Bennington, VT

This past Sunday, we traveled to Bennington, VT to tour the 5 covered bridges...we only made it to 3 of them but overall, it was a very nice day.  It was VERY COLD -- about 4 degrees with the wind chill which made taking photos difficult.  Bennington is also home to VT's tallest structure -- the 306 foot "obelisk" aka The Bennington Battle Monument, dedicated to the famous Battle of Bennington that took place during the Revolutionary war in 1777.

 Silk Road Bridge

 

 Henry Bridge

 

Remnants of MooseFest

Painted Rock showing VT in summer

Ashuelot River

HUDSON RIVER EAGLEFEST 2013

This past weekend, my sister and I went to the EagleFest in Westchester County.  I did not know that there are over 150 bald eagles which spend the winter along the Hudson Valley waterways.  This was a great way to view our national bird in its natural habitat.   There were about 20 sites along the Hudson that offered viewing areas.  At each "station", there were several guides there to help you locate the eagles.  We visited 18 of the 20 stations and saw about a dozen eagles. Here are a few shots of the day.

 

Lake Ontario, Oswego NY

Last weekend I was up in the Oswego area, in and around the area of SUNY Oswego in North Central NY.  It was a very cold day, and a long drive; but we stopped for a few minutes to take some photos of Lake Ontario. We were fortunate to be there as the sun was just beginning to set.

Former Girl Scout Camp Sacajawea

A few weekends ago, my sister, brother-in-law and I went hiking on trails within the Pawling Nature Reserve.  We took the Yellow trail on Duell Hollow Road.  Back in the 70's, my sister and I were Girl Scouts and we used to go to Camp Sacajawea almost every weekend during the summer.  Unfortunately, the camp closed due to its close proximity to the HarlemValley PsychiatricCenter. The camp property is privately owned now but we stepped off the trail a bit to go back in time to see the camp cabins we used to stay in as kids.  The four cabins were still standing - barely - along with the outdoor dining room, though this looked like it may have gotten a recent face lift.  On the walls of the cabins, you can still see many of the girl scouts names and dates carved into the walls - Colleen left her mark in 1971...

FOGGY DAY

Today, we went down to the Hudson River to take some fog pictures -- since those are the only ones we could take.  Weather forecast this weekend was for high 40s, low 50s with partly sunny, party cloudy -- they didn't get ANY of it right as it was cold and foggy both days.  So, we made the best of it and tried using the fog to our advantage in pictures.  It was so thick that we could barely see the Mid-Hudson Bridge or the Walkway; they only appeared as silhouettes occasionally and then disappeared back into the clouds.  Here are some pictures from the day.

CONNECTICUT PHOTOS:

This past weekend, we went with a few members of the photo club to CT to drop off photos for the next Photo Exhibit -- the club is having an exhibit at Noble Horizons in Salisbury CT this month.  Afterwards, a few of us took advantage of the nice weather and went out to take photos.  We just drove around and stopped wherever it looked interesting.  These are a few shots of the day.

Appalachaian Trail boardwalk crossing at the Great Swamp

The Appalachian Trail (AT) boardwalk crossing at the Great Swamp in Pawling, NY was completed in July 2012.  My sister and I went on a small hike today - New Year's Day 2013 - on this newly constructed walkway.  This 1,600-foot, oak-decked boardwalk and 34-ft bridge over the Swamp River is the culmination of two and a half years of work.  The storms over the past decade — along with a beaver dam – had created many problems crossing the Great Swamp so the walkway was constructed by over 75 volunteers to keep the trail open and easily accessible.  It is an easy walk and offers great views of the cat tails, mountains and swamp river.