Fillmore Glen State Park Redux

Walking is my favorite form of exercise, with swimming being second, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I returned to Moravia to hike the South Rim Trail, which is 1.25 miles long, and to hike back on the Gorge Trail, which is 1.31 miles long, whereas before I had simply driven the South Rim Road and walked short distances. I took the South Rim Trail going southeast and the Gorge Trail going northwest.

I stopped first at the replica of the cabin Millard Fillmore was born in. You can get an idea of why he wanted to leave Moravia.

Getting older isn’t much fun in the physical sense, especially with my left foot growing increasingly numb, but I am determined to walk the rest of my life. Franklin Roosevelt started the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) in 1933 to give employment to men between eighteen and twenty-five during the Depression. They worked on national and state parks, building trails that are familiar to anyone who has done a lot of hiking and camping. Some of the steps were built entirely of stone, some of earth and stone , and some of earth and wood. We have an extensive park system in New York and I grew up climbing up and down the trails, so you would think I would be used to them, but I have to be very careful now that I place my feet flat on the ground and stay away from the cliff edges.

This picture gives you an idea of the drop off along the South Rim Trail:

When I was halfway down a steep hill, I realized I was going to fall but managed to fall backwards on my butt. I decided I was safer going to the bottom via my butt. This isn’t always a good idea, as I once discovered when I was taking a beaver dam apart and found I couldn’t get to it without treading on some loose gravel. Later, I came down with poison ivy on my posterior that had to be treated with steroids. However, going downhill is definitely harder than going uphill, as my brother discovered when hiking part of the Appalachian Trail. Our Mapes knees are simply not made for downhill walking.

This is what I would call a “weeping” wall on the right with a man-made wall on the left. The right wall is a good example of Devonian rock. It is not particularly stable. At Taughannock Park in Ithaca, they have a yearly practice of knocking off any loose shale.

The following are pictures of Dalibarda Falls:

When I was a little girl and I lived in an apartment on North Sunset Drive in Ithaca, New York, I would take walks in the woods that started at the end of our back lawn, always starting with the felled log that had orange fungi on it. Then I would walk alone along the path, until I reached the end where I could see Cayuga Lake in the distance.

I’ve always liked walking alone, but when I was a little girl imagining being a bigger one, I didn’t think I would always walk alone. Neither of my girlfriends in Ithaca and I are in the habit of taking walks together. I also am not a good candidate for group walks because I would slow everyone down. On the occasion of the celebration of my mother’s 90th birthday, our family and Hans Olsen and his wife Ulla Theil climbed Gurten Hill outside of Bern, Switzerland. Hans took the cable car up the hill with my mother, while Ulla stayed behind and walked at my pace. I think she was the only person who realized how far behind I was.

During my walk through Fillmore Glen, I saw many families with young children, and a number of couples in their fifties, I only saw two couples my age: one couple had two walking sticks each and the woman in the other couple wasn’t capable of walking very far. That doesn’t say very much for my generation, the baby boomers. Although I enjoyed the walk, I did feel lonely whenever I passed other people.