Bridges over Watery Wooded Graves (in NNY)

There.. bet that title got your attention.



100 (I cheated: it was only 97, left the coleman pad at home and my butt got sick of the TW seat) mile ride, about 50% dirt, 50% pavement. Temperature outside when I started the ride was about 38F. Got up as high as 52F during mid-day, and was around 45F when I got home. Beautifully sunny all day.



Started by finding a cemetery that I hadn't seen before, on a short dirt road not too far from home. It's called the White Church Cemetery, and the stones average in the mid-1800s; very very few newer than 1910.







Next stop was down a dirt road I hadn't been on since I was a kid; I found a seldom-used spur trail off it that lead to a beaver pond; rather nice scenery if you like that sort of thing.







Back on the main road, another hop to another dirt road, which is mostly hunting clubs and private land on the sides, but there is a nice State Forest area at the far end. Along this road is a corner with a sheer cliff face on the left. I was disappointed, some time in the last 2 or so years, they replaced the old bronze white tail deer statue at the top with a wooden sign (you can't read it, but it says "Stillwater Club", who owns the vast majority of the land in that region). Too bad, the deer was pretty awesome. I didn't take a picture of it, but they built a long walking bridge across the river to more easily get to their club.







Further down the same road, we get to the entrance to the Stone Dam Trail (state forest, as mentioned). Imagine my surprise when I see this:







The logging theme continues for a while, now, as I photo-documented quite a lot of the region I remembered looking a "little different" when I drove up there a few years ago. This logging was all done last year, I've been told.











At this point, I'm *miles* out into the wild here, and I park on top of the biggest hill around to have a look and a snack. Imagine my surprise, again, when I find a beer container museum next to a rock about 150ft off the trail; obviously used by 2 or 3 generations as a hunting watch point. All of these were found in a 3ft radius around the rock. I'll do my best to get these in order by age:





















.. To be continued in the next post, apparently I posted too many images