Yet another quest for fall colors…
I checked online maps and forums and asked the natives here where might be the best place to find the “amazing fall colors of a New England fall”. Once again, I didn’t find much. I swear those pictures on the covers of “New England Tourist Guide” books are all photoshopped.
Anyway, Dan was away for the day so I hopped on the KLR and figured I’d have a good time looking regardless. I should have put a layer on under my coat and I wish I knew where my Turtle Fur went – I miss that! But it only rained a little bit – and lightly at that – and the wind was fun to watch as it played with the falling leaves.
There’s not much of a story, so here’s a bunch of pictures for your enjoyment:
<a href="[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=embed&saddr=Lakeside+Ave&daddr=40.9311532,-74.9610866+to:41.06032,-74.75386+to:41.0955,-74.79856+to:41.15386,-74.77214+to:41.464037,-74.819544+to:41.571136,-74.6732561+to:41.49792,-74.72598+to:41.8459,-74.52022+to:41.92666,-74.38423+to:41.84039,-74.19369+to:41.64611,-74.21198+to:41.54778,-74.19041+to:41.3768768,-74.1769936+to:Bloomfield+Ave%2FRte+506&geocode=FbwJbwId2RuT-w%3BFVGPcAIdQi-I-ykp92m5-H_DiTHQXjhC4r20hg%3BFeCHcgIdvFiL-ynpYtBt32_DiTE945j-p6eGZw%3BFUwRcwIdIKqK-ylLMnOBbWXDiTGeWpIj61YDqg%3BFUT1cwIdVBGL-ynTldcru2jDiTHtQBxNEJpISg%3BFeWweAIdKFiK-ym_AABFh1HDiTE5p41g60nQKw%3BFUBTegIdmJOM-yk92KpFbrTciTEF4qgh6kwx2g%3BFUA1eQIdpMWL-ykHGtCq5UzDiTFbXdhRKBIe4g%3BFYyEfgIdZOmO-ynlv4cDS-rciTEW3ZKvTc6s6A%3BFQTAfwIdmvyQ-yn5JkC8ZuXciTFLYtzIoscREA%3BFQZvfgId5uST-ymtaKm6Ch7diTHNmlRrC-w0hA%3BFR54ewIddJ2T-ykRka4kgifdiTEtR4ncZkUJMQ%3BFQT4eQIdtvGT-ykv5TfAlSndiTE2MlnTa8XhcQ%3BFWxcdwIdHyaU-ymx0RZV0dXCiTH69hZFgPDp0Q%3BFSoKbwIdPByT-w&aq=0&sll=40.832255,-74.238739&sspn=0.046239,0.082397&vpsrc=0&hl=en&mra=dme&mrsp=0&sz=13&via=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=41.508577,-74.766769&spn=0.15426,0.205994&output=embed&w=425&h=350]” target=”_blank”>
First, a rough map of where I went. Per usual, I have no idea which tiny little side roads I was on half the time. Some of them had names, some had numbers, and it seems that Googlemaps always has the opposite of what I know.
It took me a while before I dragged out the camera and the first shot was to show the “one lane bridge” I found in a small town. For some reason, I don’t think they intended that “one lane” to be for my motorcycle.
Second shot: I was finally going to ride through Stokes State Park, after hearing about ADVers going through it all of the time. Denied.
Backroad in NJ
Sulky practice
Across the road they had donkey, horses, sheep, goats and pigs all in the same field.
Just north of Port Jervis at an observation point that wasn’t terribly pretty
Here’s the view
Not much color but lots of traffic on Hawks Nest
Cool buildings near Monitcello, NY
More buildings
Yay! I found a dirt road! Leaf and pine needle covered, but solid underneath
Dead end (sportsmans club road, apparently). Do I back-track or take the “Seasonally maintained” road?
Solid ground under the leaves
Saw a porcupine in a clearing so I went back to check him out
He took refuge in a tree
Not much color
But the underbrush was nice!
I think the red clashes…
Gravesite of the first pioneer of Forestburg, NY (unmarked but old-looking stones)
Found these buildings on a remote corner. The water flows under the building on the left.
The stream
The stream running under the barn
As you can see, it wasn’t a stellar day, weather-wise or color-wise
But somehow I manage to enjoy myself Cool
I stopped in Monticello for lunch at a small diner. Somehow how the waitress misheard my request for “white” bread and brought me “rye”. I don’t much care for rye and she didn’t quite catch on when I asked her if it was white bread holding my grilled ham and cheese together. Oh well… the other waitress gave me some very good suggestions on roads to take north of there.
This next selection of photos is from the Catskills (NY). As you may or may not know, they got hit particularly hard by Hurricane Irene with a lot of flooding and slides. It has been well over a month but the effects of the storm were still quite visible. I went up through Peekamoose and around the “road closed” signs. I wasn’t the only one, but traffic was very thin (I think I saw three other vehicles through that stretch)
Not all of the road was in tatters
The waitress had mentioned that there were a lot of waterfalls along here and she wasn’t kidding! There were many that were not easy to photograph and a surprising number that were. Here are a few:
Had to have a bit of road between the falls, doncha know? Bigok
Note the hikers. It was a big fall!
Weird. The above-pictured falls was marked by this, um, “tree”
The reason the road was still marked as “closed”
Near the far end of this road I saw a few houses. This one really caught my eye for its unique construction, the protective wall (the river flows just in front of it) and after a minute or two, I noticed that there is a waterfall coming down the hillside behind it.
Intriguing construction
Lake upstream from the house above
The next house used to have a small man-made fall that then went under a bridge to their house. The hurricane took care of that.
She had parked on the road, even though two planks of wood had been placed to span the missing section of bridge. I can’t say that I blame her.
Check out the footer for that far support Crazy
Ok, leaving the cool, long Peekamoose canyon and entering…whatever came next!
Crossing over Minnewashka State Park
Fading light and scenery…
Ooops, I forgot the stats. Let’s see, I was gone for about 9 hours and covered just over 300 miles. It’s been a while since I’ve done that; my butt hurts.