Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Despite the very cold, very windy weather, Ann and I wanted to get outside before stopping at my parents' house for a holiday visit. We tried Ooms Conservation Area but it was just too windy, and most of the trails there are out in the open. So then we headed for High Falls, which is where I'd really wanted to go anyway. My main concern was that we'd get there with only half an hour or so left before sundown.
As it turned out, we did a bit better than that, but even in the woods it was extremely cold. We took the lower trail along the stream to try and reach the base of the falls, but the water was high enough that I didn't want to risk dunking a foot scrambling over icy rocks, and we never did get far enough to actually see the falls. And by that point it was getting late enough and we were cold enough that we decided not to head to the overlook but just went back to the car instead. A shame, because I suspect the falls were pretty impressive from the amount of water we saw in the Agawamuck Creek.
As with my visit back in September, I was really struck by the bizarre feeling of walking paths that I wandered along many, many times when I was younger, well over a decade before anyone thought of making the area a nature preserve. Hopefully I can get down there again before the end of the winter; the view of the falls should be much better with the leaves off the trees, and it should be a heck of a lot easier walking those trails on snowshoes than it used to be in boots!
JMH
