A Fun Fall Adventure

Poor Carter.  This kid just keeps getting dragged on outings with me because Saturday afternoons are prime time to do things, and usually Jacob has basketball.  Craig and I switch off basketball duty, so on my off weekends, I definitely want to get out of the house and do something else.  Fall leaves and good weather only last so long, so this past weekend I was determined to go somewhere fun.  I knew that Letchworth would be jammed, so I had to make a different plan for leaf-peeping.  Lucky for us, we have a local news guy who spends his days driving around and capturing video and photos of awesome things in our area.  He was actually a sports guy for years and Craig knew him well from years in the press box, but a few years back his career took a different route.  I've been following him on Facebook for a while now, and he always has interesting places and stories to share.  He was probably the final nudge that convinced me we had to go to Watkins Glen this year after seeing my parents' pictures years ago, he alerted me to a plane flyover this summer, and he has made me aware of places I never knew existed.  A couple weeks ago, he posted some pictures from Stony Brook State Park, which is about an hour south of Rochester, a bit past Geneseo.  It looked gorgeous!  I had been to Stony Brook once, in college, for my one tent camping experience ever.  It was during senior week before graduation and I only lasted an overnight before hitching a ride back to civilization with someone who was coming back.  It was fine, I guess, but I prefer convenient bathrooms, clean showers, and not smelling like campfire (not that that would bother me now, mind you, since I can't smell--but I do remember a certain gross, filmy feeling anyway).  I think we hiked a little bit on that trip, but the campsites are in a different section of the park so I'm guessing we did different trails then than the main park trails.  So, I decided that would be my target.  I wanted all four of us to go, but when Jacob ended up with a 12pm game and later afternoon training on his schedule, I decided Carter and I were on our own.  

Then, on Saturday morning, that same news guy posted about this veterans' memorial down in Groveland, which was literally right on our route, and I decided that was a must-see as well.  It was going to be a full afternoon!  While Saturday morning was gorgeous, it was starting to get really windy and there were thunderstorms in the forecast for the afternoon.  I was a bit worried that would kibbosh our trip since at the very least falling tree branches would be a concern, but when I looked at the forecast, it appeared the winds were going to be considerably less that far south and the thunderstorms weren't supposed to hit until a couple hours later than at home.  As the winds picked up here (and kicked up my anxiety), I decided that mentally I needed that trip more than ever.  For the record, while we had no damage, the neighbor's canopy was torn to shreds, so I think an afternoon of winds like that might have made me quite crazy.  

Knowing I had to grease the wheels a bit with a less-than-willing participant, Carter and I got Freezes from the gas station when I stopped to fill up, and between those, the sun, and some good tunes, I know I was excited to get started!  The drive down was gorgeous.  The leaves were pretty and any route that leads toward Geneseo usually makes me happy.  Of course, just as we were getting to our first stop, Carter had to pee.  I should have turned toward the gas station down the road first, but figured we'd be quick and could go there before getting back on our route.  Well, turns out Carter was extremely cranky and impatient throughout our first stop, but I tried to make the most of it!

This was a spinning piece of art that was blowing like crazy in the wind.  It features all of the armed forces' shields.

 

This was the initial view as we got out of the car--the armed forces' flags (plus a few others) stood out, and while it's a bit hard to see here, it's a giant flag painted on the ground and dozens of metal poppies on the red stripes.

It was actually pretty breathtaking.  They bobbed and spun in the wind, which made it even cooler.

It was huge, as you can see from this picture with Carter for scale!

Each of the flowers was made at a local BOCES, both by students and by veterans who were assisted by students.  They were all unique and included a tag for the person they were honoring.

Looks like a bike chain

A flower within a flower

A plane!

Dragonfly made with spoons!

It was really a sight to see, and I can only imagine how moving it must be for those with military connections, just because it's so large and immersive and truly beautiful.

Because Carter needed his bathroom break and was quite impatient about it, our stop was probably only about 10 minutes or less.  The gas station down the road was a lifesaver, especially out in the middle of nowhere, and then it was on to our main destination--Stony Brook State Park!  I didn't know this until that night, but the park hit capacity about a half hour after we got there.  Letchworth hit around noon, so we definitely got lucky!

Upon arrival, Carter started running right away--because that is what he does--but in the process he found this beautiful leaf!

He proceeded to collect a rock and a bunch of other fun leaves along the way, too.  The first path to get closer to the trails was through this wooded picnic area.  Carter took off running despite numerous hazards and obstacles on the path--lots of pine needles, sticks, and pinecones!

At the end of that path was a playground, and a fun one at that!  Carter loved it!

Doing this on bars and flipping over completely is his favorite thing!

These were a bit wiggly and wobbly, but he went from end to end!

This tree was so gorgeous, and the handsome guy in the front isn't too bad either!

This spun around and around!

I wasn't a great counterbalance for these sorts of things (same for the one two pictures up) but we made the best of it!

He was just climbing hand over hand...such a little monkey!

After the playground stop, we visited the bathroom before embarking on our hike.  Carter tripped on a rock on the way in, and we had to do a little cleanup and repair before heading back out.  Thankfully mama had band-aids!  Back outside, we had to do a little exploring pre-trail because I knew the gorge trail was one way due to COVID limitations, but I wasn't sure which trail started where.  We walked into this gorgeous looking spot to check things out.  Turns out this was the end of the Gorge Trail, so we came through here again later, but it was pretty enough to see twice!

These walls were interesting and made me wonder if there was a bridge there at one point.  Where it would have gone, I have no idea, but what a pretty spot!

We decided to do the West Rim Trail to head out, mostly since it was shorter.  I was intrigued by this crazy steep ascent, but it turned out to be positively exhausting!  So many stairs!

