Pawtuckaway Five-Miler

Our beloved boulders!!!

Water lilies grow in the body of water formerly known as Dead Pond

bright red fungus (yes, the picture is sideways - but it seemed easier to see this way)

A view of Dead Pond from the ridge

Butterfly

Dragonfly - bright spring green

Intrepid hikers

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.

Rainboots and Gender

[A not entirely serious reflection on the issues presented.]

What got me thinking about this is a male colleague who likes to say, whenever it rains, "I hate wet" - it occurred to me during yesterday's rainstorm that he might not mind it as much if he were wearing rainboots rather than dress shoes, and keeping his feet dry.  Then I started looking around and noticed this local phenomenon:

Only women wear rain boots or galoshes in the rain. Men wear sneakers, loafers, dress shoes, or (rarely) work boots; no wellies. Is this a truth universally acknowledged? Or just American (east coast) urban business areas?

It's clearly a matter of convention, but a curious one.  As if rainboots are OK for women and children, but not for men.  And of those three groups, only women voluntarily choose to wear them (at least in my experience, children wear them under protest).

The funny thing about it is that rainboots are not inherently feminine -- to the contrary, they are emphatically utilitarian and unisex in form.  They are not flattering to the female leg, even though one can get them with cute decorative colors and designs.

Some of my correspondents have pointed out that there is a practical reason for male office workers to eschew rainboots - they would have to carry spare shoes for the office (or else clunk around in boots all day), and their shoes are bigger than ours (more annoying to carry) and they don't typically carry bags or purses that could contain such shoes, etc. etc.

But I think it goes beyond the merely practical, to a sense that manly men can "tough it out" or something; that it is somehow a weakness to adapt one's footwear to the elements in a torrential downpour.  Men could easily wear the rubber slipcovers that they used to decades ago (my dad among them), but I haven't seen this in modern-day NYC.  

Much Ado About Nuthin'

Tonight I saw my first-ever "Western" version of Much Ado, which the company describes as follows:

Set in the gun-slinging Old West, Shakespeare’s romantic comedy of wills and wit tells the tale of two couples, Beatrice and Benedick, who trade barbs instead of kisses, and Claudio and Hero, whose innocent young love is torn apart by the dastardly Don Jon. Throw in some clowning by Dogberry, the master of malapropisms, and original music by Jonathan Sanborn, and we’ve got an afternoon to delight theatergoers of all ages! 

It was a lot of fun; the actors brought great physicality (including physical comedy) into it, though they had to go perhaps a little more carefully indoors than they would have outside in Riverside Park.  Still - martial arts cartwheels from Dogberry and his deputy in a lovely scene with their reluctant prisoners who try more than once to escape the buffoons who've nabbed them.  Really nice.  Some good singing voices, with original music.  I was tempted to sing along with the Hey Nonny Nonny.  No gimmicky re-interpretations (thank goodness), but good solid interpretation that helps breathe life into the Bard's words even for those who might find some of the language obscure.

For what it's worth, this was also probably the most racially integrated production I've seen of the play.  Both Claudio and the Prince are black, as well as Dogberry's deputy.  The Prince's villainous bastard brother is white, however, as are Beatrice, Benedick, and the rest of the cast.  Still, it's a start!  I was wondering at one point if Claudio's insecurity about Hero (and his and the Prince's readiness to believe the worst of her) would be given racial overtones, but I don't think the actors or director "went there" ultimately.

This Claudio makes clear his contrition by kneeling and handing over his gun and his sword to Leonato when he tells Leonato to choose his own vengeance - I thought that worked well.

The one jarring note, for me, was the friar - he presents his idea to save Hero as if he thinks it's pretty ridiculous.  It felt like a post-modern wink-to-the-audience schtick; not my favorite.

I hadn't heard of the Roundtable Ensemble before (although they list productions as far back as 1999), but they are a good addition to my watchlist for Shakespeare in the parks.

(P.S. It occurs to me now, can we say Leonato = lion-born?  That would be pretty cool.)

What I accomplished this weekend

Here's a positive spin on things (rather than focusing on all the things I did not find time for):

• Made my first-ever batch of pumpkin cornbread.  (Very easy, and super-moist.)
• Made my favorite muffins (yum).
• Moved some clothes and pictures out of the construction zone.
• Caught up with a friend who has agreed to serve as "back-up" executor for my future will.
• Wrote a few more paragraphs of a book review.  
• Drank bubble tea and ate chocolate with friends.
• Worked out during 2+ episodes of BtVS.
• Finished season 2 of Game of Thrones.  
• Went to church in nice clothes.
• Washed the dishes, put away some shoes, books, etc...

Well, gosh, that seems all right then, doesn't it?