Somebody fetch my coat and hat
and hand me my walking cane
Gotta put on my travelin' shoes
(Elvin Bishop)
We were so glad we had our hiking poles with us, because they came in very handy.
For the most part, the trail was flat (with one major exception). But the trail was very rocky with lots of dangerous tree roots popping up out of the ground. So, heed my warning, make sure you keep your head down to watch where you are walking and make sure you're wearing good sturdy hiking shoes to avoid a twisted ankle from a misstep.
This was a big industrial area back in the day, with granite and iron mines. Workers used to pull ten tons of iron out of the ground every day to toss in the steel making furnaces.
Those furnaces still stand today and seeing them was the primary reason we visited yesterday. But getting to them was the most challenging part of our hike.
There are a few marked hiking trails in the complex including a Donkey Trail and the trail to the iron furnaces, The Iron furnace trail will take you to a steep rocky downward incline and a very steep incline back up to level ground. We took one look at that passage and said, "no way".
Luckily, we walked to a trail on the right, looped around, and somehow found our way to those awesome steel furnaces in the Iron-Making Complex.
The furnaces where the iron was made into steel were very impressive looking indeed and well worth the trip to see these behemoths from the 19th Century.
We did navigate that dangerous looking gorge on the way back to the parking lot, and all I can say is "Thank the Lord" we took our hiking poles out of the car trunk. They made such a difference!
The hike was gorgeous, with lots of fall foliage, water views, wood bridges, and some super friendly hikers we met along the way. read more