Ron had a Columbia-Greene Trout Unlimited activity yesterday at the Taconic State Park over in Copake (not to be confused with Lake Taghkanic State Park nearby), right on the MA border. It was a picture perfect day: sunny, warm (low 80s) and decent humidity. While Ron and “the guys” did their thing demonstrating fly fishing and fly tying, I took a couple of easy hikes. The first one I took was up the hill from the old iron ore foundry, where the guys were set up, to the reproduction of the charcoal making area. It took 600 acres of forest to make enough charcoal to use in the foundry for just a year. Obviously, all the trees around this area are new forest.
It is so beautiful in the Taconics. There is lots of water in the form of ponds and streams, and it’s all woods and old rock. Just lovely. I did the 1.5 mile round trip “hike” (it’s a steep but manageable trail) up to Bish Bash Falls, following the Bish Bash Brook. The falls are in Massachusetts, but when coming from the west, as I was, most of the trail up to the falls is in New York State. The trail is canopied with tree tops which, in addition to being pretty, kept me cooler than walking in the sun.
Above and below are some pics I took yesterday. The equipment in front of Ron, as well as on his head, is all used to tie flies for trout fishing. Ron’s very good at it and gets a lot of compliments on the final product. The other pics are of the surrounding area around the park but still on state land, including the Bish Bash Falls in Massachusetts.
We finished the day by driving to the lookout on Route 23 going up to Windham for a picnic supper. It’s nice to do things that the tourists usually do but that we take for granted.
Exercise – I did enough hiking up steep trails yesterday to make up for a couple of days of no exercise.
Today’s weather – It’s another boooooooo-tiful day. Rain is predicted for late tonight into tomorrow morning, but that’s then and I’ll be sleeping!
Life lessons – I don’t have to travel across the country to see beautiful landscape and scenery. After all I live in the foothills of the Catskills as well as live about an hour away from the Taconics, where we went yesterday.
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