Mom & I, plus my dog, her dog and my daughter's dog, went upstate NY to visit my uncle & other family who lives up there. They are all between Rhinebeck & Hudson on the east side on the Hudson River. After going to church....the cutest tiniest church ever..in Germantown, we stopped at Mom's younger brother's house. He had just started on his retirement plan: Yellow Lab puppies! They have been a BIG fav of my Mom for years so we HAD to see them! They also had a 13 week pup who looked just like Mom's late lab Prince when he was that age....I thought for sure we were going to be dog napping.......
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Momma Calypso & babies
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13 week old Sam
Soon it was time to get back in the car to continue our adventure of the day. Mom & I are great travel companions & have no problem with just a general plan & improvising along the way. Next was getting our brood of three out for some exercise....nobody was really thrilled being around a new momma bear....so they wanted to stay in the car. We drove "down river" with the idea that we would stop by my cousin Brian's house in Rhinebeck...YUP...just a mile past where Miss Chelsea Clinton got hitched... After going through Tivoli we decided to take a road we never been on before and that is where we found an entrance to the "Tivoli Bays Estuaries". We decide we wanted to go down by the river, so kept on the dirt road (Kidd Lane) when we passed by the abandoned barn. We figured we would check it out on the way out to see if there would be any cool stuff for some "garden art". We got to the end of the road, got out and followed some stairs down to the bay. I never get tired of the view of the Hudson River, it's gorgeous there! We hiked up & down between the gorges, over bridges and then I saw something cool: evidence of beavers! So next we had to find where they were. The dogs, The Pep Boys: Manny , Mo & Jack ( as we were calling them that day) were having a blast. |
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view from the first gorge, beginnings of the Catskills across the Hudson river
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Mom decides she needs to be on the other side of that stump while Trey & Romeo wonder if its a good idea....hmmmm
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That's me staying on the high side
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AHA!!!!!! Beavers would be living in these parts! Doesn't take much to thrill me...
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FOUND THEM! These guys are pretty smart, any tree they chew down just rolls on down to the water, wait for the tide to come in & its easy floating it around. I'm impressed.
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Don't know about you, but I think they were making an artistic statement here. That's Mom's dog "Romeo the Fearless" teacup Yorkie. He goes EVERYWHERE, even been to a few weddings, just recently christening in Brooklyn. Everybody loves Romy....he even has special permission to come in the local Hunting & Fishing Store...how's that for being manly???
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| The boys crossing another gorge bridge |
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TREY! : my daughter's newly adopted dog, the yuppy puppy who lives in a third floor apartment. Hanging out with his grandmother & great grandmother he is becoming quite confident & the brave woodsman/dog. He is having the time of his life!
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Snack Time.....Nana (Mom) Rocks! Everybody LOVES Nana!!!!!
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Manny, my puggle, believes he is part mountain goat.....he decided he was going to go all the way out to the end of this tree, with Trey following......just about had a heart attack when I turned around and saw them...its actually quite a drop below them!
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Heading back to the car
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just thought this was kinda cool looking
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last bridge before getting to the car
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and now..back to that barn.....
So what I was able to find out so far: I'm not positive about any of this, but, I believe the property along the river was originally owned by Bard College. The area north of the college has trails & bridges throughout and on some of the trails you can even get a guide from the college. I'm not entirely sure if the college still owns the land or the state??? I haven't actually been able to find out anything about the barn except that they are considering fencing it in to keep the vandals out. WHO ME??? I'm a scavenger, please, there IS a difference!
In front of the barn the land drops and its completely overgrown all around so its impossible to know what else could possibly be there. It would of been nice to see it from the other side to really appreciate just how huge it really is. This picture just doesn't do any justice to how much more there is. It was scary realizing there was a basement under us to!! I mean, I know man makes garages in many levels and all, but outside that it freaks me out.
So if you are ever upstate NY riding up Route 9G, heading out of Red Hook going North to Tivoli...look "Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve"..
http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/4915.html (Tivoli Bays section)If you go a little further and make a right onto "Kidd Lane" you will come across the dirt road entrance (on the left) that goes past the barn.
