Friday, October 25, 2013

Addy Spends The Weekend With Aunt Jennifer

Last weekend Jennifer and Addy went to the MOST. They had a good time and it wasn't too crowded so they didn't hae to wait to use any of the featured items. Addy seemed to really have a good time. She spent the night with Jennifer and then, on Sunday morning, Jennifer ran a 5K race and pushed Addy along in her stroller. They finished up the day with a trip to Pulaski to have dinner with us and then, after a brief stop at the grocery store , Jennifer took her home.



Monday, October 14, 2013

Jack and Jim 's Hike to Skip Falls

Having seen several articles over the summer about this newly purchased area of land and the falls that up to now have not been able to be viewed by the general public, I decided to make the trek up to the Indian Lake area and check it out with Dad. There was enough information from several different sources to come up with how to get back there, the general consensus is you walk the road back about a mile to a trail that will bring you to a couple of overlooks of the falls.
We got to the road about 12:30, and it looked like we’d be the only ones today, since no other vehicles were in sight. Found a place to park, got loaded up and started up the road
There are already new signs up, like a DEC Wilderness Area sign, and a No Unauthorized Vehicles Past This Point sign. Nothing though pointing out that this was the way to the falls. I had read that a couple people saying the road was not in good shape for passenger cars, I don’t know what road they were on, because this one was in great shape compared to some I’ve driven on last year (Pillsbury, Vanderwhacker) when working on the Fire Tower Challenge.
We did run into three people heading out, not sure where they parked, like I said, we hadn’t seen any other vehicles around when we parked. Eventually, after almost two miles (not the one mile that has been widely reported) coming down a hill we saw off in the distance a bright new DEC sign that simply said “TRAIL” next to the road. And sure enough, that was the trail to the falls.
It starts out as an old road, that eventually shrinks down to a foot path. There’s a lot of rocks, mud, and roots hidden under the fallen leaves, so a careful step is needed. At around a mile from the trail start, we started to see several pieces of pink survey tape on trees and blue plastic squares on a side trail off to our left.
Following those, we soon hit a hand made wooden sign attached to a tree saying “Top Of The Falls” and through the trees you could just make out the top of the falls. Followed that path, and hit the first observation point, marked by another sign saying “OK Slip Falls” and our first good view of the falls.
We spent a few minutes here, then continued on the trail to the second view point. It gives more of a look into the woods at the top of the falls, but no view of the bottom.

Jim and Josh go Fall Camping

Geneva on the Lake

Over this past weekend, Joshua and I went out for our annual fall campout. In the fall, we always choose a state park that we've never stayed at before, and this year we chose the one at Geneva. It was a really nice park, and we were able to get a nice secluded spot.

We took in some local sights, found some geocaches, and just had a nice relaxing time together. This is a fun tradition for us.