After a day of recovery, on Friday, Debi and I were up and out of the house by 8am on Saturday. We decided to layer up and brave the cold (23 degrees, when we got into the car), to make our second attempt at hiking up Jayne’s Hill in Sweet Hollow County Park. We had tried to go there a few months ago, but were unable to get past several downed trees, that blocked our access.

We were able to get warm, fairly quickly, thanks to the moderate inclines, of the trails and the brilliant sunshine that filtered through the thick cover of trees. At that hour, we encountered only a few others along our path. Sweet Hollow Park is a pretty large swath of land sandwiched between the Northern State Parkway and the Long Island Expressway, just west of Route 110. There are many beautiful properties that border the trails.

As we winded our way to the northern end of the park, we steadily climbed to the lofty elevation of 401 feet above sea level – the highest point on Long Island! Once there, I wish I could say that there was some kind of wonderful view, but you really cannot see out too well, due to the forest. It still felt cool to be up there, though it pales in comparison to say … Whiteface, which has an elevation of 4,865 feet above sea level.

This hike was a loop, so the return portion offered different scenery, which was nice. We did see more people on the trails as we neared the end of what was better than a four mile roundtrip, though I would still describe the traffic as “light”.

I’m almost embarrassed to say that, the rest of the weekend, and even into Monday, was largely focused on Football. The NFL Tripleheaders on Saturday and Sunday, and last night’s College Football Championship Game. I did watch, most of all of the games. Like I have mentioned before, with no real “skin in the game” so to speak, I generally take up the cause of friends who have a rooting interest – for example, the Buffalo Bills, who won their first playoff game in 25 years. And let us not forget, the Bills are the only Professional Football Team that actually plays its home games, in New York.

Last night’s game, was close for awhile, until Alabama was able to gain control and kind of cruise to victory, and another National Championship. I was very impressed with the talent on both squads. The NFL is the next stop for many of those players. I was even more impressed with the creative play design used by Alabama, to get the ball to their best players, in places where they could do damage. As much as I have been critical of Football during the Pandemic, I guess I still love it enough, to watch seven games in three days!