Further mysteries of Albany Rural Cemetery.
Y'all are too prolific. I've not read my flist since Friday (due to being out of town) and it's a bazillion entries long.
But here, while I catch up, have some cemetery pictures.
I am pink from the cold and my hair is partly frozen. You know you wanna see the arty ones now. As usual, there are words and stories too.
This is Albany Rural Cemetery, notable as NOT the cemetery where I almost fell off a broken wall fifty feet into a rock-studded, frozen-creek-filled ravine, but as the cemetery where I found a totally different ravine that was apparently once a passable area (as there were crumbling old bridges over the stream in it) but which is no longer in use.
I hiked in a ways, further than I had the first time because I was scared of bears or mountain lions or whatfuckingever. THIS time I decided I would go as far in as a could, and just make as much noise as possible, so's any predator that heard me would flee in terror, as I will clearly sound like the biggest baddest bear/mointainlion/whatfuckingever, with my big stompy crunchy branch-snapping steps and periodic grumbly throat-clearings.
See? Busted up bridges. It's still evident that this was once a path of sorts through the cemetery, since in the absence of a proper trail, there is a reasonable about of level ground on which to walk, without inviting disaster by getting too close to the edge of the stream, which is futher sunk in a little gully of its own (in other words, if you fell in, it would take you a fair effort to get back out again).
Hey, what the crap is that?
This mysterious structure was hunkered down on the opposite side of the stream (of course), and you can't really tell but that ridge behind it is very, very steep. There's no other (surviving) monuments in the area. I cannot figure out what it is from this distance, and I could not manage to find a safe route to get closer - possibly when the weather is warmer, it'd be easier to do so. Mental note.
I got as far as this pretty spectacular mess before I could go no further. Even here, there's evidence that this was once a used part of the cemetery, as in the lower left you can kind of make out the remains of what was once a wall. Near as I can figure, at one point there was a path around the left side (possibly with stone steps), but it's being eaten up by time and nature now.
So I had to go back the way I came. It's also worth noting that the whole ravine is strewn with fallen trees and branches, and evidently we were having 50-mph gusts that day, which explains why the trees were all creaking overhead so ominously. Eerily, later when I was standing on top of the ridge over this same ravine, I heard an ear-splitting crack and saw a huge limb go crashing down to the ravine below.
And that was my little slowly-trying-to-unravel-the-mysteries-of-Albany-Rural adventure.
As is probably obvious, it started out cloudy and grey but cleared in the hours I was marching around:
So that was my Sunday. I'd hoped to get to Oakwood this morning, before we drove back, but instead I went shopping with my MIL, which was probably the better choice, considering we were visiting and all.
Back to work tomorrow. Groan.
But here, while I catch up, have some cemetery pictures.
I am pink from the cold and my hair is partly frozen. You know you wanna see the arty ones now. As usual, there are words and stories too.
This is Albany Rural Cemetery, notable as NOT the cemetery where I almost fell off a broken wall fifty feet into a rock-studded, frozen-creek-filled ravine, but as the cemetery where I found a totally different ravine that was apparently once a passable area (as there were crumbling old bridges over the stream in it) but which is no longer in use.
I hiked in a ways, further than I had the first time because I was scared of bears or mountain lions or whatfuckingever. THIS time I decided I would go as far in as a could, and just make as much noise as possible, so's any predator that heard me would flee in terror, as I will clearly sound like the biggest baddest bear/mointainlion/whatfuckingever, with my big stompy crunchy branch-snapping steps and periodic grumbly throat-clearings.
See? Busted up bridges. It's still evident that this was once a path of sorts through the cemetery, since in the absence of a proper trail, there is a reasonable about of level ground on which to walk, without inviting disaster by getting too close to the edge of the stream, which is futher sunk in a little gully of its own (in other words, if you fell in, it would take you a fair effort to get back out again).
Hey, what the crap is that?
This mysterious structure was hunkered down on the opposite side of the stream (of course), and you can't really tell but that ridge behind it is very, very steep. There's no other (surviving) monuments in the area. I cannot figure out what it is from this distance, and I could not manage to find a safe route to get closer - possibly when the weather is warmer, it'd be easier to do so. Mental note.
I got as far as this pretty spectacular mess before I could go no further. Even here, there's evidence that this was once a used part of the cemetery, as in the lower left you can kind of make out the remains of what was once a wall. Near as I can figure, at one point there was a path around the left side (possibly with stone steps), but it's being eaten up by time and nature now.
So I had to go back the way I came. It's also worth noting that the whole ravine is strewn with fallen trees and branches, and evidently we were having 50-mph gusts that day, which explains why the trees were all creaking overhead so ominously. Eerily, later when I was standing on top of the ridge over this same ravine, I heard an ear-splitting crack and saw a huge limb go crashing down to the ravine below.
And that was my little slowly-trying-to-unravel-the-mysteries-of-Albany-Rural adventure.
As is probably obvious, it started out cloudy and grey but cleared in the hours I was marching around:
So that was my Sunday. I'd hoped to get to Oakwood this morning, before we drove back, but instead I went shopping with my MIL, which was probably the better choice, considering we were visiting and all.
Back to work tomorrow. Groan.