Sleepy Hollow Catskills Hike - Part 5

I was on my way back down the mountain and coming near to the end of a hike on the Sleepy Hollow trail with my four dogs - Seamus, Fergus, Daphne and Clover. This was little Clover's first hike and a learning experience both for her and for me. We'd seen out over the beautiful Hudson River Valley and were now hiking downhill toward the trail head:

It was a very hot day, but we'd mostly kept cool in the shady Catskill woods:

Clover, a Papillon puppy, had learned how to walk on a leash and come when she was called. She'd seen her first forest, her first mountain stream, her first horses. Clover had had a good time and advanced in both her training and socialization:

Seamus, my beloved giant, had kept calm and was enjoying being out in nature:

It occurred to me to take a video of what it's like just hiking along the trail with the dogs so I gave it a try. Fergus wanted to stay right there at my feet, so he doesn't appear. But perhaps you'll get a feel for the cool, quiet, shady woods and hiking with the dogs, their excess energy by this time mostly drained:



We arrived back at the trail head without incident, climbed into the car and headed for home. But I just had to shoot a few photos of the scenery from the roadside. This golf course had great views of the adjacent Catskills:

And like so many things in the area, it was named after Rip Van Winkle:

This herd of what appeared to be dairy cattle was slowly traveling, single file, back to their barn at the base of the mountains:

The cattle appeared to be headed to these barns. I never found out how they would get across the road. This farm raises and sells vegetables in a big way. And what a view they have! Those are the mountains in which we'd just hiked. I can still feel their draw even as I look at the picture:

But it was time to get home and resume life as normal. I took one last look at the Catskill Mountains and turned my car towards Albany:

Sleepy Hollow Catskills Hike - Part 4

The dogs and I had arrived at a flat grassy area high on a Catskill mountain with a scenic overlook. While I liked gazing out over the Hudson River Valley far below, the big attraction for the dogs, especially the puppies, was the flat grassy area. Such a wonderful place to explore and sniff!:

Enough sun reached this small plateau that there were wildflowers in bloom all over it. But I was particularly taken with these Smooth False Foxglove, Gerardia flava, a member of the Snapdragon family. As you can see, for Clover and Daphne it was merely another play area:

I'd never seen this wildflower before, but had recently read about it on one of the Adirondack nature blogs I follow:

Were Clover and Daphne baying at the skies? Treeing a raccoon? I think they were probably chasing butterflies, one of their favorite hobbies. Watching two Papillon puppies chasing butterflies in a sunny mountaintop meadow is pretty much like heaven:

This being a level spot, even Seamus become livelier. That's Fergus behind him exploring:

Clover and Daphne were not in any way tired out by the hike up the mountain. They had plenty of excess energy and wanted to play:




But the time soon came to begin the downward trek. We could have continued higher up the mountain, but I was tired and out of time. Besides, we had a long hike still ahead of us before we reached our parked car So we began to head back down the trail:

While the grade was continuous, it was not overly steep. So the trip downhill was easier and more pleasant. The puppies frolicked and Seamus kept a watchful eye on them:

And we never met another person on the trail. It's an odd but wonderful thing to have an entire mountain to oneself:

We passed by the old foundation of the Rip Van Winkle Inn and I noticed a third stone structure which I hadn't seen on the way up.

I found this old photo of the Rip Van Winkle House on the internet. I wish I'd seen it earlier, as it does explain where the old inn had been built in relation to the bridge - right next to it. The inn apparently spanned the creek. It was in decline by the late 1800s and a photo of it in 1902 shows it abandoned and falling down. But in its day it welcomed travelers to the Catskill Mountains:

A beautiful day, happy dogs, playful puppies and exquisite scenery. We continued down the trail toward the trail head: