WEBVTT 00:00:13.419 --> 00:00:17.000 Hey everyone, welcome to Seneca Lake Mysteries, 00:00:17.019 --> 00:00:20.559 the podcast where we explore the unusual, strange, 00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:23.079 and unexplained on New York's largest finger 00:00:23.079 --> 00:00:25.760 lake. Thanks so much for listening and supporting 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:28.399 the show, and if you're new here, thanks for 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:32.119 giving it a listen, and I hope you dig it. For 00:00:32.119 --> 00:00:34.780 a couple of weeks now, I've been excited to tell 00:00:34.780 --> 00:00:38.079 you all the story of my trip to the Alpine Portal, 00:00:38.259 --> 00:00:41.219 also known as Connecticut Hill, so I'm anxious 00:00:41.219 --> 00:00:44.000 to finally get to it. We're going to hear a conversation 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:47.179 I had last week with Rick, who was the guy who 00:00:47.179 --> 00:00:50.280 made the whole trip happen. Rick contacted me 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:52.799 because he wanted to show me something he found 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:55.960 in a remote wooded area of Connecticut Hill. 00:00:56.340 --> 00:01:00.600 On July 6th, I met Rick at his home, hopped in 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:03.240 his pickup truck, and he brought me with him 00:01:03.240 --> 00:01:06.640 up onto Connecticut Hill where we found something 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:11.480 extraordinary way out in the woods. On July 17th, 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:15.799 we recorded the following conversation for this 00:01:15.799 --> 00:01:20.159 podcast. Now, for some background on native stone 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:23.140 piles, which have been found around the United 00:01:23.140 --> 00:01:26.159 States and the world, including the northeastern 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:30.219 U .S., they range from small piles to large, 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:34.180 elaborate groupings that may include chambers 00:01:34.180 --> 00:01:38.760 or internal features. Some were used to mark 00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:43.959 trails and burial sites. while others held ceremonial 00:01:43.959 --> 00:01:47.700 importance to the people who constructed them. 00:01:47.819 --> 00:01:52.159 It can be easy to confuse more recent stone piles 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:56.200 with these ancient native stone piles. There 00:01:56.200 --> 00:01:58.299 are stone piles that were created by farmers 00:01:58.299 --> 00:02:03.379 clearing fields, by early colonialists who constructed 00:02:03.379 --> 00:02:08.500 stone piles as fences or to mark property lines, 00:02:11.159 --> 00:02:15.319 modern hikers or artists. Native stone piles 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:19.699 are differentiated from modern piles by their 00:02:19.699 --> 00:02:22.680 location, the arrangement and types of stones, 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:26.960 and sometimes archaeological data. So Connecticut 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:31.180 Hill, which was populated by Europeans from around 00:02:31.180 --> 00:02:37.080 1795 through the year 1900, a large amount of 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:40.129 logging. took place there and around two -thirds 00:02:40.129 --> 00:02:43.050 of all the trees on connecticut hill were gone 00:02:43.050 --> 00:02:48.330 by the year 1900 so much of the wooded areas 00:02:48.330 --> 00:02:54.110 on the hill have regrown in the last 125 years 00:02:54.110 --> 00:02:59.930 there were also many farms residences and mills 00:02:59.930 --> 00:03:03.590 on connecticut hill so there are a lot of old 00:03:03.590 --> 00:03:07.189 foundations and stone structures that can be 00:03:07.189 --> 00:03:10.169 found pretty much everywhere. So it's important 00:03:10.169 --> 00:03:13.449 to note that when I talk about native stone piles 00:03:13.449 --> 00:03:17.090 on Connecticut Hill, I'm not talking about those 00:03:17.090 --> 00:03:24.310 