Even worse, the stairs were a bit odd and uneven.  It was like a concrete edge to the step that was supposed to have earth behind it to build the back half of the step, but in many areas the dirt had washed out between, so there were half steps with hollows beyond them.  It was hard even for me to navigate at times.  Then the stairs disappeared completely, and the trail continued to be steep and full of roots!

 
It was warm, and we were definitely huffing and puffing by the time we got to the top.  It was a solid 7-10 minute ascent.  On the bright side, when we got to the top, this is the view that was waiting for us!

 
The path plateaued a bit from there, and every few minutes you could hear waterfalls down below.  I was able to catch this one through the trees.

 
Most of the rim trail looked like this on the non-gorge side.  It was really pretty and peaceful.  I'm not sure if the wind (which was considerably less here as it was) ended by this point, but it was quiet and calm in here!

 
This view out over the gorge was amazing.  If you look closely, there is gorgeous reddish-orange color way out in the distance.

After a lot of walking across the top of the gorge, the trail started going down.  This was as treacherous as going up because the stairs had similar issues, plus there were leaves and some spots were damp.  I was so nervous about Carter going down them, or one of us dragging or knocking the other down if we held hands!  As we got to the end of the trail and started on the Gorge Trail, we started to see all of these concrete supports.  They were part of a railroad bridge that spanned the gorge from the later 1800s to the mid-1900s.

The Gorge Trail was right next to the water, with little to no handrail protection in most areas.  It was a bit damp down there so you definitely needed to watch your step.  There were lots of little waterfalls throughout the stream, much like Watkins Glen but a bit less flashy.

There were a couple stunning views from above the bigger waterfalls.  The foliage was so pretty!

Right as we were hitting the end of the Rim Trail, I noticed my phone was dying.  I just recently switched to Craig's old iPhone, and I'm not used to the slightly shorter battery life compared to my Android.  I had already used it that day for pictures and music in the car, and I didn't want to get caught in the boonies without a phone, particularly because I needed it to order dinner on the way home!  I panicked a bit and started to use my real camera for most areas except the most stunning views, and I must say, the color quality on fall foliage photos is superior on the iPhone because it fixes the exposure on bright sky vs. the colors.  It's pretty amazing, actually.  I still need my old camera for zoom views, but I was shocked at the difference!

Anyway, the waterfalls that we'd heard from up above were so pretty!

Had to catch a shot with my favorite little buddy at this one!

At the top of another one here...note the edge of the waterfall in the lower right.

The front view was stunning.  I have this as my phone lock wallpaper currently and can't stop looking at it!

You can see Carter's leaf collection in his hands here.

There were a couple cute bridges in the park, too.  This was one of them. 

Looking back at some of the stream and foliage.  Notice the not-blue sky here...this was clearly a camera photo.  But the sun peeking through the trees was sort of cool.

Another camera photo because I needed to zoom in to capture this part of a waterfall that Carter and I agreed this looked like a big loaf of bread.

Another bridge.  So peaceful and pretty.  This one definitely reminded me of Watkins Glen.

I took this picture (with my actual camera) because I was in love with the colors on these leaves!

This one was near the end of the trail and I loved how all the leaves had settled along the walls.

At the end of the trail, we ventured over to the entrance of the East Rim Trail, which I'd someday like to go back and hike.  This pretty bridge was at the start.  

The view from it was equally lovely.

We stopped back at the playground for one more round, and I had to use my camera to zoom in on the leaves in the gorgeous orange tree in the picture above with Carter. 

The clouds were starting to roll in as we got in the car.  My plan was to head back toward Geneseo and stop at Walmart to get an extra charging cord (which I needed anyway), just to make sure my phone didn't die early.  I took the opportunity to load up on gluten-free stuff for Jacob, too.  We called in our dinner order from the parking lot, and took the long way through Geneseo to get to Avon for our goodies.  More gorgeous views and foliage, plus we passed by a front yard, outdoor COVID wedding out in the country!  We grabbed dinner, donuts, and cookies at Livingston County Pizza, and finally headed home, super starving and tired but happy.  It was nice to reunite with the big boys and have our dinner together.  What a day it had been!

I have to share that Carter and I ended up at another playground the next day as part of a school assignment about our community, and I captured an awesome video of Carter on the monkey bars.  He is the master!  He did them about a dozen times!  I was a monkey bar fan as a kid, although I did tell him my story about falling (first grade, maybe?) and getting the wind knocked out of me, which was one of the scariest moments of my life because I couldn't catch my breath for a bit and I'd never had that feeling before.  I watched him with a little fear since his classmate broke his wrist on the monkey bars at school that week--the same playground equipment that served up broken bones to two or three of Jacob's 2nd grade classmates!  Yeah, they probably need to look at that!

The picture we took for his project

Overall, it was a really outstanding weekend.  Also, I'm not sure if it's because I finally downloaded Roblox for him, or if all that time together doing fun stuff actually made an impact, but Carter has been super huggy and affectionate since.  I'd like to think he remembered how much fun we can have together, but who knows?  After all that fun, he's had a bit of a cold this week, to the point we were worried we might have to get him tested for COVID because he sneezed and sniffled so much on Tuesday night and all day yesterday.  He never had a fever and his energy level was fine, so we weren't too worried because it seemed like ae typical cold, but with a family party this weekend, it definitely gave us pause.  But miraculously (and maybe not coincidentally) when I got home from bible study last night after we prayed for him there, he was so much better!  I was sure he'd have to learn from home tomorrow, and even now I'm still debating whether he should go, but he's barely sneezing or sniffling at all!  Even still, illness just takes on a whole new meaning these days.  

Hopefully the rest of us avoid it, because Binkley Oktoberfest weekend is upon us, and Craig has been planning his participation for weeks!