Brazilians in the woods

Headed back up to the Hudson Highlands for a longer hike than last weekend. This time around I decided to give inter-township travel a try with a route that started in Cold Spring and ended in Beacon. I'm not totally sure but when I use an incredibly accurate measuring device (the long edge of my USB key) the total travel keys out to 7-8 miles, most of which are on trails. Most of the climbs were relatively short and sweet. However, the climb to summit South Beacon Mountain (the last of the day) was more like rock climbing than hiking: it was pretty scrambly. Once on top of South Beacon we were greeted by a rickety steel lookout tower and a chain smoker...only in New York.

I was accompanied by Raquel (postdoc in the LeDoux lab) and her husband Marcio (who is an anaestesiologist). These two Brazilians made for great hiking companions...partly because Marcio was very encouraging of my desire to learn swear words in languages other than english. This was in spite of Quel's apprehension at me repeating these newly-learned, portuguese swear phrases loudly in the woods.

On the way down we ran across several hot-penciled drawings attributed to an artist named Peekasso (a contraction on Peekskills, and Picasso, I'm guessing). I was especially captivated by this one with Megatron's decapitated head...