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The Hike



 This is another excerpt from my notes on our recent trip to New York. You see, while we were there, son and Daughter-in-law decided to take us on a hike . . .

Daughter-in-law (DIL) had looked forward all week to taking us to Mohonk Mountain and to hike the trails there. This was to take place on Sunday and we told her, “you know we are flying out on Monday. We will be flying and riding and navigating stairs. You are not going to wear us out, are you?”

“No problem,” DIL said. “The trails are really well-groomed, well taken care of.” Her enthusiasm was infectious. It was hard not to look forward to it. We drove 30 or 40 minutes to the parking lot of the trail head. After the necessary toilet stops, we were on our way up the trail. “well-groomed,” yes, but there was a fair amount of up and down. Son and DIL had given us their walking poles and we made use of them. We saw the occasional sign on the trail at branches that told us what lay in each direction, but they never said how far away those destinations were. An arrow would point to “Mountain House,” but was it 200 feet ahead, or 20 miles? We walked and walked. I thought we were going to the Mountain house (hotel), but when we were almost there, they suggested a different trail.

“Once you get here,” DIL said, “there is a network of trails. This one makes a loop back to the mountain house and connects with others. It is not as hard as what we just did.”

Okay. Lay on Macduff. We went on the loop. We came upon a little shelter overlooking the valley. Fall colors were starting to stain the forest background. A bit further on, we came to a pond. There was a narrow peninsula sticking out into the pond with a shelter on the end. We went to the shelter to take a break. This is where son and DIL had gotten engaged. They reenacted the moment for us with son getting on his knee and DIL laughing. We saw fish, salamanders, and one fairly large tortoise in the pond.

Back on the trail, we made our way to an overlook where we could see the lake and the massive hotel behind it. At first I thought the lake was the remnant of a quarry as the rock slab I was looking at made an almost vertical plunge into the lake, but as I saw more of it, I came to see that the lake was a natural feature. The Mountain House hotel was just as impressive, rising a dozen or so stories, some of stone, some of brick, some of wood. This was obviously a structure that evolved over time.

We walked down to the hotel grounds and gardens, and that was when things began to get dicey. Up until now, wife and I had been holding our own on the trail. But now, DIL took us on an ever narrowing, twisting and terrain-challenging path. In fact, sometimes the path disappeared altogether. There were moments when wife needed help: me pulling and son pushing (there's an image). We made it to the road. DIL took off on another dodgy trail and we let her. Despite the warning signs that said to stay on the trails and stay off the dangerous road, we took the dangerous road. We went a bit and then sat down on some large rocks, exhausted. Soon a hotel security vehicle showed up and informed us that we needed to stay on the trail, and that it was in fact, shorter than taking the road. I was not sure I believed him. Looking back on it, I am sure I don’t believe him.

We got back onto the trail. At least it was a real trail now. Uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill. I didn’t remember this many hills when we started out. Son had been in touch with DIL by phone, who had scouted a different route. We found an intersection to meet up with her, and we were glad to see her (and hoping we were almost done). More hills. More ups and downs. We were now on the trail we started with this morning. Surely, it hadn’t been this long this morning, right?

We made it to the parking lot. Wife and I poured ourselves into DIL’s car. We love DIL, but good lord, she doesn’t understand older people’s bodies very well.

Star Liner

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