My friend Deborah called Friday night and said "Hey, let's go hiking tomorrow!" What a great idea! I like to hike and I was itching to get out of town and do something like that. We headed for Palisades Interstate Park, which runs along the Hudson River from New Jersey into New York. The thing about the topography there is that there is a path along the shore and then there is an enormous cliff -- really enormous -- and then more paths along the tops. She says, let's do the shore trail to the Giant Stairs, then we'll climb the cliff path and come back along the top.
The warning sign said "Difficult scramble over large boulders followed by a steep ascent." Hmmm. Well, okay, I'm game. See those rocks up there? More than a mile of this terrain, and it's a lot more difficult than it looks. Plus there's the ever-present danger of serious damage to all sorts of body parts if you miss your footing. And it's really hard work! And then, after this grueling ordeal, we still have to climb a very steep and not too user-friendly path up the cliff.
Obviously I made it back in one piece, more or less. But I am sore all over. And I have scrapes on both arms from when I fell off the tree branch. I think it must have looked hysterically funny. I laughed and I didn't even see myself. The reward was a Frozfuit bar from the snack bar at the top. Then it's back the 3 or so miles to where we parked the car. At least the upper paths were relatively flat and clear. It was about 7 hours in all. But there were more than a few moments when I thought, this is it, they're gonna have to medivac me out of here.
Oh, and did I mention the poison ivy?
8 comments:
Where did you get poison ivy?
I actually didn't get it. Seems I'm not allergic. If I were, I probably would have had it on my ankles, my hands and my face. Lucky me, I just have a bunch of really cool scrapes that look much more evil than they really are. Plus a black and blue knee.
I just look at poison ivy and break out. Each time is worse. You are lucky to be unaffected.
You've got a fairly heavily wooded piece of property, fermi. Does it grow there?
I love hikes like this. Yeah Im one for punishment. I do a hike here alot. Its not too much different from that one. Its along the escarpment on The Indian Ladder Trail. I did a post on it a while back. I also did it two days in a row with bothe 6th grade classes as a field trip. Yeah that was hell but I love the view.
Damn... I need a drink and I cant move to go get one.
We definitely have poison ivy. I have had to run into the house and wash up several times already after accidentally running into it.
bc - you would love this trail then! The view is not as dramatic as yours but it's pretty nice. I can't imagine taking a class of 11 year olds on something like this. It must have been hell.
I live something that will give me a challenge. Even if it does involve an inhaler and I dont need one. I just love looking at what nature has to offer at views not everyone can see. If that made any sense.
The trail that I go on has several areas where there are steep stairs and no railings along the trail. The kids did great. The first class did an awesome job. The kids really got into it. We had a gulde from the nature center show them fossils and stuff that they couldnt imagine. These are city kids that never get to see this stuff. And then to have them walk the mile back across the top and look down was amazing to them. The second group was mostly girls that really couldnt give two wits about it. And the boys in that class wanted to push each other over the edge.
Even at the camp there is a area of the lake where there has been some serious beaver activity and I take my daughter walking through there all the time to see whats new. A couple of weeks ago there were about 6 turtles on a log. Two were doing something she questioned. That took alot of explaining. LOL
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