remnants of colonial occupation. Now, unfortunately, 00:03:24.389 --> 00:03:26.389 there were some technical issues when Rick and 00:03:26.389 --> 00:03:28.689 I recorded our conversation, which caused us 00:03:28.689 --> 00:03:33.909 to start late. And then there were... echo problems 00:03:33.909 --> 00:03:36.810 during the show so if i sound distracted it's 00:03:36.810 --> 00:03:39.430 because i was hearing my own voice loudly echoing 00:03:39.430 --> 00:03:43.689 in my headphones the echoes also ended up on 00:03:43.689 --> 00:03:45.990 the final recording so i had to do a lot of editing 00:03:45.990 --> 00:03:50.250 and audio adjustments to make it sound presentable 00:03:50.250 --> 00:03:53.169 so you might hear some glitches and edits but 00:03:53.169 --> 00:03:55.830 i didn't really lose anything important from 00:03:55.830 --> 00:04:00.169 the conversation after i edited the discussion. 00:04:00.490 --> 00:04:03.770 Also at the time of the recording I hadn't really 00:04:03.770 --> 00:04:07.229 reviewed the photos and the video I took on that 00:04:07.229 --> 00:04:10.469 day so some of the details we talk about aren't 00:04:10.469 --> 00:04:13.669 entirely accurate so immediately following the 00:04:13.669 --> 00:04:17.910 recorded portion I did an additional segment 00:04:17.910 --> 00:04:22.329 providing more information and background on 00:04:22.329 --> 00:04:26.279 our findings up on Connecticut Hill. So make 00:04:26.279 --> 00:04:29.339 sure after the conversation part, you stick around 00:04:29.339 --> 00:04:32.839 and listen to that follow up segment. So thanks 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:34.939 again for listening. I'm so glad you're here. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:45.660 And let's get to my conversation with Rick. Thanks 00:04:45.660 --> 00:04:47.939 for talking to me tonight, Rick. Hey, Jim, it's 00:04:47.939 --> 00:04:50.379 great talking to you. How you doing? I'm doing 00:04:50.379 --> 00:04:54.209 great. How are you? Pretty good. A little. hectic 00:04:54.209 --> 00:04:57.410 uh schedule going on but you know that's nothing 00:04:57.410 --> 00:05:00.769 there yeah yep yeah we had some technical issues 00:05:00.769 --> 00:05:04.970 and and other uh other issues but uh but thankfully 00:05:04.970 --> 00:05:08.370 we're getting into it now so um so how long have 00:05:08.370 --> 00:05:11.930 you lived in alpine and kind of what brought 00:05:11.930 --> 00:05:16.670 you to the area so actually living here that 00:05:16.670 --> 00:05:22.100 uh we bought a farm in 2018. So that puts us 00:05:22.100 --> 00:05:26.339 right around the seven -year mark. We've been 00:05:26.339 --> 00:05:31.220 coming to the area, though, for at least 15 to 00:05:31.220 --> 00:05:37.319 20 years, hunting and fishing up here. And you're 00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:39.379 a listener of the podcast, which I appreciate. 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:43.199 And then you heard episode six that I recorded 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:48.100 at Willard Cemetery with Soraya Azkath from Where 00:05:48.100 --> 00:05:51.250 Did the Road Go podcast. What was it about that 00:05:51.250 --> 00:05:53.889 episode that grabbed your attention and prompted 00:05:53.889 --> 00:05:58.529 you to email me? So the state of New York up 00:05:58.529 --> 00:06:03.470 on Connecticut Hill every fall has a rifle season 00:06:03.470 --> 00:06:10.930 for hunting deer. And during that time, you pretty 00:06:10.930 --> 00:06:14.730 much walk almost every foot trail through the 00:06:14.730 --> 00:06:21.339 woods and traverse all these ledges. small uh 00:06:21.339 --> 00:06:24.920 i call them hills but some might call them a 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:29.480 mountain but it um you're you're searching for 00:06:29.480 --> 00:06:32.839 deer and you're not leaving any area untouched 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:36.540 while you're doing these things so there's a 00:06:36.540 --> 00:06:40.879 good amount of walking involved uh you do definitely 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:45.639 get your 10 000 plus steps in during deer season 00:06:45.639 --> 00:06:51.379 and i had come down from one