I've never pretended to be a hike leader and have fortunately been able to rely on our more experienced members to guide us on the appropriate trail. Today, though, we had no one who was certain of our usual route. Dutchess County has mapped all, or almost all, the trails in the county and I was armed with their map of the Roosevelt Estate. So we took off on the blue trail which the map showed as going directly to the river. It did not. We could see the river but the obvious trail turned left and didn't get to the river at all. We decided later that we must ordinarily take the green trail which the map shows as looping around partially along the river. [I just looked at my old pix from 2012 and we did follow the green trail...we'll do better next time.] NOTE: I started making notes on the maps for the last two walks so that maybe, eventually, I'll get it together.
At one point the trail we were on met up with the yellow trail which looped back toward the estate. At that point going back would have made the walk too short [at least for most of us] so we decided to continue on the trail. The trails are not very well marked and the map was a bit confusing. After walking for a while, and still not knowing for sure where we were [except that we were going south], we decided to retrace our steps and go back. Other than not liking being "lost and confused," I enjoyed the walk in the woods and think most of the group did too.
Six of us enjoyed brunch at the Eveready in Hyde Park and rated it an 8.
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| there are several trail pictures...this is the beginning-once we descended the hill |
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| the pond behind the dam [below] |
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| spilling over the dam |
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| blue heron in the tree...he flew away before I could get a better shot |
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| we "forded" a small stream |
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| tree "apartments" |
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| heading back to the estate |
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| a little closer view |
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| cat tails |
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| we headed to the garden...the roses were mostly gone |
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| but there were other pretty flowers |
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| we loved these cute little guys |
