Old dear

At Ausable Chasm I managed once again to set off away from the car without putting a spare battery in my pocket. I hadn’t taken many photos on the drive up, but apparently the battery had not charged fully overnight.

Grant rolled his eyes, but luckily, we had not gone far and we’d discovered that we could park near the entrance/exit to the trail, so the man went to fetch the car, telling me to find some place to sit in the shade.

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However he was going to be a while, so I loitered on the bridge, employing my phone to record what my camera temporarily could not.

Hoping like hell it wouldn’t shoot out of my hand and plunge into the depths below.

Grant was going to be looking for me at the top of the trail, across the road, but he would be ages yet and besides I was standing on the bridge which he had to drive across.

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The bridge wall provided shade and there was a delightful breeze, so I happily leaned against it scanning for a familiar silver Subaru.

There was just such a car across the road in the parking lot. There are so many of them about.

Something about that particular car seemed to resonate, but Grant could not possibly have got there so fast. Quite convinced it was not my car, I never-the-less decided to go and sit under the trees and as I made my way there, my phone rang:

“Where are you?”

He’d gone down the trail expecting to catch up with me. I should trust my instincts. I knew that was my silver Subaru!

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The brown colour of the water comes from soil erosion and organic tannins released from decaying forest leaves. So says my source. The internet.

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We took the yellow trail. Where the red marker is on the map, we began descending a series of steps adjacent to the rim of the chasm.

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Long ago I could likely have climbed a net like that and this rope bridge at least has two guide ropes and a series of planks to step on, so I might even have done that.

But I would much rather just enjoy the scenery. And the sound.

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What I know of geology would fit on a postage stamp, but I love the different types of rock and their wonderful and often astonishing formations.

Per AI:

Ausable Chasm is a 500 million-year-old Potsdam sandstone gorge located near Keeseville, New York, in the Adirondack Mountains. Formed roughly 10,000 years ago during retreating ice ages and carved by the Ausable River, it reaches depths of up to 150 feet

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Now they tell us! This sign is more than halfway down. By now, we’d made our own judgment about the stairs we had descended!

But to be fair, the warning was perhaps meant another set of stairs that went down toward yet another rope bridge.

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Although I expressed willing to check it out, I was urged to keep going the way we were, if indeed I was still up for it. Grant kept asking if I hadn’t gone far enough –

“Remember, we’ve got to go all the way back up!” he warned.

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No, I had not forgotten. When you are with someone much younger and more able-bodied, you don’t want to hold them back, but you also don’t want to end up making a nuisance of yourself. Not that I expect anyone to sit around with me as I am perfectly happy staying by myself, but I knew Grant wouldn’t leave me here.

By now the path was quite narrow and more visitors had arrived, young people in a hurry. We’d made it almost the whole way, but common sense said to start back, though first we stopped to catch our breath and to make myself small, I leaned against the rock face.

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As I have mentioned a time or two, – my eyesight is a bit screwy. I miss a lot of detail, sometimes important detail. I also have nerve damage which means parts of me don’t feel much, in some circumstances. Like leaning against a rock face, apparently.

As we turned to begin our climb, I felt decidedly damp. “Was I sitting in a puddle?” I asked.

Well yes, the rock was wet, but the man thought I’d found a dry bit! So as we led a queue of visitors back up those many stairs, I was keenly aware of my wet behind and as I observed to my companion:

“They probably think the old dear wet herself!”

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