (link below), and behind that are the Catskills, and from there you can see the highest point in the Catskills, and the eastern end of the Finger Lakes Trail is up there.

There were occasional low berms between the trail and the road and various groups had adopted them to landscape. Not too much of interest in this season (some ornamental grasses that still look OK), but this caught my eye. This is a honey locust. However, this is not a typical growth from for a locust at all. This looks like it has been trained into more of a bonsai shape for landscaping purposes. I like it! I'd like to see it with leaves.

One of the underpasses had a nice mural that hasn't been defaced yet. (most of the interpretive signs were)

More errands. I actually did some editing work while Marie rested. Dinner and our game.

Miles walked in 2026: 68.1

Ontario and Western Rail Trail, Hurly north to Esopus Creek and back, 3.9 miles.

See Ashokan Reservoir Hike

Goodbye Philadelphia in the Rain

It was a good day to spend in the car, and that filled most of the day. David waves us off from his doorstep.

We did begin with something very nice. Rachel had to go to work, but David and Marie...

... and Carmen and I went out to breakfast. Carmen is a long-time friend of Dave and Rachel, and I've known her for probably 10 years, but I guess she hasn't made it on the blog before.

Just a few more images of Philadelphia from yesterday. Philly has hundreds of murals. (Nope, I just looked it up- they have 4000-5000 and it is known as the mural capital of the world.) Here's one. A lot of them are really amazing, but I can't catch photos from the moving car. Maybe some trip I'll try to do a better job with pictures of murals.

And if this doesn't say Philadelphia to you, I can't make it any better. This is a straight-on view of City Hall with the statue of William Penn on the top.

And an attempt to catch a side view on a different street.

It rained ALL day, turning to slush as we got back to Marie's. But tomorrow is another day!

See Rooted

Onward to Philly!

Marie and I packed up the car this morning and went to take a hike on a newly-paved rail trail near her. It was an Ontario and Western connector line. Nicely plowed and the sun had melted it clear. No snow pants needed! We wore jackets and gloves, but no extra layers on the legs. It was a welcome hint of a warmer season.

At one point we could see this other railroad bridge over Esopus Creek. I think it used to be New York Central, but I wasn't able to verify that just now.

Then we continued on our way. Most of my Philadelphia skyline pictures aren't good because they were taken from moving vehicles on the expressway. This one is no exception, but it proves we made it.

And here we are! Rachel, David, Marie and me. A smaller than usual gathering at flower show time, but that's OK!

We are doing the show on Monday so there will actually be a couple of calm days here. I'm ready for that.

We did manage to get in a decent walk. 3.7 miles.

Miles walked in 2026: 56.1
Kingston, NY, Ontario and Western Connector Trail, Washington St to Rt. 209 and back. 3.7 miles

See 1.4 Miles, 2 Counties

The Second Long NCT Hike - 1995

Everyone seemed to like last night's ancient history post. Since today's news is more snow, I'll just share another early NCT hike.

In 1995, we added my grad school housemate, Mathilda, to our hiking troupe, and decided to check out the western end of the North Country Trail. Prior to that time I'd only driven through North Dakota in the winter, and we had no idea what to expect. Except for the heat, we were delighted!

I'll start at the end. We finished at the western terminus in Lake Sakakawea State Park. There was no lovely sign there at that time, just a small post in the ground.

We were astonished at all the water. I had not previously realized that this was the prairie pothole region and there was lots of water and lots of waterfowl. I've always loved this picture. It just says North Dakota to me. Potholes and headwaters of the Sheyenne River behind us.

We started at the eastern edge of the Lonetree Wildlife Management Area near Harvey, ND, and hiked west. The "Mighty Og" was a privately constructed bit of roadside art that we found hilarious. It's gone now.

I'd love to show you lots of pictures from that hike, but I'll try to limit myself. Almost all the wildflowers were new to me. This is purple prairie clover.

The white pelicans were amazing. They remain one of my favorite birds, although they are so shy I have yet to get a truly decent picture of one.

My scariest night outside, ever, was on that trip as we survived an impressive thunderstorm while completely exposed on a bluff. And we'll never again find ticks problematic. We were covered with them all the time. We had to wipe quantities of them off each other at every stop.

The biggest problem was the relentless heat. It was over 100° many days in a row. If we couldn't find any shade (if we could, it was usually a single tree), we took to setting up our tarp at lunch and taking a snooze. We were super-thankful for the irrigation canal. We continaully wet our shirts and hiked until they dried- under a half hour, and then we did it again. In the evening we swam. It was always there so we had water to filter.

This was the first trip of many where my feet turned to hamburger. It was pretty awful. Mostly I just learned to walk anyway. It took 19 years, and many iterations of attempts to solve this problem, before we figured out that I needed to ditch the boots and use trail runners. The boots kept my feet too hot.

