Today’s very rainy Wacky Wednesday was spent at the beautiful Sunny Ridge Preserve in Ossining. Slated to become a housing development in the late 1990s, the town of New Castle worked to acquire the land for open space wetland protection and just last 
spring turned it into a nature preserve. The land is home to a variety of wildlife habitats including fragile areas of wetlands. Visitors can explore some of the preserve’s 77-acres along a 2.8-mile system of carefully blazed, well-maintained trails.
Our hike today followed along the southern red trail toward the pond and then wended its way up and over hills, along and across streams and through fern-filled woods. Throughout our entire
hike, which lasted about an hour and a half, it was pouring. But we only knew that from the sound of the rain as it landed on the umbrella of leafy trees far over our heads. While we did emerge from the spongy forest trail rather soaked, we got slowly and happily soaked during our time in this spectacular woodland gem. It may not have been sunny there today but Sunny Ridge was a joyful place to be.
And besides, as our favorite photographer Debbie Allan noted, we’ve had so many sunny, flower-filled Wacky Wednesdays that maybe the pictures were getting just the tiniest bit boring.
Speak Your Mind