Hello Hikers!
Gorgeous cool sparkling morning in Dryden — chilly enough at the trail head for a few people to wear gloves — though we all got sweated up soon enough
Goldenrods still in bright bloom, and the asters were out, and the first part of the hike looked a bit like a scene in Provence as painted by one of the Impressionists.
Official head count: 24 hikers, seven dogs. We also passed by a frisky horse, and some goats bleating away — very nice country touches
This walk is a great mix of open terrain and dense woods — so dark under the trees I didn’t even try to take any photos — no loss, dark woods are a dime a dozen for us — in any case, it’s the sweeping long views that make this hike so fabulous.
Here’s the hill that the trail took us up and then down the other side — much steeper than I remembered, and there was some grumbling that I gave it much too low a strenuousness rating — OK, for the record it’s a 4+ out of 5 — very good way to warm up fast.
After you get to the top of the hill there’s a fantastic view on the other side — definitely worth the climb — maybe I’m getting sentimental, but it looked just like a wonderful version of Happy Valley to me.
I put eight more photos up online – click here.
Three other hikers were taking photos — Wan, Iris and Jack V. At the moment only Wan has put his shots up on our other hike photo-sharing page, HikPix.2, but I’m sure the others will too — click here to check it out. — click on the individual albums to see the shots inside.