All In the Family - History at Sam's Point

On Monday evening Jerry and I decided to take advantage of the lovely weather and go for a hike up to Sam's Point Preserve in Walker Valley, NY.  For years Jerry's family owned part of the mountain and offered tours to the ice caves that are found along the hiking trails.  With that in mind, it probably goes without saying that the two of us have visited Sam's Point a few times in the past.  However, we had never ventured along the path that led to Indian Rock (eek...can we change this to Indigenous Peoples Rock?  Native American Rock?  Something better...no?) and we were in the mood for a bit of an adventure.

We took the longer (and steeper) route in the hopes of heading up to Indian Rock first and then ending our hike up at Sam's Point itself.  This gave us an excellent opportunity to check out some of the little shacks which blueberry pickers used to operate out of, back when the mountain was covered in blueberry bushes.  

My inner Anthropologist really wants to know more about this.

Jerry started providing me with a little background on the blueberry pickers, as well as the former (now overgrown) shale quarry that we passed on our way up the mountain.  Unfortunately he could not remember a lot of the stories he had heard about the history of the mountain over the years, and we lamented the fact that his grandfather was not there with us to provide a more detailed history.  I suggested that we get some of those spy camera eyeglasses and hook them up to the television in his grandfather's house.  That way the next time we went hiking he could narrate what we were looking at in real time!  Alas, Jerry reminded me that we do not have access to a satellite, so my idea probably was not practical.  

When we reached the trail leading out to Indian Rock I suddenly remembered one thing about the mountain that I had repeatedly been told of over the years...there are rattlesnakes off the main trails!  

Yeah...rattlesnakes...overgrown brush...this doesn't scare me at all.

With that in mind, I made Jerry walk in front.  He claimed to be unconcerned about snakes anyway, despite my protestations that this was exactly the sort of area that snakes would hang out in, and my insistence that at one point I heard something that sounded suspiciously like a rattle.  He was however, deeply disturbed when a spider, and I quote, "fell out of the air onto his back."  All in all, this part of the hike was much more harrowing than I had anticipated!

Indian Rock was lovely but I think that I still prefer the views from Sam's Point.  The story behind the "point" is that a man named Sam was being pursued by Native Americans and out of desperation he jumped off of the point only to miraculously survive the fall. 

Hmmm...not sure I'm buying this story.

Whether or not the legendary Sam survived the fabled jump, Jerry and I enjoyed our trip to the point. 

Of course, it didn't take me very long to begin brainstorming about other historical "adventures" that we could take now that we are back in the Middletown area.  As I was going on and on about ideas I had, Jerry interrupted me to say, "So, are we going to be those people that just go exploring in weird places during our free time?"  To which I replied, "Well, yes!"  He responded, "Sounds good."  Clearly, I married the right guy.