July 14, 2012 Black Creek Preserve

the entrance

crossing the suspension bridge

waiting for the photographer to get her act together

crossing the bridge

Black Creek

you can just see the creek down below---where we started the walk

some scenes on the level part before we started downhill to river

river in distance - we still need to go downhill

we've reached the river

Esopus Lighthouse in the distance

we thought that was Norrie Point across and up the river

garbage "sculpture"

view from the gazebo on the private property

we walked down to cove where creek enters river

Black Creek reflections

creek scenes near the entrance

This was a new walk for the club and all ten of us enjoyed it.  As we were getting ready to start, a resident stopped by to warn us  that there had been black bear sightings recently.  Since we were a group of 10, we decided that we were noisy enough that the bear wouldn't bother us and we didn't see any sign of it.  Although we were walking down to the river, the first part of the walk involved a big climb uphill.  Then we had a nice walk down to the river.  The resident had given  us permission to walk on the private property at the bottom of the hill.  This allowed us to access the road and avoid some of the significant uphill walk of the trail.  When we reached the trail access, five of us decided to take the easier walk up the road to the parking lot and the other five took the longer trail.  When we got to our cars, the temperature in mine said it was 82 degrees.  The sun had come out and it was humid so it felt a lot hotter.   We agreed that this walk is a keeper.  Six of us enjoyed lunch at the diner on 9W in Highland.