Hiking the Walden/Walkill Rail Trail
I had wanted to hike this trail for a while. I even did a previous post about it the last time my mother and I went upstate to visit my aunt and uncle. Since last weekend was Thanksgiving, and since we always go up for the holidays, that seemed like the perfect time. Thanksgiving Day was obviously out since that was for family, but the day after was a hiking day. First things first. Let's check out some of the food. My cousin brought over different cheeses, meats, crackers, jams, etc. and put together a delicious charcuterie board.
I had made up my mind to not pick on any of the appetizers that were out so that I could be sure to be able to eat all of the delicious foods that were being cooked for dinner, but my resolve melted when my cousin set out the charcuterie board. On a side note, the Thanksgiving Day pics were taken with my x100v still set to JPEG with one of the experimental presets still on. 🤦🏻♀️. This is what happens when you don't usually shoot with presets (or in JPEG).My cousin's dog Sancho was there too and come on, who can resist that face? He is so cute and sweet and I'm not usually a small dog person. I generally gravitate more towards bigger dogs. I love taking pictures of him. As my cousin's daughter said one time, "He is just so photogenic". 😁This is the second time I’ve attempted to hike this trail and the second time I haven’t been able to finish it. The last time it was because it looked like it was about to rain and this time because I started out too late and wasn’t even sure where the trail ended. I also hurt my toe while I was getting ready to go hiking but I still went (and walked five miles round trip anyway) because the next time I would have been able to go upstate would probably have been July. Sigh! My toe paid for it the next day. The views did however make it worth it. I didn't see any deer like last time, but there's always the summer.This is a pretty easy hike since the trail is paved. It’s a very good place to walk if you just want quiet and to reflect on your thoughts. The trail isn’t crowded so it’s also very quiet. The trail runs behind a few houses and at one point I walked alongside a farm. I’m assuming this fell down during a storm. If someone is handy with a chainsaw they could have firewood for quite a while. I just found this shot interesting. I know it’s just algae, but I don’t see this kind of thing in the city. I hope one day that I can get out of this city for good and go for walks in nature every day if I wanted to, but for now I’m just enjoying the time that I am able to get away for a few days.You see that house, waaaaaaay back in the distance? It would be my dream to live in place like that. I am just so sick of neighbors, noise and people in general. I just want quiet and a solo existence. Being around people is exhausting. Half the time I'm just nodding and smiling or parroting something they've said, or saying something that goes with the conversation. It usually revolves around food and healthy eating because apparently after you get to a certain age, that's what your life revolves around. (Them: "I don't like to eat a lot of processed foods. I prefer fresh fruits and vegetables and to cook my own food. You can also control the salt content and calorie intake with portion control". Me in my head: 🙄. Me out loud: "Yeah, it's so much healthier"). I believe this might be a farm because those are cornfields in the distance, but even so. I’d love to have a house on a piece of land that big.It was at this point that I pulled out my phone and called my uncle because I had been walking for about an hour and still wasn’t sure where the trail ended. It had been years since he hiked it so he couldn’t remember. As it gets dark early now, I decided to turn around and head back. This was near a meditation retreat. There were signs nearby that said “private property” or “no trespassing” but the gate was also open and it had signs for a gift shop. I decided to err on the side of caution and didn’t go inside. My aunt said that she and I think her sister went inside one day and it was very nice. I’ll have to remember to do that next time. 
I love getting shots with sun stars and light flares, so I did a lot of those shots. I took all of these shots with the Fujifilm x100v which is honestly one of my favorite cameras. It’s small, fairly light and just takes amazing pictures. I put this one separate from the others because it’s my favorite. The way that the sun is below the clouds and shining out across the path almost looks like light coming down from Heaven. It reminds me of a scene from Ghost. (Well, at least when the angels came down, not the “other ones” as the guy in the hospital said. The “other ones” scenes always freaked the hell out of me when I was a kid.)