Tag Archives: ward pound ridge reservation

Another Beautiful Day, Another Great Hike…

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It’s a rare day in late, late November when you can actually hike for a few hours in shorts and a t-shirt and not feel chilly at some point. Today, I decided to hold off starting my hike until around 10:30 am. My original thought was that it would be much warmer than the usual 6:00 am start which would make things a little more comfortable.

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The one thing that I tend to forget when I start my hikes later, especially on days like today, are the number of people who come out to hike. Because I usually get out so early, I rarely see anyone with the exception of some trail runners. On my hike today it seemed like I was running into someone ever couple of minutes. I actually started wondering where they were all coming from…

All in all it was another excellent hike. I got to meet a couple of nice people and as usual they had some incredibly friendly dogs who were eager to make my acquaintance. I really should start taking picture of all of the dogs that I meet when I am hiking.

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Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

11/25/17-7.7-339.12

 

Transformation

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“I believe the world is incomprehensibly beautiful — an endless prospect of magic and wonder.”
— Ansel Adams
“We must go and see for ourselves.”
— Jacques Cousteau

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One of the things that I love most about fall hiking are the trees. No longer covered in leaves, the bare branches stand a lonely guard over the rest of the woods. I don’t know why, but I find that once they have been prepped for winter, they are truly fascinating. At dawn or under a clear blue sky, each branch, large and small, present themselves as the one true guardian of nature as it sinks into its winter slumber.

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The transformation that has taken place in the woods at Ward Pound Ridge over the last month and a half has been incredible. My first exposure to these trails was late July, when summer was already in full swing. Now, as time passes and the leaves have fallen, the view changes almost daily.

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Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

11/24/17-4.1-331.42

Transformation

A Thanksgiving Hike

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Have you ever had a day when you were hiking where everything just clicked? Where each stride you took was effortless and you felt like you could hike forever? These days don’t happen very often, but when they do, watch out!

Luckily for me, today was one of those days. From the minute I started, I knew that I was going to be able to add a few miles on to what I had originally intended to do. My legs were loose, the air was a crisp 27 degrees and with no discernible breeze, the woods were silent.

2017 Mileage:

11/23/17-8.2-327.32

Winter Is On Its Way

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“Nature is not mute. It is man who is deaf.”

-Terence McKenna

Even though I don’t know anyone who had pink eye, I managed to get a rather nasty case of it in both of my eyes. After waking up with both of my eyes crusted shut, I made my way into work and after about an hour was banished by the school nurse to seek medical treatment.  A trip to my local urgent care confirmed the obvious…that I had pink eye in both eyes. The remedy? Eye drops every six hours for five days.

Since I couldn’t return to school and didn’t want to sit at home, I decided to…you guessed it, go hiking! The day was clear and the temperature hovered around fifty degrees. Even though a steady breeze made the relatively warm day for November seem just a little cooler, it was still a perfect day to be out in the woods.

Heading out to Ward Pound Ridge, I figured it would be smart to carry a whole bunch of paper towels to wipe my eyes if I needed to. Besides the gritty feeling I had in my eyes every time I blinked, I felt pretty good and was ready to move! Crusty eyes be damned!

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Overall it was a decent hike. I took it a lot slower than I normally would have, but that’s ok, just being able to clear my mind was good enough. As you can see by the pictures, the colors of fall are now gone and the long dark days of winter are almost here.

2017 Mileage:

11/21/17-5.2-319.12

 

 

Start In The Dark, End In The…

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“Nature is not our enemy, to be raped and conquered. Nature is ourselves, to be cherished and explored.” 

-Terence McKenna

What a beautiful and exhilarating morning! I decided that on my hike today (11/4/17) I would test out the headlamp that I recently purchased (previous post). Starting out at just about 5:20 am, it was still fully dark and would remain so for almost the full duration of my hike. I also finally got the chilly morning that I have been waiting for! Even though the temperature was 35 degrees, it didn’t feel that cold and as I entered the woods, it was almost perfectly silent. The only sound that I could hear were my boots shuffling through the fallen leaves as I walked up the trail.

With the exception of the last 15 minutes of the hike, I used the headlamp to illuminate the ground as I walked. I thought at first that it would be difficult to see the trail in front of me, but the lamp proved to be very effective in making sure that I could see any rocks or roots that could prove to be an issue as I hiked.

The picture below, although it is a really crappy cell phone photo, shows you how well the trail was lit during this hike.