of the trails off 00:06:51.379 --> 00:06:56.920 of uh the hill here and it's actually an old 00:06:56.920 --> 00:07:00.139 logging road which makes it easier to get through 00:07:00.139 --> 00:07:05.899 the woods and when it came down into the ravine 00:07:05.899 --> 00:07:12.540 i had noticed a pile of rocks and just from talking 00:07:12.540 --> 00:07:15.540 with one of the neighbors up here he had said 00:07:15.540 --> 00:07:21.050 that there are several Um, he, he terms them 00:07:21.050 --> 00:07:24.509 as Indian burial areas where they would find, 00:07:24.649 --> 00:07:27.610 uh, arrowheads and stuff like that when they 00:07:27.610 --> 00:07:31.889 were kids. Uh, so I took a couple pictures of 00:07:31.889 --> 00:07:35.470 them and I never thought anything about it. And 00:07:35.470 --> 00:07:38.629 it kind of just sat on my phone. I never really 00:07:38.629 --> 00:07:44.490 showed anyone the pictures. And then when I was 00:07:44.490 --> 00:07:48.779 listening to the show, I, it kind of like. sparked 00:07:48.779 --> 00:07:55.199 a memory that I had a photo of a mound. So I 00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:58.339 searched my phone and went back a few years. 00:07:58.459 --> 00:08:03.639 It was actually 2021, I believe, the photos from. 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:07.800 And I was like, I'm going to send this to Jim 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:10.980 and, you know, just see what he thinks about 00:08:10.980 --> 00:08:14.420 it. And I don't know if he wants to show it to 00:08:14.420 --> 00:08:16.939 that other fellow there, but that's what had 00:08:16.939 --> 00:08:19.980 happened. Yeah. And when I got the photos from 00:08:19.980 --> 00:08:22.339 you, I took one look at them. I'm like, yeah, 00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:24.459 that looks, you know, depending on where it's 00:08:24.459 --> 00:08:26.480 located. And that's the other key with these 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:28.759 kind of stone piles is, you know, some of them 00:08:28.759 --> 00:08:31.139 could be colonial fences. Some of them could 00:08:31.139 --> 00:08:34.759 be the result of land clearing or a property 00:08:34.759 --> 00:08:38.460 line. But from the looks of the photos, those 00:08:38.460 --> 00:08:41.220 look to me like one of the ancient stone piles 00:08:41.220 --> 00:08:43.679 or Indian stone piles, whatever you want to call 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:45.860 them. I think they're also called stone cairns. 00:08:46.269 --> 00:08:49.649 So yeah, the photos definitely got my attention. 00:08:49.769 --> 00:08:53.909 And you graciously offered to bring me up on 00:08:53.909 --> 00:08:57.110 the hill and take a look at the mounds of stones. 00:08:57.250 --> 00:09:00.629 So we went back and forth. We worked out a date. 00:09:00.690 --> 00:09:04.190 And then one Sunday morning a few weeks ago, 00:09:04.269 --> 00:09:07.009 I drove down from Geneva. Took me about an hour. 00:09:07.049 --> 00:09:09.820 It's a beautiful drive coming down. Because Geneva's, 00:09:09.820 --> 00:09:13.600 the upper area of the lake is relatively flat. 00:09:13.700 --> 00:09:15.500 There's some rolling hills and stuff. But as 00:09:15.500 --> 00:09:18.419 you go further south, there's more woods. There's 00:09:18.419 --> 00:09:20.980 more hills. The hills get bigger. It was a beautiful 00:09:20.980 --> 00:09:26.019 day. It was a hot day with all the. Very hot. 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:31.360 Yeah. Very, very hot day. Yep. So, but I got 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:35.139 down there and got to your house. And right off 00:09:35.139 --> 00:09:39.360 the bat, you gave me two. Wonderful gifts. One, 00:09:39.539 --> 00:09:43.919 a pair of topographic maps covering Connecticut 00:09:43.919 --> 00:09:51.019 Hill and some bug spray. I don't even think that 00:09:51.019 --> 00:09:55.100 we actually... I was more thinking of ticks in 00:09:55.100 --> 00:09:59.000 the woods. I was not even considering horseflies, 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:02.559 which the hill is just riddled with them right 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:07.580 now. Right. Being a hunter, I