2020-04-14: Roosevelt Avenue

A fairly chilly day in mid-April I walked a five-mile loop in Acra NY, a hamlet of Cairo. This was only my second walk on roads entirely within the town of Cairo, and the first in good conditions (the first, a hike on Route 145 last October, was plagued by clouds and rush-hour traffic). I parked in central Acra, which is located on the slopes of Windham High Peak, and walked backroads down, then back up, the mountainside.

Roads Walked: CR-20A, Sunside Rd/CR-20, Edison Timmerman Rd, Roosevelt Ave/CR-31

A tiny dam of stopped-up flotsam is overrun by a spring creek.

This small mansion operates an equestrian center, and boasts one of the best views in town.

Horses feed beneath Windham's striking silhouette.

A view of Stoppel Point (L) and Arizona Mountain (R) from the equestrian center on Sunside Road.

A lone horse grazes near the edge of a large enclosure.

A wider shot of the above image, showing the surrounding forest and some of the mountain beyond.

Windham and its northern slopes seem unusually jagged and sharp from this perspective.

I found that land used for keeping horses - and the horses themselves - makes for excellent views and pictures.

An old, well-used stable sits beneath Arizona Mountain's plateau.

A different shot of the above view, showing Stoppel Point and some of the stable's current occupants.

This abandoned bar sits at the crossroads of Sunside Rd and Edison Timmerman Rd, near the Durham border.

Tiny purple flowers were in bloom low to the ground along the side of the road.

This curious chipmunk froze as I walked past.

Tiny waterfalls on a small creek that runs parallel to Edison Timmerman Road for some time.

Many of the rocks - and artificial additions - around this stream are covered in moss.

An old foundation in the woods along Edison Timmerman. A surprising number of abandoned buildings and ruins lined this road.

This unnamed lake along Edison Timmerman Road is actually an extension of the nearby Rockefeller Lake, connected by a short stream.

Cattails at the lake's edge. This area is naturally swampy; the water is held in by an old earthen dam.

Wind-driven perturbations on the water's surface reflect a graying sky.

The lake provides a break in the dense forests surrounding Edison Timmerman, allowing for a view of Windham High Peak above the road.

A waterfall on an unnamed tributary of the Catskill Creek, which runs along Roosevelt Ave on its way up the mountain.

Moss clings to slippery rock on the fringes of the meltwater-swollen waterfall.

Bits of snow cling to ravines on distant Blackhead's upper slopes.

A view towards the center of the Acra Cemetery, located near the center of the hamlet.

The cemetery map displays which grave plots haven't been sold yet. 

Sign at the old entrance of the Rose Haven, a long-abandoned motel near downtown Acra.

This former church is now used for storage by the Acra Community Center.