the AT
Had to hike a (wee) bit of the Appalachian Trail, just to say I did. It was a captivating weather day as the clouds drifted in and out around us at 5500+ feet above sea level on the North Carolina/Tennessee line.
clouds drifting in
the view, in a clear moment
with our friend, host, guide, driver, and all-around nice guy, Marc
Banner day on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Perfect weather after days of rain from the fringes of Hurricane Michael.
Construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway was started in 1935 in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration as a project of the Public Works Administration. The majority of it was completed by 1966, but the final piece–the viaduct around Grandfather Mountain in western North Carolina–was not opened to traffic until 1987. Part of our National Park system, it is America’s longest linear park and connects Shenandoah National Park in Virginia on the north end to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina on the south end–469 miles along the backbone of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
You know how I love my superlatives! We summited Mount Mitchell–a grueling 5-minute hike from the parking lot. ;o) Gorgeous views from the top.
blue ridges
Mid-October and the leaves are just starting to turn–quite late here. Word is that this fall won’t be very colorful. The temps have been in the 80s until recently, and now it’s too late for most of the leaves to turn. Green leaves are starting to fall.
Crabtree Falls–a rewarding two-hour hike from the parking lot
A few highlights from our walking tour of Gananoque…
entering High Peaks territory
Our next stop northbound was Lake Placid. I really didn’t know what to expect. A lake, of course, and who can forget the 1980 Winter Olympics when the US hockey team upset the Soviet Union? But do tourists come here? Maybe not; I couldn’t find an Airbnb rental within 100 miles.
Turns out Lake Placid is quite the tourist destination in summer because of the beautiful Adirondack Mountains and the lakes. The Main Street area is adorable, with lots of cute shops and yummy restaurants with lake views. And there are three craft breweries! But physical activity comes before beer. So what to do? When in doubt, seek out local knowledge.
I approached the woman at the hotel reception desk. “If you had only one day to spend in Lake Placid, what would you do? Where is the ‘wow’?”
She didn’t hesitate. “The High Peaks.”
Adirondack Mountain Club trail
The High Peaks are a cluster of 46 mountains in the Adirondacks, just south of Lake Placid for the most part, that are over 4000 feet in elevation–or so they thought at the time they came up with the designation. If you climb all 46, you are eligible to join the Adirondack 46ers club.
mountain flora
She recommended three easy-to-moderate hikes, at our request, in the High Peaks region. We chose to summit Mount Jo. I’d never summited a mountain before! I mean, how many mountain summits do you know of that are moderate hikes? Jo isn’t one of the High Peaks, but at 2876 feet its summit offers great views of 17 of the Big Guys.
mountain fauna–the third snake we’ve seen on this trip [so far]. Anyone know what kind?
at the summit
For much of the hike up, we were climbing a dry, steep stream bed like stairs. It must have been a waterfall during the Spring snowmelt! Not too bad though; it only took us an hour to summit. And the view was spectacular, especially of Heart Lake in the valley below. The hike down? Well, let’s just say that the longer path was only mildly easier. We had our hiking sticks with us, so we were able to save our knees, but my quads hurt for days afterward.
And the black flies! The only good thing I can say about them is that they distracted me from the steep descent. We had purchased a natural bug repellent from the information center, which worked well around my bare legs, but apparently my hair product was just too intoxicating. By the end of the hike I looked like a measles-riddled crazy women, with bites all around my hairline (despite my repellent-doused hat) and an extra-special, bulbous bite smack dab in the middle of my right cheek.
