Another Adventure with Pete

"Get your camera.  We're going."

"Uh, going where, Pete?" I asked as I put the finishing touches on a masterful combination of chicken wire and sticks that will undoubtedly protect the garden from all animals.  Or at least from dogs who like to anoint green plants.

"Here.  Look at the map.  We're going to House Rock."

Look for the dot left of center.  Easier to find on the map than in the woods.

  Pete had described House Rock many times.  Back in the woods and huge.  A short hike across private property gets one to the place where it resides.  And evidently, today was the day.

Camera dutifully in hand, I hopped into Pete's vehicle.  It was a short drive down Stewarts Landing Road to Phil's place.  We parked across the street and Pete immediately told Phil that the adventure was imminent.  "Get your boots on.  We're going to see the rock."

After some head scratching and orienteering via Pete's map, we headed over to see John, Phil's brother, who lives across the road beyond where we parked the car.  His was the private property we'd need to cross.  Another head scratching session ensued on John's porch as Pete explained the inconsistencies between the front side and back side of the map that he used when applying larvacide to the local streams in an effort to minimize the black flies.  While I generally like to let nature take its course, I'm happy that Pete is working to keep the little bastards stillborn.

Both Phil and John had heard of House Rock, but had never seen it.  Pete the Persuader soon had the four of us bushwhacking north from John's place.  Somewhere out there was the fabled rock.  The search was somewhat less daunting than the 2015 hunt for 2 escaped convicts from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, but some of the same principles applied.  In the fully leaved woods, one usually can't see more than 50 feet in any direction.  And if a convict or a rock wants to hide, the searchers can come within a few feet without ever knowing what's been missed.  Our only advantage was that the rock was, well, as big as a house.  And not moving.  And unarmed.  And not dangerous.  And close by.

We spread out and headed into the forest.

Blue dot tree.
Either some weird fungus, or someone was marking a property line.

Many mushrooms on the forest floor.
Also some on the trees.
It's a pity not to know which are toxic.

We passed a pair of VW Beetle sized rocks, but Pete assured us these were nowhere near the size of our prey.  Further on, there was an intersection of old stone walls pointing in what we found later to be the correct direction.  The wall was formed long ago when some unfortunate settlers tried to farm this land.

The junction of the two walls is difficult to see.  
I should have taken a 3-D shot.

I once suggested to a friend who farms that creating these walls from rocks in the field must have been back breaking.

"Hah," he laughed, "it wasn't a problem for the farmer.  His kids, on the other hand..."

Pete's shirt indicates the tumble he took on the way in.

Hearing shouting, I turned away from solitary photographic pursuits to head toward the noise.

Phil had found it!  
Covered with vegetation and surrounded by trees, he had detected it nonetheless.
And it was as big as a house with 1 and 1/2 baths and 2 small bedrooms.
No garage.

It's not the size of the prey or the length of the search that matters.  It's the excitement of the hunt.  While not exactly Georgia's Stone Mountain, House Rock is a good size glacial erratic, and worth a few bug bites for the privilege of a view.

Not rolling.

The rock was split near the center.
Pete insisted that it was all in one piece when he saw it years ago.

John was able to scramble up the smaller chunk.

Capturing the scale was quite difficult since the trees and brush surrounding the rock obscure the view.  Winter is the time to be rockin'.

John atop the smaller section.

No longer a mystery, the attractive force of the rock soon dissipated, and we left.

Not sure what this lovely piece of heavy metal was used for. 
You never know what you're going to find in the woods,
and once you find it, you still may not know.

Pete's knee was bothering him as the result of his fall, so we helped him get out of the woods.  His balance also seemed to be affected, so it took quite a while to emerge.  The deerflies were very pleased at our slow rate of progress.  Now I know what a smorgasbord feels like.

Concerned that Pete might also have damaged his brain, Phil took it out to have a look.

Carefully handled and inspected.

"It appears to be working normally," declared Phil.

Though none doubted Phil's diagnosis (after all, he had been the one to find the rock), we thought it prudent to apply test equipment to insure proper function.

Still hard headed.

Still seeing a few stars.

Yep.  Completely normal.