2020-04-07: East Red Mill Rd

As early spring began to warm up, I walked in Greenville NY, on a seven-mile loop north of the hamlet of Freehold. This walk was marked by many early flowers, streams, and some impressive mountain views. In some places the roads were unusually crowded; I ran into at least a half-dozen other pedestrians in the course of this walk.

Roads Walked: NY-32, Red Mill Rd, East Red Mill Rd/CR-35, Alberta Ln, CR-67

A lone coltsfoot flower blooms on the shoulder of Red Mill Road.

Forsythia bushes, dead just a few days prior, spring to life with hundreds of yellow flowers.

A view of Blackhead Mountain and the ridge to its east.

Budding maple trees obscure Blackhead's distant snow-laden summit.

Alpacas watch me pass by at a wool farm on Red Mill Road.

Power lines slice through the forest in a seemingly endless line towards the mountains in the south.

An old shed built half into the side of a slight hill. I found this oddly compelling for some reason.

Vines reclaim a basketball and adjacent tennis court at an abandoned resort on Alberta Lane.

Alberta Lane is one of the more rural roads I've yet walked in Greenville. This sticker, on a road sign beside an abandoned quarry, appears very old.

Graves in an old family cemetery along Red Mill Road.

Rocks in the shallow rapids of the Basic Creek.

The perturbed dark green waters of the Basic Creek reflect bare trees and white skies.

A bit of fishing line was wrapped around the telephone wires above a bridge on East Red Mill Road.

Two layers of clouds backdrop Windham High Peak where it rises above some fields.

Twelve-mile shot of Stoppel Point's summit.

A large burr on a small juniper tree.

Fuzzy catkins cap the ends of young birch branches.

A nice view of Blackhead's summit plateau from NY-32.

From this position, the fields of the valley are hidden by foreground trees, making Windham seem exceptionally undeveloped.

The stream near this historical marker seems to small to run any sizable mill.

This DOT sign was plowed into a ditch (several years ago by the looks of it) and has remained there ever since.

Wispy clouds fill the southern afternoon skies.

Spring runoff fills the roadside ditches with ultra-fine silt and sediment.

A wide view of NY-32 as it approaches central Freehold.

Close-up of Blackhead, showing a particularly snowy stretch near its top.

A view of downtown Freehold, with Windham looming to the right.

Building in central Freehold. This one building contains a store, a deli, and the hamlet's post office.