Write-up: Dianna Morris
Leader: Dianna Morris
Co-Leader: Lorrie Wazielewski

A beautiful day that was originally forecast to be rain-filled, but turned out warm and mostly sunny had 28 of us heading off to explore the nature trail. The ride over Jordanville Rd to Van Hornesville was pretty with distant hills covered with muted autumn colors and rolling farm fields along the road. The trail we hiked was originally an 18^th century trail and was used by Washington and early settlers as an area the British did not know of so the settlers were able to build their homes and use the creek waterfalls as a means of powering their grain and saw mills. These replaced mills burned out by the British along the Mohawk River during the Revolutionary War. In several places along the Otsquago Creek you can still see remnants of gears that worked the mills and broken up stone dams.

Since hiking with me usually means taking the trail less traveled, I soon had some brave Tramps climbing down to the side of the creek to follow it a short way – for no other reason than it is always fun to hike along running water.

The rest of the Tramps were instructed to follow the main trail to the caves where we would meet up with them after clambering back up the hillside. We had fun checking out the caves, taking the stairs down to the water and then headed back up and followed the trail to where it reached a bend in the creek. The only way forward from here was to wade through the creek – which is a fun adventure, but not when the water is cold and no one was prepared for such an adventure! We turned back and took the stairway up the steep hillside to the Plank Rd Extension and followed it to where it became private land – so we turned around and took the Plank Rd back to the cars. It was  beautiful day to be out in the woods in the company of fun-loving Tramps!