never... in the 00:10:07.580 --> 00:10:10.759 woods at this time of year. We usually don't 00:10:10.759 --> 00:10:14.899 go up there until, you know, October time and 00:10:14.899 --> 00:10:21.159 then right into January. So the actual thing 00:10:21.159 --> 00:10:23.659 that I was more worried about were ticks, not 00:10:23.659 --> 00:10:27.659 horseflies, which was just amazing when we rolled 00:10:27.659 --> 00:10:32.960 the car up and there had to be what, 5 ,000 horseflies 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:36.840 attacking your car at once. Yeah, they saw us 00:10:36.840 --> 00:10:40.259 coming and it just came in a big cloud. But overall, 00:10:40.460 --> 00:10:43.000 I mean, for the day, I didn't have any ticks 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:45.759 on me. I know you didn't. And, you know, I think 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:47.480 I might have gotten nipped a few times by the 00:10:47.480 --> 00:10:50.840 horseflies. But fortunately, it was not that 00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:54.700 bad of a day up there in terms of bugs. So we 00:10:54.700 --> 00:10:58.740 got in your pickup truck and we went up on the 00:10:58.740 --> 00:11:02.320 hill and we parked at a spot that you were familiar 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:05.899 with. We didn't go to like a trailhead. or anything 00:11:05.899 --> 00:11:07.759 like that for the Finger Lakes Trail, we went 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:11.299 and parked near a field that you're familiar 00:11:11.299 --> 00:11:15.740 with, right? Yeah. And the real reason being 00:11:15.740 --> 00:11:21.179 was the actual point of where that stone pile 00:11:21.179 --> 00:11:29.759 is. A lot of logging and overgrowth of the fields 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:34.360 made it difficult to actually get into that area. 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:37.610 Right. So, yeah, we got out of the truck and 00:11:37.610 --> 00:11:42.610 we started walking through the field. And immediately 00:11:42.610 --> 00:11:46.850 I realized that I'm not in the physical shape 00:11:46.850 --> 00:11:50.409 I thought I was in. I mean, I was prepared. I 00:11:50.409 --> 00:11:53.570 was prepared to walk. I mean, I expected we were 00:11:53.570 --> 00:11:55.210 going to get in there and it was going to be 00:11:55.210 --> 00:11:57.269 rough terrain and it was going to wear me out 00:11:57.269 --> 00:12:00.549 a bit. But the field hadn't been a mode for a 00:12:00.549 --> 00:12:04.230 long time. So the grass was like up to our waists. 00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:07.779 That's just like walking through sludge or like 00:12:07.779 --> 00:12:12.019 snow. I had traversed in there one time when 00:12:12.019 --> 00:12:14.500 there was about eight to 10 inches of snow during 00:12:14.500 --> 00:12:19.639 muzzleloader season through here. And it's one 00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:23.240 of the hardest things to walk through. But that 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:28.159 grass was just amazing how hard that was. Yes. 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:31.080 Pulling at your body as you're walking through. 00:12:31.820 --> 00:12:34.659 But man, I really thought we were going to have 00:12:34.659 --> 00:12:37.279 to take the problem after we got out of there. 00:12:37.559 --> 00:12:45.139 But either way, we made it out. Yep. So we got 00:12:45.139 --> 00:12:48.659 through the field. And then I don't remember 00:12:48.659 --> 00:12:53.720 exactly how it all played out from there, like 00:12:53.720 --> 00:12:56.159 where we went. But you had your phone with you 00:12:56.159 --> 00:12:59.980 and you had the location where the photos were 00:12:59.980 --> 00:13:04.830 taken. However, there's no cell service up there. 00:13:05.169 --> 00:13:09.809 Right. So the actual area is like a dead zone 00:13:09.809 --> 00:13:14.769 for cell phones. So it makes it very difficult. 00:13:14.909 --> 00:13:21.250 You'll go into SOS mode quite a bit. So without 00:13:21.250 --> 00:13:31.860 knowing the hill, you can get lost. hunters that 00:13:31.860 --> 00:13:34.840 just get lost up there. They get turned around. 