Along Came Fall

Has anyone been wondering what we have been doing with our time? Just in case there is one of you out there who has, here goes.

One of the things that we had never done, while at the West Point area, was to go see Fort Putnam. It was built during the Revolutionary War to help guard the Hudson river and keep the British from going up the river. It was one of a number of forts. The grounds around it are now covered with trees, but I'm sure it was totally cleared at that time. I would not have wanted that job. We had a great guide who took us and told us about it. He was even very patient while we read everything.

It overlooks what is now call the plain. There was also a fort located on it. That is part of the Cadet's buildings in the background.

As you can see, the fort is not very large. It sits on a hill overlooking the bend in the river where, during the war, a chain was put across to stop the British ships. We are standing on the barracks.During our time at WP we made a trip up to Vanderbilt's Hyde Park mansion to listen to R play. It was a beautiful evening, not to hot, good music, and a nice sunset.
The time came for us to move on as By & L were looking forward to hanging out in the camper with us in the great out doors. So on we went. We picked them up and went out to the Bull Run area for Labor Day weekend. On Monday we pulled out and went to the Shenandoah River valley. It is a beautiful area with some hiking trails. It seems that I never had my camera with me, so I have no pictures, other than this, to show off the area.
This is a new camping area. It just opened in July. So there weren't the trees in the camping area that had been at Bull Run. Fortunately, the weather cooled and the humidity really dropped. It started feeling like fall. We even saw a few leaf colors.

One of the things that we did was to go to Luray Cavern. It is privately owned, not very large, and well known for it's pipe organ. The pipes are different formations. It doesn't sound too bad. It has lots of formations with many colors, some very white. We hadn't seen that before in the caverns we have gone to.

The next one is actually a pool of water reflecting the formations on the ceiling.
One of the trails goes along the river. The first day that we got there, I went hiking down stream. It reminded me of the creek that I would walk along as a kid on a hot summer afternoon; cooler with lots of trees, the sun coming through in places, dried leaves crunching under foot, and the smell of vegetation dried from the summer heat. The trees that I walked through as a child were quaking asp while these were hard woods. I learned the type of some of the trees as some had labels. There were also lots of pawpaw trees along the river, but alas, no fruit.

Another trail goes up into the trees, gaining altitude very quickly. By decided that he and L could use that loop as part of her running training. The first time they did it too quickly and about killed themselves. It didn't help that it was in the high eighties at the time.

The Shenandoah river is also a good river for canoeing. There are lots of rental places. On Thursday By, L and I rented one and did a seven mile stretch of the river. Again, no pictures as we didn't want to get cameras wet. We should have brought them. B decided to take a long hike.

The water was low so there were numerous times that we scrapped the bottom going over the many rock ridges crossing the river bottom. We almost had to step out of the canoe a couple of times to free it. The water was crystal clear so we could see the bottom along with everything in the water. We saw several small fish, one around nine to ten inches long, a red turtle about a foot across, old tires, cans, etc. In the air we saw two bald eagles circling above us. As most of the float is in forested areas. It would be a great place to see fall colors. We had fun trying to float up on cranes.

The next morning, B and I went hiking up river. Within a couple of miles we came to the canoe rental place from the day before. Had we known that, we would have walked there and back instead of making the about six mile trip by truck out, around and back in to the river.

It was a great time. Even Hinckley enjoyed it. He really got into the trail exploring. Since we got back, he has been moping around.

Remember all those times I started to carve a stick while we were in the outdoors? Well, I finally finished something.