A Walk in the Woods

Speaking of A Walk in the Woods, have you seen the new movie or read the book it was based on by Bill Bryson? I enjoyed the movie, but it was not as good as the book. Of course, they changed a lot, but they took out a few of the scenes in the book that most stand out in my mind. They are scenes that would have been easy to include in the script and would have provided a lot of humor, so I am not sure why they were omitted. Anyway, Douglas, Kahlua and I went for our own walk in the woods yesterday, albeit, a much shorter walk.

Although the Appalachian Trail runs near our house, we chose to walk at Teatown Lake Reservation, which is even closer.

A couple of years ago, I took you on another virtual walk around Teatown Lake Reservation, but that was around Teatown Lake. This time we opted to follow the Cliffdale Loop Trail around Cliffdale Pond. Teatown has sixteen trails that cover an expanse of land. Here is a map of the preserve.

There were a couple of signs at the entrance that were worrisome to varying degrees. Luckily, we were not shot nor did we see any coyotes on our walk. I have seen coyotes on other walks in the area and heard them even more frequently. Normally, they do not worry me at all, but I would not want to see one with Kahlua around.

This area of the reservation has a garden and a barn where they conduct classes. It is beautiful.

I tried to get a good picture of Douglas and Kahlua at the start of the trail, but she was too excited and just kept dancing around. She does have an adorably happy dance.

We kept Kahlua on the leash until we were a safe distance away from the road and then let her run free. She always comes immediately when called and never chases animals or runs off. If we see another dog, we put her on the leash.

The leaves are just starting to change, and the views are captivating. I love the old stone walls. These are quite common in the northeastern United States and were built by farmers with the rocks they plowed up in their fields. Those old farms have been converted back into forests and often these walls are all that are left to mark the passage of man. They cause me to wonder about the people that built them and what happened to them.

I love the meadows along this trail with their milkweed. I tried to bring some seeds back into my yard a couple of years ago, but they did not take.

The Teatown trails are well marked, as are most trails in this area. As they are mostly maintained by volunteers, that is particularly impressive. All of the plastic diamonds were new. The double diamonds indicate a turn in the path. We only lost the path once, but that was because we ran into a woman and her dogs coming the other way. After letting the dogs greet and sniff each other for a moment, we went on our way following the path that they had just come from. It turned out that they had come up from a path behind their house. It did not take us long to get back to the trail.

Kahlua had to go back on the leash when the trail crossed the road.

She celebrated her release by jumping around again.

This side of the trail has much steeper climbs and falls. Poor Kahlua was starting to get tired. She was no longer running ahead of us the entire time.

She seemed disappointed when we reached the first bridge, and there was not any water running under it. This summer was very dry, and the smaller streams are all dried up. Thankfully, there was a little water in the next one. She was able to get a much needed drink. We always bring water with us, but she refuses to drink that.

On the other side of the stream there was another meadow.

After that we took a rest on a large rock, but we did not stay long. Kahlua did not want to go up on the rock in the first place, but once she was up there she could not relax at all. She tried to sit down one time but immediately jumped back up. Douglas hypothesized that the stone was too cold on her butt.

We decided to take Catamount Hill Trail to prolong our hike a bit. Kahlua was tiring, but she still had enough energy to do a .9 mile loop.

Before we knew it, we were back at the truck.

We did not get much work done around the house this weekend, but sometimes it is more important to spend time in nature. We are a house divided since I am a huge Mets fan and Douglas informed me that he is rooting for the Cubs. Needless to say, that did not go over well. Our next project is to get the house painted, and we are not doing that ourselves. There have been several painters out to give us estimates which have ranged from $3400 to over $8000. I guess I do not have to say that the last guy will not be getting the job. We are debating between taupe and light green. Any opinions? Douglas found these two houses in the neighborhood that have the colors that we like.

Happy Homemaking!