00:13:35.399 --> 00:13:39.779 And from what you saw with me, I'm pretty sure 00:13:39.779 --> 00:13:42.740 that you were kind of like, gosh, I hope he knows 00:13:42.740 --> 00:13:47.559 where he's going next. Yeah, that was in my head, 00:13:47.620 --> 00:13:49.740 but I just kept trusting him. I was like, all 00:13:49.740 --> 00:13:51.399 right, he's been here. He's been coming here 00:13:51.399 --> 00:13:53.899 for years. He knows where he's going. I tried 00:13:53.899 --> 00:13:57.940 to kind of keep the location in my head or just 00:13:57.940 --> 00:14:00.320 kind of keep my bearings. as to where we were 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:03.419 going, but, but, you know, the combination of 00:14:03.419 --> 00:14:06.679 it being totally unfamiliar to me and being really 00:14:06.679 --> 00:14:10.279 hot and being, you know, I was exerting a lot 00:14:10.279 --> 00:14:13.740 of energy. At some point I was just like, I don't 00:14:13.740 --> 00:14:16.659 even know. I have no idea where I am. So, so 00:14:16.659 --> 00:14:20.460 I'm just following you. Yeah. And we wound up 00:14:20.460 --> 00:14:23.340 catching up with one of the loops to make some 00:14:23.340 --> 00:14:26.840 of it a little bit easier. Yep. Once we got to 00:14:26.840 --> 00:14:30.820 the end of the trail. We had to come off the 00:14:30.820 --> 00:14:34.240 trail to get to where these stone piles were. 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:39.000 And I really think that at the time when I took 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:42.759 the pictures, the satellite must have been in 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:47.220 SOS mode because it wasn't giving us like a true 00:14:47.220 --> 00:14:50.940 final bearing to follow. Right. To actually get 00:14:50.940 --> 00:14:55.340 to the exact spot, which was, I guess it was 00:14:55.340 --> 00:14:59.000 a little frustrating, you know? Yeah. But I know 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:01.759 that from looking at when I took the photos, 00:15:01.899 --> 00:15:04.399 the time that the photos were taken, we were 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:08.340 probably walking around for about an hour. And 00:15:08.340 --> 00:15:12.120 I do distinctly remember right before we found 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:14.580 the stone piles, we were at the bottom of a ravine. 00:15:15.120 --> 00:15:17.919 And we were just kind of looking around like, 00:15:18.019 --> 00:15:20.980 not sure where it is. Where can it be? And I 00:15:20.980 --> 00:15:22.779 remember I said to you, I said, you know what? 00:15:22.940 --> 00:15:25.100 Honestly, if you just want to call it a wash, 00:15:25.259 --> 00:15:29.750 we can. And you were like. I think it's up here. 00:15:29.830 --> 00:15:34.649 Let's go up this hill, back up the ravine. What 00:15:34.649 --> 00:15:38.090 kind of like stirred my thing is because I don't 00:15:38.090 --> 00:15:42.409 remember being at the very bottom of the ravine. 00:15:42.490 --> 00:15:46.429 I remember being kind of like halfway to almost 00:15:46.429 --> 00:15:50.649 like a third of the way up from the bottom. And 00:15:50.649 --> 00:15:53.950 you got to remember, I was just hunting deer. 00:15:54.129 --> 00:15:58.480 So to see it and then take a picture. You know, 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:01.679 it kind of went out of my mind after that. So, 00:16:01.740 --> 00:16:05.259 you know, it's not like it's not like something 00:16:05.259 --> 00:16:09.919 you would walk up on at any given moment. They're 00:16:09.919 --> 00:16:13.580 pretty concealed in those woods. They're off 00:16:13.580 --> 00:16:18.000 trail. And if you don't really know that woods, 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:21.740 you're going to get lost. Right. Right. And they're 00:16:21.740 --> 00:16:24.139 also I mean, they're concealed because they're 00:16:24.139 --> 00:16:26.899 so overgrown. There's trees growing through. 