Dont look down.......

Dont Look Down....

If you do, you will either crap your pants from the height or pee them from laughing. First off, I will include a disclaimer to all those in reference to "yuppies", "city folk" or just plain ole stupid people. This disclaimer is about those that I "met" along the trail. I will also include some back story about myself. Im a country girl. Born and raised in this area that Im posting about. The smell of cow chucks dont bother me. The fact that houses are far and few are a blessing. And also that the "locals" find it amusing when the city folk come around. We have to have entertainment somehow. Not like there is anything else to tickle our funny bones. But I will also state that I currently live in the city. Its not by choice. Trust me, I hate this place. And that damn smelly tree.

So here is where the day begins. I should include some pictures and I just may. Well that is, if I dont get too lazy right now. Im really tired. Ok. I get my sorry ass out of bed about 9am. Yeah it was a struggle. I ate some pancakes because I knew that if I didnt eat something now, it was going to be a long time before I did. Packed a picnic lunch and got ready to leave. I made sure that we all wore pants because of where we were going to go. Lots of hiking means scraped knees and gawd knows what else. Im smart.

We loaded up the truck and headed out of this gawd forsaken city that I hate so much. We are headed to the mountains near my home town. My favorite place to be in up in the mountains. I will also include to you the term redneck. Yes I am one and Im damn proud of it. Im not inbred though. Sorry if that confuses anyone. This is New York. Oh wait. There are inbreds here. Oh well, Im not one of them. And I have all my teeth.

So we hit the back country roads. These roads are well known to us. Hell, we have lived on these roads. But it makes me sad to see the precious land go to hell with the yuppies moving in. Extreme houses and fancy schmancy cars. Wait til it snows, bub. You wont be driving that car for much longer. One of the locals will be pulling your ass out of a ditch. And ya know what? You will have to pay them to do it. But if you are one of us, you will share a beer later on at the local tavern. One of the many perks.

So anywho, we are driving along and Cami is in the back seat listening to her headphones and singing at the top of her lungs. This is amusing because for most of the songs, she doesnt know all the words. So the la la la and the humming gets pretty funny. Ask Christy, shes heard it. Now everything is going smooth when suddenly a cardnial comes flyng out of nowhere and cuts in front of us. You cant miss this because its bright red. Ok Ok..... Im awake now. But it gets even better. Down the road about a mile or so, something else decides it wants to do this as well. But a small bird wouldnt be a problem to the grill of a Dodge Ram. But when flew out next would have ripped the front end up pretty bad. It was a turkey. Yes, turkeys can fly. They have wings. They are a bird. Most people usually see them with a side of mashed potatoes. So this one decides to make an appearance and the breaks are slammed to the floor to avoid being asphault and feathers. Well it did leave a few feathers. Quite a few to be exact. We planned on picking some up but there was some jackass in a BMW behind us. So the bird lands and takes off into the woods. And to think that Mr. Beemer honked his horn at us. Ya know what? We should have let your sorry convertable ass hit it. Then there would have been some real entertainment.

So onward we travel. Up and up the mountain we go. We are headed to John Boyd Thatcher State Park. Now I mean that this is truely a state run park. You have to pay $5 to park in the parking lots. Well all of them except the lookout lot. Thats only because it is seperated from the main picnic area and the Indian Ladder Trail. The back story to this is that the trail runs along what we call and escarpment. And escarpment is an area of a mountain where glaciers or high waters erodes the area and huge parts of the rocks break off and slide down to the valley below. Thus leaving a flat wall on the face of the mountain. Well this particular escarpment runs along a section of the Helderberg Mountains. It runs for miles. It a very beautiful sight to see.

This is what the escarpment looks like from the ground.

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In that last one, remember the brown house that you see. You will see it later.

There is a trail that runs along that rock wall. Right up aganst it in the tree line below it. In some parts, there is no railing or ropes to protect you from falling to your death over 100 feet below. Im sure the trees will break your fall. And break your neck while you are at it. But thats besides the point. Thats where alot of my amusement came from while hiking the trail. There were some pretty crazy idiots out there that just couldnt get it through their heads that you have to keep your children close at all times and that wild flowers on the side of the cliffs, and the drop off below, are not meant to be picked. Oh wait, these must be the city folk, yuppies and the generally stupid people that I was refering to earlier. Yep. Its them alright. In these pictures, you will see the trail and the rock walls. In some of them you will notice that you see sunlight at the top. Thats because I was looking straight up while taking the pictures. No way in hell is there a way to stand on the trail and get a wide angled shot from where Im standing. I like my life, thank you.

So we start our trip on the trail by pulling into one of the many parking lots. There is a little booth at the gate where there is someone lounging in a lawn chair catching the sun. Usually these are the locals that are hired for such position. And usually they are hung over. This one sure was and I was expecting to see a glimps of a 6-pack somewhere in the booth. Well whaddya know, There was one. But this guy was smart. It was Pepsi. Im sure the Park Rangers were pleased. Yes there are park rangers that patrol the area for idiots that they have to rescue. So we pay the guy and get our stamped ticket so that he can go back to sleep.

