August 2026 – Page 2 – Peckish Travels

Swan Lake Without Tutus (8/4/26)

Before I start on today’s short outing, I wanted to make a quick remark about the weather. While large parts of Europe, Canada, and the American Northwest are or have been dealing with destructive and sometimes deadly wildfires, the weather worry here has been rain. We have had at least one flood watch or warning here every week that we’ve been here and many places in the surrounding states have been flooded.

We have been lucky so far in Tarrytown, and perhaps living at least half a mile steeply uphill from the river helps, but there are signs of the wet weather, including the photo below.

These huge mushrooms are growing in the front yard of a home just around the corner from us.

Anyhoo, today was sunny after another rainy day yesterday, so we got out to do a bit of hiking. We headed back to the Rockefeller State Park Preserve for our 3rd hike. This time, we were headed for the trail that goes around Swan Lake within the park. This was the most populated trail that we’ve hiked in the preserve, with lots of dog walkers, a couple of photographers (with actual cameras), and a bird watcher, in addition to others of us just out for a walk. As with the duckless Duck Pond in Croton-on-Hudson the other day, Swan Lake was swanless but pretty all the same.

A bench beside the lake dedicated to someone
who apparently spent a lot of time in the preserve

The wide stone lined path along the lake

There appears to be a working farm on part of the preserve. In addition to these goats, we also saw chickens and plowed fields.

More New York Rambles (7/31-8/1/26)

Some days on our outings we walk to walk, and sometimes we walk to explore. Yesterday, we headed out to walk part of yet another trail in the area. We drove about 10 minutes to a trailhead for the 750-mile Empire State Trail. We walked an hour out and an hour back — somewhere between 2 and 3 miles each way, so we barely scratched the surface of this trail. And we were not alone, we saw a couple of runners and two or three other walkers, but we were passed by quite a few bikers on the paved trail.

Heading out — it was pretty shaded
throughout the section that we walked.

We passed the markers for miles 15, 16, and 17.

The portion of the trail that we were on
runs alongside (but higher up) a busy highway.
Usually the trees kept us from seeing too much of it.

A much older mile marker — maybe for an old rail line,
as much of the trail route repurposes historic railroad beds,
canal towpaths, and off-road bike paths.

Today we took the Metro North Railroad train that runs south to Grand Central Station in New York City and north along the Hudson River to Poughkeepsie for the first time. We went north for the 20 minute trip to the Croton-Harmon station, the second stop from Tarrytown. We first explored Croton Point Park, which lies west of the train station, and then walked back past the train station to explore a bit of the town.

Croton Point Park is a 508 acre park situated on a peninsula in the town of Croton-on-Hudson, New York. It has a small beach, Nature Center, and lots of picnic areas along the Hudson River which were being used on this sunny Saturday.

The path we walked up and over a grassland reclamation area

Looking across the inlet towards Croton-on- Hudson

Some people and lots of geese
were enjoying the pay-to-enter beach ($10/adult).
It was also $10/car to drive into the park.

Croton-on-Hudson, still in Westchester County, is a village of about 8,300 about 21 miles north of Tarrytown. Bob found us a couple of different retail areas to explore.