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:29.320 you know, small trees growing through some of 00:16:29.320 --> 00:16:32.019 the, some of the ones that we found. So, so we 00:16:32.019 --> 00:16:34.519 headed back up the ravine, you know, walk for, 00:16:34.539 --> 00:16:36.960 walk for a few minutes, stop, catch our breath, 00:16:37.059 --> 00:16:39.980 walk for a few minutes. And then, so we were 00:16:39.980 --> 00:16:44.299 going up the hill in the direction of where you 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:47.419 thought the stone piles were. And before we got 00:16:47.419 --> 00:16:49.720 to that point, all of a sudden you look down 00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:52.679 and you're like, wait a minute, there's, this 00:16:52.679 --> 00:16:57.210 looks like a stone pile. That was just. utterly 00:16:57.210 --> 00:17:02.889 bizarre i mean to actually find another one would 00:17:02.889 --> 00:17:06.049 be like you know to be so far off the beaten 00:17:06.049 --> 00:17:09.349 path and off the trail and then just walk up 00:17:09.349 --> 00:17:13.210 on it it was just incredible that it was there 00:17:13.210 --> 00:17:18.509 like yeah just it was there and it was on a different 00:17:18.509 --> 00:17:22.930 it's different than the ones i found on the other 00:17:22.930 --> 00:17:25.650 side of the ravine which is a whole nother story 00:17:26.250 --> 00:17:32.029 You know, I mean, you can tell what you saw. 00:17:32.269 --> 00:17:36.869 I mean, I saw what I thought would be like a 00:17:36.869 --> 00:17:39.650 giant arrow. That's the way I would describe 00:17:39.650 --> 00:17:44.009 it. It had like straight section of about, I 00:17:44.009 --> 00:17:47.170 don't know, 100 feet with stones that were like 00:17:47.170 --> 00:17:51.150 at least four foot by two foot wide and a straight 00:17:51.150 --> 00:17:57.000 line. And then at the head of it. was a triangle 00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:01.460 -shaped pile of stones which looked like an arrowhead. 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:05.240 So, I mean, that's what we found. And it was, 00:18:05.380 --> 00:18:09.160 you know, just utterly bizarre that we just walked 00:18:09.160 --> 00:18:12.200 right into it. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, 00:18:12.220 --> 00:18:15.740 we were looking for a completely different stone 00:18:15.740 --> 00:18:19.140 pile and it just, it was in our path. I mean, 00:18:19.180 --> 00:18:21.460 we didn't, we weren't looking for that specifically. 00:18:21.539 --> 00:18:24.539 It just ended up being in our path. And yeah, 00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:27.119 what we, what it looked like to me, I agree that 00:18:27.119 --> 00:18:30.779 it looked, it did look like, like the one main 00:18:30.779 --> 00:18:35.539 pile that we first found, which was at a somewhat 00:18:35.539 --> 00:18:39.180 large size boulder at the, at the quote unquote 00:18:39.180 --> 00:18:42.980 tip of the arrow, which is pointing almost due 00:18:42.980 --> 00:18:46.480 north from what, from what I remember. Yeah. 00:18:46.740 --> 00:18:50.240 And at first I'm looking at the pile and I'm 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:54.829 like, wow, this is a big pile of stones. In the 00:18:54.829 --> 00:18:58.329 whole ravine, I mean, you see a stone here, a 00:18:58.329 --> 00:19:01.230 rock there, but you don't see more than two of 00:19:01.230 --> 00:19:04.069 them in any given area. And there were probably, 00:19:04.269 --> 00:19:06.609 I don't know, dozens of them all in this big 00:19:06.609 --> 00:19:10.109 pile. And as I'm looking at it, I was kind of 00:19:10.109 --> 00:19:13.950 going to the south end of it. I was like, where 00:19:13.950 --> 00:19:16.809 exactly does this pile end? And then I look to 00:19:16.809 --> 00:19:20.349 my left and there's another boulder like a little 00:19:20.349 --> 00:19:24.559 further up. maybe 10 feet, 15 feet away. So I'm 00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:27.099 like, oh, I wonder if that's part of this. And 00:19:27.099 --> 00:19:29.920 I walk over and that one also is surrounded by 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:33.000 stones, other smaller, different sized stones 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:35.619 all around it. I look up again, there's another 00:19:35.619 --> 00:19:38.319 boulder. Walk up to that one, same thing. There's 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:41.420 