A Walk Through the Past

I went hiking...again, but this time with another person!  Unheard of, I know.  Last time I brought her on my favorite trail on the Palisades Cliffs, the Giant Stairs, she made us turn around so I decided to do an easier trail-the Shore Trail.  We parked at the Ross Dock picnic area and set off on our hike.  I had looked up a few geocaches along the cliffs to see if I could give her her first geocache experience, but we didn't find any that I hadn't found before.  Admittedly, after looking for the first one and not finding it, we kind of gave up on looking for any of the other ones.  The Shore Trail runs from Fort Lee to the Long Path near the Stateline Lookout.  It is, with like two exceptions, flat and simply follows the river.  Along the way, however, you get to see parts of what the Palisades used to be like back in the 30s when people actually dared to swim in the Hudson River.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the history of the Palisades is one of the reasons I love hiking it so much.  We came across a sign explaining the beach we were staring at, Bloomer's Beach, and the bath house that still stands-sans anything, but the stone that it's made of.  We continued on along the river.   We eventually came upon another bath house, which excited the history dork in me.  I was never much of a History student.  Reading about it doesn't do anything for me, but put me in an old building where my mind can trying grasping the concept of just how many people have been in there and what their stories are and I'm in heaven!  My ability of letting my mind run away with itself can work against me as well, like when I see an old man eating alone in the diner and I come up with this sad story about his family being killed and him being the sole survivor.  Ridiculous!

Aside from old buildings, we also saw a good number of dead fish along the trail.  I was perplexed by this because I took this hike on July 16th and there hadn't been any big storms or any other reason for the Hudson River to get high enough to reach the Shore Trail, abandoning fish on land when it went back to low tide.  So, I have no clue why we found five or six dead fish along the way on the trail, but I dedicate this blog to them.  Because I like loop hikes and all, we ended up walking back on River Drive.  My friend, who hadn't been hiking in awhile, quit right at the top of the drive down to the parking area.  She told me to get the car and pick her up...which I did.  While the hike, for me, was pretty unexciting-too flat to even feel like hiking, more like walking the mall...only prettier-it was long.  My friends foot was hurting her after the hike, and still a week after, so bad that she ended up going to the doctor.  Luckily, she'll live.  Got me to thinking that maybe I should open "Elyse's boot camp" in which I kick people's butts into shape just by making them hike with me (as if I'm so in shape and all).