We park the truck and all get out. We are at the lot where one end of the trail is. Its doesnt matter which end you start at. Its a hell of a climb down either way. So I will post a series of shots on the way down and some of the cave openings and rock walls. Over all, I took 106 pictures but I wont be posting all of them.

Here we begin.

Looking back up at the steps leading off the lawn into the entrance to the trail.
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This is where the steps to go down begin. No shes not pissed. The sun was in her eyes so she looked away.
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Now we start the way down.
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Even though this picture was taken after we came back up, I will show it to you now so that you know what we were walking on.
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You can see the trail and how close it is to the rock wall. You will also notice that there is no railing or ropes at that point. You will see that alot. But there are areas that are protected. Only because there is nothing under you to walk on so they built a platform around the rocks that jutt out. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

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This next picture shows where the trail leads down to a cavern behind a waterfall. You can see where they are standing that the railing ends there. http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y261/gammak/IndianLadderTrail057.jpg

This is a pretty stupid idea because of this idiots that come down there thinking that they can do as they please and wander where they please. These are the ones that will receive a Darwin Award in the future. You will see by the phots as I go along just how dangerous and stupid this is. But the waterfalls is really pretty. And the view from this point is amazing. Some of these shots are of the falls, behind the falls, inside the cavern behind the falls, and the idiots playing in the water.

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You can clearly see in these pictures, the trail we all came down on. Its along the tree line at the base of the wall. You can also see people playing in the water.
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Moving further on down the trail, we get to see alot of the vegetation that grows in the shade. And the vivid colors of the greens are amazing.
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Further on, we see another area where there is an overhang. This time there are ropes to keep you from taking the leap. At this point, we have passed a bunch of people that just dont understand what it means to avoid the edge when passing people on the trail. At least the locals we passed were smart enough to do that. And to make it clear that we knew these were locals, they were carrying beer.
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Now this next part will be amusing to those that know the meaning of the story that Im about to tell. We came across an area where there is an underwater stream that flows out from under the rock wall, under a bridge that we have to cross and then down a falls over the side of the cliff. This is where we divide all the terms stated in the beginning of the post. I will add that there are quite a few people gathered at this point. One of which was a park ranger. I know that he is a local for sure. He clearly understood everything being said. The pictures of the stream as it came out from the wall didnt come out because of the assh..I mean idiots that kept bumping into me on the bridge.

I will show you the picture first and then tell the rest of the story.
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While we were leaning over the edge of the railing, we can see down the falls quite clearly. All the rocks and stuff that have gathered there are visible as well. There was one lady that went down into the stream area to (are you ready for this) feel the moss on the rocks. The ranger was quite amused by this. Its obvious that we are in yuppy territory here now. She comes up out from the rocks and back up on the bridge where an oriental man immediatly starts to dust her off. Mind you that there is no dust on her. But she freaking out about it. And she was demanding that he dust off any bugs that "may have" landed on her. Excuse me while I put my finger down my throat and hurl.

Well there was a couple of ladies also leaning on the railing. Definately not of the local kind. We could tell this because of the way they were dressed. Hooded wind breakers and shorts with a polo shirt. Ok so that doesnt mean anything but the sandals with little heels most certainly does. And these werent of the young kind either. These ladies were most likely in their 50s. So yeah. Definately not locals. The ranger was amused by this as well. Oh, did I mention to you that Cami was trying to pick up little pretty stones all along the way? She claims to have a collection of them. Yes, as a matter of fact, she does. I make her empty her pockets out because she probably now weighs about 40lbs more than when she started.

So as we are all leaning over the railing, Bill makes the comment that you can all see an "ancient redneck fossil" on the rocks below. You should have seen about 20 people all rush over to get a good look at at and some even had cameras out. I took that picture just to show you what they were all rushing to see. The ranger busts out laughing. Yep, hes a local. So here they all are with their cameras ready asking "Where? Where?". Hahahahaha... So we tell them, "right there. Cant you see the beer bottle?" This got alot of angry stares. Like I care. Bah. Im laughing so hard that this is where I first discovered that I have to pee. The ranger is near to bursting. Hes cracking up.

Well the two ladies next to us then had this bright light bulb appear above their manicured heads when they stated that there was also a water bottle on the rocks as well. Thats when we said "thats an ancient yuppy fossil" and we walked on off the bridge. The ranger nearly fell over. I guess the ladies werent too amused because they were also carrying waterbottles. Now I wish I had gotten a picture of the looks on their faces. It was priceless.

So we move onward up the trail. The views are incredible. I have been taking some shots of the views along the way but Im not going to post them here. I will put up some of the views from the top shortly though. This post is long as hell. My fingers are killing me but I will keep on typing. This was a great day and I want to share it with everyone.

