Ramapo Mountains

Excuse me while I play catch-up. It's been a hectic few months, but if anything has remained the same, it's my love of the outdoors and the solace I can find there. It almost seems unreal that the last time I updated it was 5 months ago. That's like...half a year practically. I've certainly been on a few adventures since then, not all with camera in hand. Some adventures had been solo, or with Tyger, or with some people I had never even been hiking with before. All in all, every time has been beautiful in some way or another and I'm grateful for that.

Enough sappiness. Let's get down to business. A couple of months ago, I felt like I was running out of new places to go. It seemed impossible to find anywhere of quality that I had never been before. And then I decided to invest in a book about hiking in the NY-NJ area. It's been wonderful. I've already dog-eared the hell out of it and can't wait to try every trail in it. Some are quite a bit further away than others, but at least I've got options. For the curious, the book is called "Hike of the Week" by Daniel Chazin. Anyone familiar with the NJ-NY Trail Conference website may recognize the name. He has contributed significantly to the website, writing up info/experiences on various trails in the area. The book is organized by season and has a lot of good info in it like difficulty, length, history, a map, etc.

One of the little ponds I passed

So one weekend I flipped open the book and found a place that was about 30 minutes away. To me, any place that's within an hour's driving distance is totally reasonable-- anything that's 30 minutes or less seems practically next door. I hopped in my car with Tyger, armed with some water, my camera and the book (just in case.) 

Tyger dog standing amongst blooming wooly thyme. It smelled awesome.

We basically just strolled around. There was a main trail that was wide and made of gravel. It seemed to be pretty popular and eventually led me from one parking lot to another, then to a road, and finally to a lake. The walk itself wasn't overly notable, except for a few things-- 1. The summersweet was in bloom and smelled amazing; 2. I saw some turkeys in a meadow; 3. There was an awesome tower along the way, but it was on private property that was still in use.

Future goal: own a tower like this & pretend to be a mad scientist 24/7

One of the trails I passed. I think I was supposed to take it.

Ahh, what a lovely lake

When I had finally made it to the lake, I passed by some young guys who were fishing. They were throwing pond scum  at each other and asked if they could make my dog wear it. Then they asked if they could catch him in their net. Obviously, I wasn't down for that, but I laughed and continued on my way. Overall, definitely a solid walk through the woods.