Ramble on
And now’s the time, the time is now
Ramble On; Jimmy Page/Robert Plant
There’s a reason I feel anxious. The 26th annual Hudson River Valley Ramble began Sept. 1, and I’ve yet to go on any of their outings.
The Ramble is a month-long event held every September in Upstate New York that celebrates the Maurice D. Hinchey Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area’s historic sites and vast trail systems. Guided outings include historic site tours, hikes, bikes, and paddles drawing thousands of visitors to the region. This National Heritage Area is one of 62 found in 36 states. Each National Heritage Area tells a unique story and supports conservation, recreation, education and preservation activities.
Other regions hold similar events. The Ozark Heritage Festival (Ark./Mo.) runs September harvest and heritage celebrations featuring historic building tours, traditional craft demos, and hikes. The Essex National Heritage Area (Mass.) hosts guided mushroom walks, coastal island explorations, and historic site tours. (Its guided mushroom walk with a mycologist at a place called Great Misery Island has me considering doing the four-hour drive. It’s totally worth it, right?)
Although already a week in, the Hudson River Valley Ramble has some yummy outings still to come. To keep the amount of driving down, I’ll initially limit myself to those held in the lower Hudson Valley. (There’s a middle and upper Hudson Valley, too.) Here’s a few of the selections in the lower Hudson Valley:
A birdwatching outing with Saw Mill River Audubon, an amazing group I’ve birded with before. This two-hour outing is held at the 156-acre Brinton Brook Audubon Sanctuary overlooking the Hudson River in Croton-on-Hudson. There’s an optional 1.5-hour extension to the highest point in Croton on the Village’s Highland Trail.
Free sails aboard Whimbrel, the Croton Yacht Club’s sloop-rigged Catboat.
A two-hour, 2-mile rare tour of the historic 67 landscaped acres of Lyndhurst Mansion, a Gothic Revival mansion in Tarrytown, N.Y. We’ll stroll past specimen trees, walk through the Lord & Burnham greenhouse frame, rose and fern gardens, and gain exclusive access to the ruined swimming pool building. Walks will venture along restored pathways to historic rockeries with spectacular views of the Hudson River, and the new pollinator garden designed by Hudson Valley landscape artist Paula Hayes. The tour ends inside the 1894 bowling pavilion with an exhibit dedicated to two women philanthropists.
A guided walk to the final resting place of Washington Irving, author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. We’ll hear why the book has never been out of print for more than 200 years. We’ll also discover what the Receiving Vault used to receive, see the Revolutionary War monument, and admire the cemetery’s art and architecture.
There’s so much more, including hikes to Mt. Holly Preserve, and the Sylvan Glen Quarry, as well as kayaking 2.7 miles across the Hudson River, and a sunset hike at Rockwood Hall in Rockefeller State Park Preserve.
Time to ramble on.
When Something’s So Corny, It Rocks
I attended the Outdoor Writers Association of America’s annual conference, in Madison, Wis., last month. While I intend to devote a newsletter to that later, I wanted to mention an outing I wasn’t expecting.
On our drive to a hike at Pheasant Branch Conservancy, we got caught in a downpour. Our amazing host (Middleton, Wis.) decided to wait it out at the National Mustard Museum, which contains the world’s largest collection of mustard.
From films about mustard farmers, to free samples, to a state-by state collection of mustard, we almost didn’t want to leave when the rain stopped.
