Hiking Ol' Blue

It was an absolutely divine day for a hike in the woods. Sunny and sixty-five with a cool breeze moving through. Since the colors of the fall are not yet at their height of beauty, we decided to save our next trip to the spectacular overlook, Moses Mountain, for a later date. Today, we chose to hike the Blue trail. Since our starting point sits smack in the middle of the trail, there are two directions which we can go.

We've often taken the Blue Trail to Walker Pond, but that hike is not very long and begins to get commonplace after you've done it a few times. This time, we decided to go the opposite way. It is a longer hike, and it is uphill - Todt Hill, which the trail ascends, is the highest point on the eastern seaboard, if I'm not mistaken.

Off we went. the start of the trail is quite familiar to us, as we've traversed it several times to get to the magnificent Lake Ohrbach. It really amazes me to have lived on this island my whole life, yet to have never known that this world in the woods exists here.


I was surprised to find that the changes of the fall affected the lake, too. All of the aquatic plants had varying shades of green, yellow and red to them, very different than the scene we saw last month when we traveled to the exact same spot.

After this, we continued on. This is the part of the trail we had never been on before. It was only a few minutes until we were met by another body of water - this time, Pump House Pond. Here, Marge poses on the deck sitting at the pond's edge.


The fall colors were abundant around the pond.


We continued onward. Marge stopped to smell the air next to Hourglass Pond, which, honestly, looks more like a swamp!


Up Todt Hill we went, totally surrounded by trees. The path got dark at some points, and the trail markers weren't as plentiful as I like for them to be, so my mind darted back to the mishap we had on the Green Trail in September. Fortunately, we had no problems this trip, and I was at ease. It helped that this trail borders on a cemetery and a golf course in some parts, so although it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, the reality is that we really weren't.

Here, in this cool shot snapped by my sis, the bright golf course looms outside the dark woods. Marge was originally very keen on going to investigate. We couldn't, since the golf course is private, and Marge decided staying within the safety of the forest was a better option, anyway, than facing scary golfers and their zippy golf carts.


We walked about 1 1/2 miles from our starting point, based on my rough estimate, making for a three-mile round trip. The trail wasn't totally desolate, as I would have liked for it to be, but I simply moved Marge off trail any time someone approached and fed her. She was unnerved by some people, unfazed by others. We saw two dogs along the way and followed the same protocol. One dog - a black Labrador pulling at the end of a flexi leash - bothered Marge more than the other - a German Shepherd who stuck close by his family and paid little attention to Marge.

The only exception I made was with two women who we met at the park's entrance. I try to usually stay away from meet and greets while we're out, so there is no pressure on Marge to interact, but I decided that waiting in the car for them to pass would have been a bad option. It just felt unnatural, and I think the stress of Marge watching them from the car would have been substantial. They were very kind to Marge and one of them offered to feed her a cookie. We met up with them briefly again on the trail. They remarked over Marge's black/brown color combination.

We reached a bed of ferns and saw that the trail climbed upward once again beyond that point. It was already around 2:45 and we were tired, so it was then that we turned around.


Marge led the way home back down the trail.


On the way back past Pump House Pond, Marge decided she wanted to go for a dip. I've often complained that the water in the Greenbelt is not particularly conducive to Marge wading in it because it is so muddy around the banks. Today, at this location, we didn't seem to have that problem.


She left a trail of pawprints on the footbridge as we crossed away from the pond.


Soon after, we reached the end of our incredible journey. Back to the pavement, back to the car, back to regular New York life. But wow! What a great day in the woods it was.