Heart Lake
Despite the flies, mosquitos, and sore quads, it was great to get out-of-doors and give our dormant hiking boots some exercise.
elevation gain on our hike: the descent was only mildly gentler than the ascent
view of the Hudson River from the Vanderbilt estate
As with most trips we take, we ran out of time to see everything we wanted to see in Hyde Park. My intention with extended travel is to see an area so thoroughly that I can happily cross it off my bucket list, satisfied that I have seen it all, and focus future travel on other adventures. In actuality, we rarely see a place as thoroughly as we’d like. I make an exhaustive list, we prioritize as we go, but you never know just how it’s going to flow. And sometimes we want to return to a place we’ve explored because we’ve seen enough to have fallen in love with it. So the plan may not work the way I intended, but there’s a certain serendipity to it that we’ve come to love.
the Catskill Mountains in the distance
My deepest regret in Hyde Park is not giving Eleanor her due. Little was said about her on our guided tour of Springwood, Franklin’s home. And even though her papers and other memorabilia are stored in the Presidential Library, you really have to search to find her in the museum exhibits.
The day we hiked to her cottage, Val-Kill, on the Eleanor Roosevelt National Heritage Site, we didn’t stay for the tour. For one thing, we were focused on completing our hike up to the top of the hill, to Top Cottage, and back down again before the day grew too warm. But also, there was an administrative meeting of all tour guides for the Roosevelt properties that morning and a backlog of tourists waiting to tour both Val-Kill and Top Cottages. Somehow I thought that we would catch up with Eleanor later, but sadly our time in Hyde Park evaporated.
The same goes with the Vanderbilt estate, which is located just south of the B&B where we stayed. It was so close, we thought we could stop in any time. We barely managed a drive-through of the property at dusk on our last day in town. While we rarely tour houses just to ogle at the opulence, the mansion does look architecturely stunning from several vantage points along the river. I was intrigued, and I’m sure we could have learned something about the prolific Vanderbilt family.
So we will bid adieu to Hyde Park and continue on our journey up the Hudson. Maybe one day we’ll return and pay Eleanor a nice, long visit. I believe her story is worth hearing.
view of the Mid-Hudson Bridge from the Walkway
The Walkway Over the Hudson is, at 1.28 miles long, the world’s longest pedestrian bridge. Originally a railroad bridge, it was irreparably damaged in 1974 in a fire caused by sparks from the brakes of a train crossing over. It was later repurposed as a pedestrian walkway and reopened in 2009. On the Poughkeepsie side of the river, the walking and biking trail extends another twelve miles east of the bridge, continuing the rails-to-trails conversion. What a great asset to the area!
lovely homes on the Hudson
We were pleased to see so many people out getting exercise on a hot Wednesday afternoon. There is no shade on the bridge, but I think locals were just happy to be out in the sunshine after such a long and cold winter and spring. The views north and south on the Hudson were spectacular.
crew practice on the river
a working boat on the Hudson
the trail to Val-Kill and Top Cottages
There’s a very cool hike through the woods from the Roosevelt family home of Springwood to Val-Kill Cottage, where Eleanor Roosevelt chose to live, and then farther up the hill to Top Cottage, where Franklin intended to live after leaving the presidency. Both cottages were on the vast Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park, both small by Springwood standards (especially Top Cottage), both entirely independent of the other, and both the source of great comfort and isolation to their residents.
Let’s back up a bit. Why did Eleanor choose to live at Val-Kill, when Franklin was living at Springwood? We’ve all heard the rumors of their supposed infidelities. I won’t comment on them because I know nothing about them, but according to our park-ranger guide, Eleanor never felt at home at Springwood while Franklin’s mother, Sara, was alive. (She passed away in 1941.) Springwood was always her mother-in-law’s home. She and two friends had originally developed the Val-Kill property as an industrial site where locals could learn handicraft skills. It became Eleanor’s getaway when she was in Hyde Park with her husband, but became her full-time residence after his death in 1945 when she had the factory converted into her home. She lived there until her death in 1962.
