July 11, 2012 Shaupeneak Ridge

    Surprise!  Another hot and humid Saturday walk.  When will the humidity end???  There were seven of us.  None of us had been here before and the directions, taken from their web site, were a bit confusing.  We were to follow Old Post Road and then take Poppletown Road which splits off to the right.  Old Post Road bears right at one point making us unsure we were going the right direction.  According to the directions, it was only 2.5 miles from 9W to parking lot [I checked it on way back down and it apparently was] but it seemed like at least 4 miles and all uphill. 
     It's actually a nice trail but it was humid to begin with and then we got rained on; and, even tho we were protected by the trees, we got wet.  There was quite a bit of uphill climbing which made it difficult for me to breathe and necessitating several "rest stops."  The trail promised a Catskill Mountain overlook.  We think we could identify where it was but it's apparently only visible when the trees don't have leaves.  We were able to see the Hudson River at the promised overlook. 
     There were only two of us from our regular lunch group on the walk and  hot, wet and tired we decided to go straight home.

I was early and stopped at Esopus Lighthouse park

Louisa Pond

a nice place to sit and ponder

some mushrooms

some "wildlife," a slug

the trail and pretty ferns

a very blurry picture of one of the many salamanders we saw on trail-adult to baby

more mushrooms

Hudson River overlook

the Hudson River again

just missed getting pic of doe and her fawn ..... note the rainwater on the leaves

     It's actually a nice trail and I'd like to do it again but maybe in autumn and definitely in better weather.