It’s been 70 degrees every day for a week. And sunny. And it’s going to be 70 degrees for another 5 days. That’s close enough to an Indian Summer for me.
To celebrate, me and Chief checked another hike off the Broome County Dozen hiking challenge. This time it was Hawkins Pond County Park in Windsor, NY and I have to be honest, we had a hard time. First I couldn’t find the pond, and you’d think a place called Hawkins Pond would have a pond.
Then I couldn’t find the trail.
This is actual pretty typical for me. I spend a lot of my time lost but this time I don’t think it was exactly my fault. The ground was so thick with leaves, if there was once obvious trails, you won’t see it again until Spring. On top of that, there aren’t very good markers. Me and Chief as a result walked about a mile slightly to the left of the trail. When we came upon an old tree stand and startled a few white tail deer it occurred to me that it is hunting season and neither of us were wearing bright orange clothing. We turned around and went back the way we came.
On the way back I spotted the turn I had missed the first time which was probably the trail I was looking for but Chief seemed eager to get back so we didn’t take it. Once in the parking lot I thought I would have one more go at it and we walked down the road to find, you guessed it… the pond!
We followed the pond and so found a trail and voila! Completed the 1.3 mile loop we had set out to find to begin with. Unfortunately this resulted in us both being covered in mud and ticks.
Back at the car I picked the ticks off Chief and threw my top layers into the trunk in the hope that any ticks on them will starve to death before they can find their way out and do any harm.