And at the end of these 134 challenging miles, I realized... I wanted to hike the entire NCT.

I had delusions that Chips would be able to do it all with me. Of course, dogs don't live long enough at the rate we were hiking. And his life would be shortened even more. But, to my knowledge, he still hold the record for the canine with the most unique miles on the NCT at about 1200.

Following this hike, I attended my first ever NCTA Conference to see if I wanted to get involved with this organization. Well... I think you know how that turned out.

I edited, did errands, washed dishes, blah blah.

See Allegheny NF- 1994

The First Long NCT Hike - 1994

Hunting up the picture I've used to advertise the Confidence Camp got me looking at some other old hike pictures. That trip was in 1996. The first long hike on the NCT was in 1994. Marie, her son David, and I hiked the 96 miles through the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania. It was our first long backpacking trip and we made most of the rookie mistakes and lived to tell.

We had a blast, even though it rained almost every day, and we were almost constantly soaked. It was puppy Chips' first long hike too, and he loved it.



I was just learning how to use a 35mm SLR camera and most of the pictures from that trip are too dark, and they never did all get digitized. But I'll share a few. Here are Marie and Dave signing us into a trail register... probably our very first of who knows how many. I'm fairly confident of the "first" status because of the Finger Lakes Trail logo on the box. That means it was at the NY/PA state line.

Here Dave and I are resting on a rock with a plaque thanking the Allegheny National Forest by the Allegheny Outdoor Club. Interestingly enough, the trail here has been re-routed and the plaque has been moved although it's still on the trail, although not on this rock.

This is one of my personal favorites because it demonstrates how we spent almost every evening. I, in my hard-headed purist fashion, had declared that we would cook over a fire every night. I hadn't yet even bought a backpacking stove. The rain guaranteed that we had NO dry clothes after the third day. Every night we hung socks and underwear over the fire and roasted them. When pieces more directly over the flames got too hot, we'd move them farther out. A few things got singed, but we didn't actually burn up any briefs. It was worth it to at least start the next day in dry undies.

I can't find a color copy of this photo right now. It's not worth finding the slides and turning on the scanner. You'll have to settle for black and white. I felt on top of the world, and I sort of was! Chips was not about to let me get to a higher space than he was.

Now, you need to take a peek at two of these pictures to notice my hiking stick. This is the stick nicknamed "Chickenspit." It is now one of the curtain rods in my bedroom. See link at the end.

I hope you enjoyed, or at least tolerated, this trip down memory lane. I can hardly believe this was 32 years ago.

You can read lots more about it in North Country Cache, available from me.

I did minimal work today- several projects are in limbo until I get feedback from people. I started a new puzzle and read.

See The Project Done

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 Eleven- Low to High for the Ending

The plan for the day was 12.7 miles beginning with the nasty ford at the North Branch of Trout Brook Creek.

Will showed us a picture from just a week ago that looked about like it did three years ago, which is this view.

We all (Bill and me with Marie) hiked the 1.5 miles in to the location. That way Marie could be sure we got safely across. Ha, ha, ha! Here's what it looked like today.

It was to my crotch last time. We decided that was a no-go with the possibility it would be to my chest.

Will reports that the DNR is planning to rebuild this bridge next year. Good news for sure.

So we went to Schroon Lake and had a nice lunch. Called Matt the trail mapping guy to participate in the decision about what we could do. There was not time to hike in from the other direction and back out. Matt said the group that is going to go through later can fill in the gap.

So we decided to do a "fun hike." We went to Dirgylot parking and hiked up the east side of Jones Hill. This is brand new trail. I bushwhacked down this in 2022 (not much fun). So I wanted to see the new trail, and Bill really wanted to go to the top of Jones.

The first thing we passed on this route was the rock work that the crew I worked with in 2021 did. I have to show you the water bar again. We built this correctly, and it is still nicely diverting water off to the side. I'm a little proud of that water bar.

I'd been told that the last piece of that trail puzzle was also complete- a bridge over Platte Brook. Here it is! Made of logs.

After the bridge, the trail starts UP, and this is all new trail since 2022. It was very good building work for such a long climb. Lots of switchbacks, most grades not more than 10 percent.

Marie went part way with us, then she waited while Bill and I went on.

Part of the view from the top.

Just showing off.

Then we had to come back down, collecting Marie on the way. Three happy and satisfied hikers.

We came back to our motel, got cleaned up and ate a light dinner. Then it was out for ice cream! We know how to end a hike right.

So we missed a 7-mile stretch of trail, but I'm pretty satisfied with what we were able to accomplish.

New York, North Country Trail, Adirondacks. Loch Muller TH to the North Branch of Trout Brook Creek and back. Dirgylot TH to the top of Jones Hill and back. 11 miles total.

Miles hiked in 2025: 302.3
Miles hiked on NCT in 2025: 186.1

See Out to Pillsbury