Monday, July 28th, 2008
Today, we went back to Devil’s Hopyard State Park in East Haddam for what turned out to be a grueling two mile hike. It felt good, but there was a lot of sweat involved. We went uphill and downhill and everywhere in between. You should’ve seen me huffing and puffing like a fat guy at the tops of the hills. All this hiking should get me in better shape though.
We hiked the entire orange trail which brought us up to the vista, which was very nice. Then, the trail brought us down to the river again and past the Devil’s Oven. We walked back up to the bridge and past the falls to the car.
I took some more photos of various areas of the orange trail. I really have to stop taking so many pictures. Laura is starting to call me a tourist. Hey, this is the way I live. I am on my third digital camera because I like to use them so much. Also, somebody has got to like these things besides me.
Here are the pics.
Trail marker showing the orange and blue trails.
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As you can see, I like moss.
Me, again, checking out the river.
Arriving at the vista on the orange trail.
The Devil's Hopyard State Park vista.
Looking up through some Hemlock trees.
This frog let me get really close to take a picture.
Looking down the Eight Mile River.
A close up of the river bank.
Walking back up the orange trail along side the Eight Mile River.
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Thursday, January 31st, 2008
I don’t have much time to write this because Lost is on in twenty minutes. This is going to be a crazy episode. If you are interested in theories about the show, click here to read some. This is my favorite one, by far.
Ok, so Laura and I drove up to the store today, but this time, we took a different way than we normally do. We usually drive up Rt.209, but this time we took Rt.44/55 through the ridge towards Kerhonkson. I wanted to drive this way because of my itch to get out of the normal routine. It worked pretty well because I feel good right now. That may be because I just had a beer though.
I did take some video of the trip. There are so many nice things to see…I just wish I was a better videographer. Oh well, I’ll learn. Here are the videos…
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Friday, November 23rd, 2007
Remember this post from a while ago? Well, in my continuing effort to post some video on this blog, I uploaded the one video that I had to YouTube. I took a nice panoramic video from the big field next to the lake.
It really is a nice place to hike up in the ridge. If you get a chance, make a day trip of it.
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Friday, September 28th, 2007
I grabbed this baby on the way to work this morning. I would give it two more weeks before the leaves are changing in full force. I always say that the changing leaves are prettier after the second half. I mean, instead of half green, half colorful, the leaves look better half colorful, half bare. That’s when they really stand out.
Here is a great shot I got from Rt.52 of Sam’s Point, high up on the Shawangunk Ridge.
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Monday, August 6th, 2007
Yesterday was pretty fun. We did something that I have been waiting a while to do…to go hiking at Sam’s Point in the Hamlet of Cragsmoor. If you remember, we went up there on Christmas. That was pretty cool, but I didn’t get all that many great photos.
I have been suggesting that we head up to Sam’s Point again and I guess my suggestions paid off. Laura was gingerly excited about the hike. With the hike, came nice pictures, so here you are…
Here we are, down in the parking lot, looking up at the cliff. I thought I really wanted to do the whole walk around Loop Road, but at that point, I was thinking about just getting to the top of the cliff and coming back down. Laura made me do the whole loop. She is a woman of power and not to be underestimated.
At the top of the mountian, past South Gully Trail and High Point Carriageway and about half way through the almost three mile walk, I took a few photos of Lake Maratanza. Using my awesome Photoshop skills, I pasted them together.
A bit past the lake, there was a trail down to the ice caves and Verkeerder Kill Falls. We didn’t walk down that way, but it was a good opportunity to get a shot of some mountains, probably the Berkshires, because we were facing East.
After we made almost all the way around, I begged Laura to take a picture of me. Here it is.
These are some pictures I took of the Sam’s Point lookout. There were a bunch of shots, but I had to narrow them down to these. They all kind of look like each other.
This was a cool big rock we passed on the way back down to the lodge (if that’s what it’s called). Again, I pasted a few shots together to get this one.
This is the bottom of the trail, back at the lodge. Prett cool, huh?
