The Day of the Newt

The day was so glorious after yesterday's downpour that I suddenly decided to drop everything and make a mad sprint for the 12:44 train to Cold Spring.   Yes, that's kind of a late start.  And yes, I knew I wanted to do a long hike. (Hey, I brought a headlamp just in case.  That's all grown-up and responsible of me, for sure.)

The plan was to take Cornish (blue) to Brook (red) to Notch (blue) to Breakneck Ridge (white) to Casino (red).  This would take me to the South Beacon fire tower for the first time, which could be nice.  And I thought it might be easier to find Casino from the white trail which dead-ends right into it.

I re-listened to chapters 5 and 6 of Voyage to Arcturus en route (see, I am working on my paper!), then a bit of class lectures, then switched over to William's Happy Days as I set off for the trailhead.

So, the first thing I noticed as I started up Cornish (blue) was the mud.  Some fairly serious mud.  And overgrown bushes that made the path nearly impassible.  But I was listening to my all-time favorite William story, "William Goes Shopping," in which the ever-impecunious 11 year old goes into town on an errand for his mother to earn money for Christmas presents.  Before he gets to the fish shop, he is of course immediately sidetracked.  The story is brilliant, hilarious and deep.

As I ascended above the swampline, I noticed the insects.  Big ones.  (On leaves, luckily, not on me.)  Some dead, golden-brown, and desiccated, others bearing living colors but  quite lethargic:

Cicadas?

Bleah.  Fortunately, as I got further in, I saw fewer and fewer of them.

A half-built house?

A millipede-type creature on a rock:

He was actually  making pretty good time; in my first picture, he was far away from the oak leaf!


Soon after, I saw something really cool -- a red-spotted newt!!!

first newt of the day!

I don't recall ever seeing a newt before in the Hudson Highlands, so I was very excited.  I took lots of pictures and videos, and tried not to scare it too much as I zoomed in.

my hand for scale

On the move:

Soon afterward, I saw a slug on a fungus - not quite as glamorous, perhaps:

Ye olde traditional view of ye scenic Hudson

Red-Spotted Newt #2 (next to my little camera pouch)

fern frond curled in the sun

Finally, I got to the South Beacon fire tower - wow!  Lovely views, and lovely weather, so I began the ascent.  I got about halfway up, when I suddenly realized my hands were sticky.  It was as if something slightly tacky had gotten on to the handrails.  It was as if ... my hands were covered with silver-gray paint.  And my forearms too, a bit.

It was windy enough that I didn't want to make the climb without holding on to the handrails, so I turned around and went down.  Freshly painted, and no "wet paint" signs.

Even from the base of the tower, the views were amazing:

I couldn't scrape the paint off onto anything (I tried), so I rubbed my hands in the dirt, on the theory that that would give me some friction/abrasion to remove the paint.  Alas, no.  Now I had really filthy hands.  Hand sanitizer and tissues removed only the top-most layer of loose dirt, leaving the paint and the bottom layer of dirt perfectly intact.  Sigh.

But, I soon saw another red-spotted newt, so I was happy again:

bright yellow fungus on a log

My fourth red-spotted newt!!!

So far, I had managed to follow the trail successfully, despite some tricky spots (like a mysterious orange-blazed trail which looked very official but was not marked on my map).

As advertised, the white trail ended in an intersection with the red (Casino) trail.  Hooray!  I turned left and started the last part of my journey.  I'd taken the Casino trail before, so I wasn't worried about this part.  And yet... and yet... I got to a place where there were 3 red dots (as if the red trail were beginning or ending), and then soon after, it looked like the trail was turning left.  So I went left and followed the path for a while - but no blazes.  So I backtracked and went right at the fork.  No blazes.  The area looked vaguely familiar, but I could not figure out which way to go.  Finally, I just followed the most well-traveled path, which took me to a nice scenic overlook:

I kept going, and came eventually to a dirt road.  I figured I'd just follow the road down - but it dead-ended at the (I think) North Beacon tower area.  Now I was stumped!!!

Fortunately, a local man and his little girl came by. He couldn't figure out how the heck I'd gotten there, but he gave me good advice: I could retrace my steps back up the road, and it would then start going down again.  It would take me right along the reservoir, and all the way down to Mountain Lane and East Main Street.  So I did, and it worked out fine - a totally new (to me) and beautiful route.   (The girl was really cute - she told me I'd chosen the better way, because she'd gotten a spider on her going the other direction, where she and her dad were headed.  I thanked her, but told her she'd be fine because she and her dad would scare away the spiders.)

sun-kissed tree trunk

Out of the woods!
The long walk down E Main Street to the restaurants.

view from the bridge 

I dined (again) at the Beacon Falls Cafe.  They were kind enough to let me enjoy a table outside despite my generally disreputable appearance.  (With the aid of soap and water, I was able to make some progress on my dirt-dyed hands.  But my muddy and frayed hiking pants are admittedly not a sight for sore eyes.)

It was a lovely end to a wonderful day.

Sesame Street Police Department

Too bad I'd already eaten!

Got home at 12:15 a.m. - exactly 12 hours after I'd left my apartment.