Cindy, waiting for her hot dog at Top Cottage
Top Cottage, or Hill-Top Cottage to be precise, was designed by Franklin, an amateur architect, and built during his second term in office. It was his retreat from the world, but they–both he and Eleanor–used it for family picnics and entertaining guests as well. In 1939 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of Britain attended the famous “hot-dog summit” at the cottage. (The King’s Speech, anyone?) It was Roosevelt’s desire that the king and queen see how the American commoner lived–and what he or she ate. Note: The queen ate her hot dog with a fork and knife. The king enjoyed eating his by hand!
furry friend in the forest
So, back to the hike. The woods were beautiful. We had them almost to ourselves on a Wednesday morning. The hike to Val-Kill was mostly level–piece of cake! The hike to Top Cottage from Val-Kill was a pretty rugged climb up muddy paths cut through the leaves by heavy rains a few days before.
Here are some of the guys we met along the way.
Mr. and Mrs. Mallard
A very long rat snake. We never saw his head, but his body went on forever as he slithered into this rotted log.
courtesy of Google images
We typically travel abroad every other year for an extended period of time. 2018 is the in-between year, so I figured we knock off some domestic bucket list items. I’ve never been to Niagara Falls, so Upstate New York and Toronto are our destinations this May and June. Hope we see views like this! Stay tuned.
We are home and planning our next adventure because the compass never stops spinning. Check out my Future Adventures tab to see some of the possibilities! I’d love your feedback and ideas.
at the park entrance
Last February I was researching a place to stay inside Denali National Park. I had read that the best place to see wildlife is as deep into the interior as visitors can go. There is only one road into the park, and it’s 92 miles long. The first 15 miles is open to car traffic, but the next 77 is open only to the buses that ferry almost 600,000 visitors a year in and out. With stops for wildlife viewing and other necessities, these buses don’t average much more than 10 mph on a bumpy, gravel, single-track road. I started thinking: 92 miles at 10 mph—the drive could take nine hours in one direction! I planned on visiting the park every day for four days, and I had no intention of living on a bus. We were going to have to stay in the park.
a warm welcome at North Face Lodge
There are only three places to stay inside the park, and one involves cabins without plumbing. Scratch that—an outhouse down a dark path on a cold, windy night was not in my plans either. We chose the North Face Lodge, the camp’s sister lodge just down the hill. I read something about guided hikes on the website. Not sure where, when, or how that would work, but if it didn’t suit our needs, we could always do our own thing.
a fireside chat before breakfast
We discovered that the lodge had our entire four-day adventure planned down to the personalized napkin pins. We were met at the park entrance, assigned to a bus, relieved of our luggage, and welcomed aboard—along with 30-some other people. The 17 rooms at the lodge would be occupied for four days by the same group of people. Everyone arrives on the same day and leaves on the same day. We were greeted at the lodge by two energetic, young hosts who, over the course of our four-day visit, told us where we needed to be next, and what we had the option of doing there. They were supported by a whole passel of staff who rotated through various tasks: naturalists, guides, bus and van drivers, cooks, servers, gardeners, dishwashers, housekeepers, and more. The lichen expert may be your bus driver/hiking guide one day, and the next morning she’s serving you stuffed French toast. They were an incredible team, so enthusiastic about spending their summer in the great outdoors.
personalized napkin pins defined our social groupings
We were delighted to be part of this little family. We ate our meals together, and at each meal we were seated with someone we hadn’t had a chance to talk to yet. Each day after breakfast we chose our own level of adventure: strenuous, moderate, or foray. Or we could choose to stay at the lodge and hike their nature trails, bike, canoe, or just sit by the fire and read. Selecting our own tempo provided a different way of mixing us up. After finishing a moderate hike on the tundra the first day, we were a bit envious of the forayers who did less walking and more riding around in vans to carefully selected locations where large mammals were known to hang out. So the second day we chose to foray, and we had an opportunity not only to see wildlife, but also to get to know a different group of people. Normally I like to call the shots about what we do and when we do it, but this was so well orchestrated and so congenial that I felt a bit sentimental on the day we departed. What a marvelous group of people—both guests and staff—and what an enjoyable way to share a common passion! I’m going to miss them. Sometimes it’s fortuitous not to know what you’re getting into.