We come across another cavern area with yet another cave opening. There were several along the trail but they were all really up high on the rocks. I have shots of them but they all look the same. But I will show you the ones here.
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There is a little story here as well. In this area, we decided to take a rest. There are a couple of cave openings, as you can see. And there were a couple of large flat rocks to sit on and admire the view. It was at this point that I discovered that my camera card was full. So I sat down and deleted some of the pictures that I had on there from school that I havent deleted yet. In the mean time, several others show up. Including some smaller kids. Oh, I forgot to mention that back at the over hangs, you can see that there was some water that was coming out from the wall. These came out in the forms of small streams. Go back in the pictures and you will see what Im talking about. There were some people, kinds and adults, that wouldnt cross them because of fear of getting their shoes wet. *rolls eyes* And Cami made the remarks about them being sissys.

Anywho, that same group shows up again and the kids are running all over the place. It was like a friggin echoing zoo in there. Cami yelled out a few times that they need to grow up. The parents werent too pleased about this and I thought, what the heck, we wont ever see them again after today. But here is yet another example about who are the locals and who are not. These people clearly were not. So we decided to let them go on ahead of us and we rested a little longer. I was really not in the mood to have to deal with these kids running around on the trails. Plus I really didnt want to be a witness to them falling off the side.

So we come to the end of the trail. http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y261/gammak/IndianLadderTrail008.jpg

We had to climb up yet another set of those metal steps. I didnt take a picture of this because, I will admit to this, my lungs have pretty much given out on me. Remember that I am allergic to tree pollen and at this time of the year, I was coughing the whole way on this trail. Sad, I know. My sinuses are swollen but I didnt complain. I really enjoyed this trip. I have lived in this area all my life and have never taken this hike before. I have partied up on the top part in the park itself many times but thought twice about being drunk on the trails and just never went.

So we went up the steps and thats one of the landings that we ended up on. See picture above. Also this was on the wall.
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The date is clearly on the bottom of when it was put there. Really cool huh? Cami swears that there was a butterfly on the bottom of it and that I didnt get it in the shot. Ummm Cam, that wasnt a butterfly.

But here is a funny shot of her asking.... "do I really have to go up those steps?"
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Interesting story on here. I wont get into that one because of the whole history about the Torys in the area. Maybe sometime I will just look up links and post them back here for you to read about them.

But the hike isnt over yet. We still have to walk all the way back to the truck. Only this time its above the trail below. We are back in the sunlight and the wind is really nice. Made for a cool sunny day. And a hell of a long walk back. There are alot of lookout points along this trail. The city of Albany can be seen in the distance. There is one shot where I zoomed in on it. Also there is a shot of the top of the waterfall. Remember that brown house from the beginning of the post? Look down in the valley and you will see it. The large area of white buildings is an industrial park. Just to clear that up. The tall buildings are the city of Albany. The mountains in the distance are the Adirondack Mountains.

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The Helderberg Mountains are not an overly high mountain range. But they are definatly a beauty. They are nestled in between the Adirondacks and the Catskills.

Now here is another part of the hike that amused me. You can see in one of the pictures that there is a sign in the water about not throwing things over the edge. That is the top of the waterfall. While on this little bridge, a family came up and also leaned on the railing. The conversation cracked me up. Also a good example of who arent the locals.

Mom: What a great view.
Son: You can see the houses that we passed while coming up here.
Mom: Yes you can. Isnt it great?
Son: But most of them are hidden in the trees.
Mom: Thats what makes this so great. You cant see them from here because there are so many trees.
Son: Thats not right. The trees are blocking my view of te ground.
He then stomps off. Clearly pissed.
Mom: But breathe in the air. Its wonderful.

I nearly died at this point. So onward me walked towards the truck that was still about a mile away. Along the paths there are open lawns for games and sun as well as picnic tables and those little old rusted cookers on a pole. You know the kind that Im talking about. They have been there for longer than I have lived. Now mind you that you have to bring a small rack and some foil if you want to use them. The racks that came with them are long gone. Oh and there are some fire pits as well. But the thing that caught my attention was a family that was set up with a very large picnic at one of the tables. There were a couple of cooler and the father (I presume) was standing there in front of one of the cookers with a plate loaded with burgers and hotdogs. I nearly fell forward and skinned my knees when I heard him say "How do you work this thing?" And to make it even more amusing, there wasnt a bag of charcoal in sight.

This also goes along with the family parked on the side of the road because they were too cheap to pay the $5 to park a very expensive truck. But the funny part was that they were dragging, yes dragging, a very large expensive gas grill down a slight embankment to a picnic area. I was waiting for it to tip over.

Well that was the day for Saturday. I hope you enjoyed my story and pictures. Im sure that if you are one of my readers, you have clearly understood the meanings of everything I have posted. I will state my disclaimer once again that I mean no harm against yuppies and city folk. But you can see why they really shouldnt be doing things like this without some research first. Its good that they do get out and experience this. But please, next time take the time to fit yourself into your surroundings better. This is how you can seriously harm yourself and your families. Plus, the locals will be entertained at your expense.