a pleasant method of exercise
Aug. 25th, 2013 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eorYesterday we explored a trail that we'd seen previously, but didn't walk at the time because insufferable squadrons of mosquitoes.
The Kelsey Brook Trail starts about a mile and a half from our home, and wanders along, would you believe it, Kelsey Brook for a couple of miles. The trail begins by following the edge of farm fields, then turns into the woods to follow the brook, skirting at first along the eastern side, then crossing to the western side before, crossing back and joining up with another trail. All told it's probably between a mile and a half and two miles long.
Yesterday after a false start following the blue blazes we realized the trail was in fact blazed in white. We managed to make it in probably a mile before coming to a spot where there was a bridge to cross the brook. The difficulty with this particular bridge was that the end closest to us was a good five feet from the shore. It was too far to feel comfortable jumping over brackish water, so we turned around and walked back the way we came.
Today we repeated the same trail, but I brought along my hiking poles. I thought I might be able to use the hiking poles to drag the end of the bridge around, but it was thoroughly lodged on something. But using the poles I was able to snag a floating log (no alligators this far north) and drag it to the shore, only getting one foot wet and muddy. I then pushed it out to the bridge, so that I could walk across the log to the bridge using my hiking poles to stabilize me. Once on the bridge, I hauled the end of the log up on to it and passed my poles to Derien, so she could follow. We hiked on to the point where a side trail headed west, took that trail which went by a pasture with a herd of Belted Galways and dead ended above them. Then reversed course and walked back along the same trail. The return crossing was uneventful for me, but the log cracked and slowly sank into the water on Derien. She ended up with one wet foot as a result, but stayed on the log and got across. The only other points of interest were finding a skeleton of something (skunk, beaver, fox?) along the trail, scaring a pheasant into flight, and finding a spot where a host of small birds of various species were all flying around going about their business. All in all it was probably about 3 miles of fairly rough trail. Good exercise, but it took quite a while.
It's obvious that someone uses the trail occasionally, because there is a visible trail, but it certainly doesn't get used much because we haven't seen other cars in the parking area of other walkers on the trial.
The Kelsey Brook Trail starts about a mile and a half from our home, and wanders along, would you believe it, Kelsey Brook for a couple of miles. The trail begins by following the edge of farm fields, then turns into the woods to follow the brook, skirting at first along the eastern side, then crossing to the western side before, crossing back and joining up with another trail. All told it's probably between a mile and a half and two miles long.
Yesterday after a false start following the blue blazes we realized the trail was in fact blazed in white. We managed to make it in probably a mile before coming to a spot where there was a bridge to cross the brook. The difficulty with this particular bridge was that the end closest to us was a good five feet from the shore. It was too far to feel comfortable jumping over brackish water, so we turned around and walked back the way we came.
Today we repeated the same trail, but I brought along my hiking poles. I thought I might be able to use the hiking poles to drag the end of the bridge around, but it was thoroughly lodged on something. But using the poles I was able to snag a floating log (no alligators this far north) and drag it to the shore, only getting one foot wet and muddy. I then pushed it out to the bridge, so that I could walk across the log to the bridge using my hiking poles to stabilize me. Once on the bridge, I hauled the end of the log up on to it and passed my poles to Derien, so she could follow. We hiked on to the point where a side trail headed west, took that trail which went by a pasture with a herd of Belted Galways and dead ended above them. Then reversed course and walked back along the same trail. The return crossing was uneventful for me, but the log cracked and slowly sank into the water on Derien. She ended up with one wet foot as a result, but stayed on the log and got across. The only other points of interest were finding a skeleton of something (skunk, beaver, fox?) along the trail, scaring a pheasant into flight, and finding a spot where a host of small birds of various species were all flying around going about their business. All in all it was probably about 3 miles of fairly rough trail. Good exercise, but it took quite a while.
It's obvious that someone uses the trail occasionally, because there is a visible trail, but it certainly doesn't get used much because we haven't seen other cars in the parking area of other walkers on the trial.