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Thursday, November 30th, 2006
I went up to Paul’s house this past weekend to pick up some fiberglass insulation he wanted to get rid of. Perfect! I needed a few pieces to finish up the basement.
We decided to make a half-day of the visit and take a hike to the hidden waterfall in the Ridge. There was a very special little lady who decided to join us. We needed a good guide.
I can’t give you the exact location of this waterfall, but I will give you a hint. It is off a road off a road off of Rt.44/55 going through the ridge. Is that clear enough? It is about the height of Awosting Falls…well, maybe a little higher. I promised Paul I would keep mum about its exact location to respect the privacy of the area. Nuff said.
We started on our way and our guide was doing quite well. I am not sure she used a telescope or any other equipment, but I can tell you that she had a very keen eye for detail and direction.
We made it to a wide open area that is used for part of the Catskill Aqueduct System. There was an opening of a few acres and even a helipad. Some digging had gone on there for shale. Also, on the right side, there were a few exposed pipes…part of the water system.
Just past the clearing, the trail to the waterfall started. It is a really nice area. It reminded me a lot of where I used to hike at Grimes Glen, when I lived in Naples, NY.
I just love waterfalls and creeks. A short hike through some semi-rough terrain brought us to a pretty amazing hidden treasure. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. I also couldn’t believe that this is so hidden. Well, at least now I know where it is.
The coolest part is that you can jump around on all of the really large rocks at the base of the falls to cross the river and look through the caves. The one thing that can kind of freak you out is the steep cliffs that surround the area. You could just imagine if anything ever gave way. Anyway, if you ever find this place, make sure to bring some lunch and hang out for a while…it’s worth the hike.
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Monday, September 4th, 2006
I am not a huge fan of properties that look too perfect. I really like to keep the natural look of the area mixed in with whatever I am doing.
We live right at the bottom of the Shawangunk Ridge. We can see the cliffs if we walk to the end of our driveway and look to the right. The native stone for the area is Shale. It is a pretty good looking stone…blueish grayish.
As you can see from this photo, we were in dire need of a cleaned up front walkway. I had considered putting in pavers, but thought the style might stick out too much. They were also expensive and it would be a sin to throw out all of the existing blue slate that already made up the sidewalk.
I decided to go with what was already in place, but cleaned up quite a bit. The driveway was already made from Crushed Shale, so I ordered 10 yards to be delivered from a local guy. People love to use crushed shale around here because it packs down really nice and is perfect for driveways.
I took up all the existing slate from the walkway and stacked it in piles on the front lawn. I made sure not to keep it there for very long because I didn’t want to kill the grass. I got my hoe out and dug out all the weeds that had made a nice home for themselves over the years. Then, I layed down Landscaping Fabric to block any future weeds and grass. I saw that there was already a thick gravel base, so I didn’t need to add too much to that. I put a thin layer of crushed shale on top of the landscaping cloth and then put the slate back on that. Then, I filled in between all the slate with more crushed shale. Over the weeks, it will pack down from the rain and hold the slate nice and tight.
I made sure that the slate and gravel was high enough towards the steps to cover up the footings at the bottom of the steps.
I also spread most of the gravel out to put a nice new layer on the driveway. I needed to raise the end of the driveway up about a foot from a different project I will talk about later.
I needed to made a side walkway to go to the basement door around the side of the house, but I had run out of landscaping fabric. The benefit of using landscaping fabric is that there are very small holes in it that lets the water run through when it rains. If you are covering large areas, this is important so you don’t create run-off. In this case, since the side walkway was only going to be about a foot and a half wide, I picked up some heavy black plastic from the hardware store and cut it to size. I layed that down and put a thin layer of gravel on it and then placed the slate on the gravel. Just like the front walk, I filled in between the slate with more gravel.
Now, it looks like a nice, semi-natural walkway around the house. Nothing too obtrusive.
And there you have it, a nice new front walkway, side walkway and driveway, all for less than $300.
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