The Mountain Trail Adventures

I discovered a trailhead near my house a few years ago. Once, I started climbing it, only to turn back after 10 minutes. It went up, and up, and up...and that was before I had any interest in getting some good cardio time in. Anyways, about a month ago, I remembered the trail and decided to go exploring. I've still never reached the end of the trail, because once you reach the top of the mountain, the trail continues through a grassy meadow...and is clearly marked with about a dozen "Posted" signs. Jerks! I may never know what lies beyond! If you see a public arrest record for me with a trespassing charge, you'll all know why. Here are some photos of the coolness the trail has to offer.

Fairy Forest...life size overhead view

 

 

 

 Stone Walls randomly line the trail, but not in a discernable pattern...I followed one, and found...

 

 

What era is this from? It was lying in the middle of a clearing, right across from this...

 

 

And I have no idea what                      ^^^^^"this" ^^^^^                    actually is...at first I thought a foundation, but there are only three sides, and the size of the trees growing up through the middle of it while no other trees grow in the clearing around it seem to indicate it's NOT a foundation. I then thought maybe a hunting blind, but a friend familiar with these things said, no, it's not likely a hunting blind. So I have no idea what it is. I do know...the area had a creepy feel to it. The longer I stayed, the more I felt like someone, or something was watching me. Herschel kept tracking a ground scent and acting skittish...so we got out of there quickly. I want to go back with company and see if they feel anything peculiar about the area or if I was working myself into a tizzy for nothing.

 

 

This is a drainage culvert, or as I like to call it, the remains of a Roman aqueduct, transported through space and time to a random trail in upstate New York. My explanation makes more sense, obviously.

 

 

A squadron of fungi, attacking a fallen foe.

 

 

Tree Barnacles...The Musical

 

 

This is a larger than life sized photo of a teeeeeeeny little mushroom atop a bed of moss growing off a tree trunk.

 

 

We had a few days of heavy rain. Not only did the handful of streams that cross the trail become raging rivers, a winding swath down the entire face of the trail, still muddy, was evidence the entire trail was flooded, likely the day before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Herschel playing in a waterfall

 

 

 

Last Red Eft of the season...it's so much fun to hold a miniature orange dinosaur. Seriously. Unless they pee on you. Thankfully, this one minded his manners.

 

Last time I went up, the mountain was behaving rather rudely. I had to leap across one of the swollen streams, and when I landed on what appeared to be a solid and stable rock, it began wobbling to and fro, trying to send me flying. I just barely managed to keep a toe hold and leap off before it killed me. Or sprained my ankle, which, on a mountain alone, is tantamount to the same thing. THEN, a tree literally threw a branch at Herschel. It clattered a few inches from his poor fuzzy noggin, and he jumped about a foot off the ground. Being the opportunistic type, he grabbed the branch and began merrily whacking me across the back of my knees several times before I decided that was enough of that and made him drop it. He pouted for a minute or two, then trotted off to find deer poop. Yum.

 

That's pretty much what I've been doing besides school, homework, and sleeping. Ciao!