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Check out this article from Lynne Robinson's "new" Jersey Girl blog: Warning! Photo heavy post ahead. Before you start this post let me warn you ahead of time that it may take you as long to read as it did for us to take this hike (4.5 hours). Last week Rick took a few days off and rather than go to Andy’s lake cabin as we had planned, the weather was so glorious we decided to stay home and do things around here. One of those things was to take a hike. We used to be great hikers and back country campers, loading all our goods needed to survive for three days on our backs. It’s been some years since we’ve done any serious hiking. Mostly just around the cabin (which can be pretty strenuous at that altitude.) But nothing much since we’ve lived here. Rick picked a hike from our book Hiking the Jersey Highlands that was a “lollipop” loop around two lakes (Surprise Lake and West Pond). Lollipop meaning you hiked up the stick part, looped around the lollipop and rejoined the original trail again. It was stated as being 4.1 miles. Don’t you think that’s kind of a long hike for us since we haven’t worked up to it?, I asked Rick. Nah, not a problem he replied. Here is an image of what our GPS recorded on our hike so you can get an idea of where we’re headed. I should have read the trail description myself before we left. Truly, I really should have. But I didn’t. I should have. Most of the trails I’ve hiked in the past have been well maintained and easy to follow. What’s to mark? You just follow the path, right? So at first I thought their way of marking a trail was quaint: painted on a tree. A few walking sticks were left leaning against the tree for anyone’s use. Follow the little blue (and white) blazes ... follow the little blue (and white) blazes ... I hummed to myself to the tune of follow the yellow brick road. or arrows. Whatever. The trail at first was hard to see as it wound its way through a mostly flat forest bed and we missed a few blazes. Probably because there we so many leaves on the ground obscuring what might exist of a path. Soon after the path became quite steep and stayed that way for a while. Well, I knew we had to get to the top of Bearfort Mountain somehow so I was expecting plenty of “up.” The trees on the way up were putting on quite a show. I had plenty of time to stop and admire them as I let my seized-up calves relax again.       Needless to say, it was a gorgeous day for a hike. The temperature was in the high 60’s, the humidity low, the sky blue. The trail got rockier as we went. I swear, I may have lived and hiked in the Rocky Mountains for a good number of years but I have never seen so much rock. We went up and over this one. It would not be the last. Oh no. Not the last. Scrambled up this one. I’m coming, honey! We changed trails and were now following yellow blazes. If you look closely you can see them on the trees. Yup, that’s the trail. Love the color of these leaves! Soon we were at Lookout Rock with gorgeous views over Greenwood Lake. We had started the trail at an elevation 680 feet and were now at 1,220 feet.  We stopped to take it all in. The guidebook calls this type of rock formation “puddingstone.” Whatever you call it, the trail went right along the top of it. I’d never been on a completely rock trail before! Looking back down the trail we just came up ... and looking up in the direction we are going! Another view out over Greenwood Lake. Our house is somewhere to the left at the end of the lake. This part of the trail was easy going. What came next was not.