John and I explored a new hiking area last weekend. It was a hot day, so we left in the morning. We did our own duathlon: bike/hike/bike  😀  We took a roundabout way to get there to get in some miles. This place is maybe 5 miles from home? We rode around for 10 before we got there. I had packed other shoes in my bag because no hiking can be done in my clip shoes. Street walking yes, but not terrain.

It doesn’t look like much here. There are some tennis and basketball courts to the right.

Not sure who planned putting a metal table in the blazing sun all day, but I wouldn’t want to sit there!

We walked a bit and found the trails:

It was nice and shady in here. Great for a hot day!  The trails are well marked.

From up here, you could look down to the Hudson river:

They weren’t kidding about steep slopes and bluffs. At the bottom of that picture, it just basically drops off. A little scary.  We hiked down a fairly steep slope and came to the bottom where you get a great view of the river:

Then we went along the trail to the marsh area.  We haven’t had rain for at least a couple of weeks, but it still was muddy under these wooden walkways:

I liked these. 😀  Then we hit the fun house bridge:

Looking at it doesn’t inspire much confidence, I have to say LOL!  However, it was quite solid.  This area was full of birds. We scared 2 herons when we came up to this. One of those times when I wish I had my really good camera and telephoto lens.

I want to come here some time really early and just camp out with my camera.

Then it was back into the woods and climbing back up, although this way wasn’t as steep as the way down. We happened to go the right way to avoid that 😀

Nice hike. We did about 2 miles and then biked home from there.

Moving on, today (Thursday) is our 21st anniversary. Last year we were in Ireland and it’s nice to reminisce about that trip.

We don’t usually exchange cards or gifts, but we do go out to dinner. Tonight was Indian food!

This is paneer tikka masala. This is the vegetarian version of chicken tikka masala with paneer cheese. So yummy!  Plus naan bread:

Yum!  And happy anniversary John!