2020-12-29: King Hill-Earlton Road

Snow is beautiful, but it hinders roadwalking terribly. Shoulders are covered by snow, limiting the space available for walking and making many areas unsafe to walk. Two weeks ago, we received over two feet of snow, and low temperatures meant that it took those two weeks to melt. Today I was finally able to get out walking again in eastern Greenville.

I walked a five-mile loop near Greenville's eastern border, crossing over into the neighboring towns of New Baltimore and Coxsackie. This marks the first time I've walked in Coxsackie. The route also passed through the center of the hamlet of Surprise and past two old cemeteries. The aptly name King Hill-Earlton Road connects the hamlet of Earlton, in Coxsackie, with the summit of King Hill, in Greenville, and this walk covered almost the whole length of the road.

Roads Walked: NY-81, King Hill-Earlton Road, Surprise Result Road

Late-morning shadows cross a dusting of snow in the forest along Route 81.

At maximum zoom, the long-range lens tends to give things a violet hue.

Farm buildings along Route 81 in the center of Surprise.

A bare maple tree stands amid a rolling field in Surprise, just west of the town line.

Looking west along Route 81 from just inside New Baltimore. NY-81 spends less than half a mile inside the town limits.

Welcome sign at the border of Coxsackie. Route 81 is the northernmost publicly-accessible point in the town, eight miles away from its center.

Rains and meltwater had swollen the Cob Creek, seen here from a bridge along King Hill-Earlton Road. The creek runs parallel to Route 81 for several miles.

This small colony of ferns has found refuge in the center of a three-trunked pine. White pine (Pinus strobus) splits very easily, with most old trees having multiple trunks.

A very close shot of branches and seedlings peeking through the morning's snow. I find that snow often looks prettiest from close-up.

Snow and hills on King Hill-Earlton Road, just east of the border in Coxsackie.

Wind-blown snow gave a haze-like effect to this stand of hemlock trees.

This decaying bench was found in a cemetery atop a small hill south of King Hill-Earlton Road in Greenville. Curiously, the cemetery does not appear on any maps, at least not on any I've found.

A fallen birch limb sits atop a leaning tombstone in the derelict cemetery. A handful of stones were inside the gate, with the majority on the outside. Most were just upright stones with no engraving or markings. The newest marked stones were from the late 1800s.

The area between King Hill and Surprise is home to a large number of lakes and wetlands, none of them formally named. This view looks south over one of the larger lakes, where clouds cover the noon sun.

A number of tufts of dirt and grass formed tiny islands in this frozen, swampy lake

Remnants of long-dead trees jut out from the snow-coated ice towards the far side of the lake.

This walk afforded no mountain views, so the hilly terrain south of King Hill-Earlton Road had to suffice.

Stands of pine and hardwoods guard the edge of a lake near the intersection of King Hill-Earlton and Surprise Result roads.

A number of old barns sit near the former site of Obediah King's log cabin, an early outpost built in 1791 which gave its name to both the hill and the road.

Tombstones near the road in the sizeable King Hill Cemetery. Unlike the derelict resting place I encountered earlier, this site on Surprise Result Road is still very much in use.

This sizeable sculpture-like tombstone near the back of the cemetery depicts a woman and her horse in larger-than-lift size.


No comments:

Post a Comment