One fine afternoon in mid-September, we decided to go for a short hike on one of the Egypt Road trails. A cross-country ski trail owned and maintained by BREIA, it is open for hiking and biking in the summer. We have done one of the hikes here before but this time, we went to the second parking lot which is about 1 3/4 mile on the right after making the turn from Route 12 in Alder Creek.
From the parking lot, we had to cross Egypt Road to take the Alder Creek Gorge trails (blue trail on the map).
The warming hut that provides shelter to cross-country skiers in the winter was closed for the season.
Following the sign , we quickly walked up the trail through a deciduous forest. True to its name, the Rim Trail runs at the lip of the gorge which unfortunately, we could not see because of the dense foliage. Not until we reached a clearing aptly named the Adirondack Overlook were we able to see some view. With the valley below and the high peaks in the distant horizon, this would have been a fantastic scenery were it not marred by the presence of the electrical lines right smack in the middle of the view.
From there, we followed the Moss Trail and doubled back to the Rim Trail. With some more daylight remaining, we had time to read some of the markers along the trail describing the nearby vegetation as this patch of allegheny blackberries.
We were even able to go done one of the gullies (Gully II), a black diamond cross-country ski trail leading to the Creek View Trail. The climb back up to the Rim Trail was quite an aerobic workout.
This will certainly not be the last time we'll visit these trails.
And we have never seen so many different wildlife around the lake - a woodpecker, hummingbirds, blue heron, green heron and even a snake as well as the usual ducks, deer, turkeys and turtles. I even saw the loon three times.