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As I made my way out of the woods, I saw the last of a huge moon setting and when I turned to the east, I was treated to a beautiful sunrise.

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Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

11/4/17-5.3-313.92

The Green Machine

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“If you don’t have a plan, you become part of somebody else’s plan.” 
―Terence Mckenna

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Autumn this year has been a strange one. Even though you have to expect some pretty drastic temperature changes during the months of October and November, at this point it has been way to warm to count as weather that you would associate with the coming winter. With that said, at four in the afternoon today (11/2/17) it was a toasty 72 degrees. Even with the higher temps, the absence of any humidity actually made for another incredible hike.

It seems that with my afternoon hikes I am resorting to a “go to” on the Green Trail at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation. It is a nice loop wth a couple of hills that will actually make you work.

Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

11/2/17-4.1-308.62

Autumn Sunrise

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“Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.”

-George Washington Carver

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This is why we hike…

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A Halloween sunrise!!!

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The tree in the first picture taken a few minutes later.

Mornings like today are the reason why people love to hike. Just as the sun was coming up the temperature was a crisp 44 degrees and a slight breeze was making its way through the woods. You could still see the evidence of a really nasty rainstorm that had moved through the area all day Sunday into Monday morning. Tons of twigs, small limbs and fallen trees now litter the trail as compared to just a few days ago.

Besides the abundance of debris on the trail, the only difference as the days progress is the continued loss of leaves from the trees. Every hike that I do now in Ward Pound Ridge serves as an awakening to the coming winter months. The trees are much barer and the woods have opened up, telling an entirely different story than the one I have been used to all summer.

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A happy place, either before or after a hike.

Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

10/31/17-3.6-304.52

Fall Colors Are Finally Here!!!!

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“Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go.”

-Unknown

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The trail at the start of the hike.

After not hiking for several days, I got back on the trail on Thursday to see what I could see. And finally, I saw some pretty intense fall colors as I made my way around the Green Trail and up a rocky road to a shelter. Due to a busy week, not only have I not been out hiking, but I also did not get on my stationary bike as much as I would have liked. Needless to say, my legs felt out of sorts and I knew that I was moving a little slower than I usually do.

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Some nice fall colors in the woods.

With that said, it did feel good to get the legs moving and to breathe in the crisp fall air. Today I did bring my decent camera with me so I was hoping to get some decent pictures that adequately represented the day. Although it wasn’t brilliantly sunny, as the sun set it keep peeking through the clouds offering me a pretty nice array of colors and shades within the clouds.

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An awesome sight!!

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Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

10/26/17-4.1-300.92

The Rythm Of The Snore

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Every time I go to Ward Pound Ridge now the trees are more bare and the woods seem more expansive than they did just a few weeks ago. Since I started to hike at WPRR during the summer, everything was cloaked in a sea of greens. Now, if even just for a couple of days, the trees resemble a huge bowl of stuffing that sits on the table at Thanksgiving.

Like the bowl of stuffing that is waiting to be eaten, the leaves fall and are reclaimed by the earth. It is truly an awesome time to be hiking. Today was definitely the coldest morning in a many months. At my usual start time of around 6:20 am, the temperature had dropped to 38 degrees. As I stretched and waited for it to get a little lighter (and warmer), I put on the flannel jacket that I had stashed in the back of my jeep.

Even at that time of the morning I could tell which of the shelters were occupied because of the distinct smell of a dying campfire. As I approached one shelter, it was so quiet that I could hear the slow roar of someone snoring. When I actually passed the tent and the snore was at its loudest, I could only feel sorry for anyone who might be sharing a tent with him.

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The sky right before starting my hike. 

Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

10/21/17-5.2-296.82

Work->Green Trail->Home

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“Walking is my main method of relaxation. I don’t go over my lines or try to solve the world’s problems, I just enjoy the scenery and the wildlife.”
-Kevin Whately

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The changing leaves as seen through my crappy cell phone camera!

I have found no better way to end a day than to get out and hike. This time of year is especially nice with the cooler temperatures and leaves falling out of the trees to just wander around the woods and think about absolutely…nothing. All I need is that couple of hours of movement to get the brain straight.

After work today (Thursday 10/19), I made my way to Ward Pound Ridge to hike the Green Trail. Today’s hike was made that much better by the total absence of any people. The only company I had this afternoon was the breeze blowing through the trees and an ocassional squirrel making its way from tree to tree.

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The sun setting in the woods about half of the way through the hike.

Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

10/19/17-3.5-291.62