Hiking Allegany State Park

Celebrating Evie's 75th Birthday With A Hike

6:45

7:14

It's another stellar morning of pink clouds, blue skies and cool temperatures.  It's was 50º when I came downstairs at 6:00 to make the coffee.  I walked outside and the yard was filled with light from the moon and stars.  It's after 9:00 and I was out for an hour kayaking and spotted three herons sitting on the same tree.  While I finish this up, Evie is making scones because, Nan, our financial planner is coming from Cleveland this morning to discuss our future.  Should be fun!

Kayak Morning

Great Blue Along Tom's Point

Yesterday was my typical busy morning, beginning with kayaking of course.  Then, I drove over to Bemus for breakfast with the guys but it does not seem the same because our waitress of at least five years was fired.  After breakfast, we published the blog and I drove to Lakewood to yin yoga, a fairly crowded class.  I then drove to Aldi's and picked up a few things for our weekend and stopped for corn at our favorite stand.  This may be the last of the corn.

When I drove into our parking area, Evie was enjoying the sun in our side yard as the wind was too much for the dock.  I had the leftover moussaka and an ear of corn for lunch and watched my show.  While Evie enjoyed the outdoors, I read and fell asleep on the couch before we both got ready to drive to the Allegany Forest for a hike.  Evie wanted to celebrate her birthday by doing something different so a hike and eating out seemed just right.  We made sure to bring water, mosquito repellent, and bear repellent, just in case.  We stopped at Peterson's Market on the way and picked up another basket of peaches for freezing and baking another peach pie.  We then drove forty minutes to one of the larger parks in this part of the US, 64,800 acres.  We drove to the Art Roscoe Cross Country Ski Hut, the parking area where the major trails begin.  We were the only car in the lot, perhaps the only ones in the forest. 

There are five or six trails of varying lengths and we picked Christian Hollow, 3.5 miles with a vista of the valley of Cattaraugus County.  We hiked it once before, probably six or seven years ago.  It's quite hilly so we were constantly walking up and down on trails through dense woods, the trail edged with delicate ferms most of the way.  We met one person, a guy on a mountain bike but that was it for our hike.  We walked, according to my iWatch , 3.4 miles, total time, 1.33.48,  elevation gain 318  feet.  We were happy to finish although it was the right distance, extraordinarily quiet, no sound of birds or animals, just our footfalls on the trail.

A Green Silence

We then exited the park, jumped on #86 and turned on to the Onoville Marina road.  We ended up at one of our favorite restaurants, the Horseshoe Inn.  We have been there three or times over the past six years.  We always find a place at the bar and usually strike up a conversation with patrons but not yesterday as the locals ended up talking with each other.  We ordered Evie's specialty for an appetizer, hand-cut french fries and they were great.  For dinner, Evie ordered a New York strip steak with more fries and I had a pot roast sandwich with fries.  Evie's steak was a bit overdone so the bartender compted it even though we did not complain. 

Dusk

We drove home towards an amazing dusk sky.  We were back in time to watch two more episodes of Unbelievable and have the last two pieces of peach pie, a fine end to the day.