stones around it. It was hard to tell if it was 00:19:41.420 --> 00:19:45.200 all one big long pile or not. And then there 00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:46.859 was another boulder. I think there ended up. 00:19:47.259 --> 00:19:49.839 From, from the main pile that we stumbled upon, 00:19:49.900 --> 00:19:52.960 I think there were like three or four other boulders 00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:57.259 all lined up in a perfectly straight line, um, 00:19:57.420 --> 00:20:00.819 connecting the whole thing. And yeah, I see where, 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:02.759 uh, where you could, where you could get that. 00:20:02.819 --> 00:20:06.660 It's, it's the shape of an arrow because it was, 00:20:06.660 --> 00:20:09.400 it was such a, it was, it was a straight line. 00:20:09.480 --> 00:20:12.759 And then the, the stones came to the point right 00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:17.529 at the end. Yeah. And, um, so I. I was curious 00:20:17.529 --> 00:20:21.029 because once I started to take a picture of that 00:20:21.029 --> 00:20:26.650 group of stones there, I wanted to see what it 00:20:26.650 --> 00:20:31.490 would show me as a GPS plot location for the 00:20:31.490 --> 00:20:37.230 picture. And ironically enough, it was dead straight 00:20:37.230 --> 00:20:41.470 across from where my map was showing the other 00:20:41.470 --> 00:20:45.490 stone pile. So it was almost as if the arrow... 00:20:45.950 --> 00:20:49.190 head was pointing directly to that other stone 00:20:49.190 --> 00:20:52.809 pile yeah which was kind of amazing to me as 00:20:52.809 --> 00:20:55.470 well yeah and that is something that they found 00:20:55.470 --> 00:20:57.170 with these with different earthworks different 00:20:57.170 --> 00:20:59.849 stone piles as you think you found one but it's 00:20:59.849 --> 00:21:02.049 actually part of a of a bunch of them or part 00:21:02.049 --> 00:21:06.009 of like a complex of uh of piles and then also 00:21:06.009 --> 00:21:09.630 when you were looking on the uh on the gps that 00:21:09.630 --> 00:21:14.009 particular area where we were on on google maps 00:21:14.009 --> 00:21:18.400 on the satellite was blurred out. Yeah, that, 00:21:18.519 --> 00:21:21.400 that was kind of tricky too. I don't know why 00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:26.759 just that one area where we were was, was almost 00:21:26.759 --> 00:21:30.019 like a blur on the Google maps. It wouldn't come 00:21:30.019 --> 00:21:33.839 in clear, but yet you could go to another point 00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:36.680 on the Google maps and it was clear and you could 00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:40.039 see the ground and, you know, see trees and all 00:21:40.039 --> 00:21:43.680 that stuff. Like you would. But where these things 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:49.640 were was all a blur. Right. And yeah, so I took 00:21:49.640 --> 00:21:52.400 as many pictures as I could. I took some video. 00:21:53.160 --> 00:21:55.940 And I'm going to take that video and edit it 00:21:55.940 --> 00:21:59.000 and add some commentary to it and post that along 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:02.480 with this episode so people can kind of see what's 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:04.599 going on. Oh, and the other thing I was going 00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:06.920 to say is when I did a little bit more research 00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:10.700 about stone piles, a lot of these have been found. 00:22:11.210 --> 00:22:15.369 to be constructed around a central boulder. So 00:22:15.369 --> 00:22:18.029 whoever built them would put a large boulder 00:22:18.029 --> 00:22:21.309 in the middle and then stack stones around or 00:22:21.309 --> 00:22:24.130 on top of the boulder, sometimes leaving the 00:22:24.130 --> 00:22:26.390 center empty or leaving kind of an indentation 00:22:26.390 --> 00:22:29.690 in it. So when I saw all these larger stones, 00:22:30.009 --> 00:22:31.809 I'm calling them boulders, but like you said, 00:22:31.849 --> 00:22:34.829 they were two feet by four feet, something like 00:22:34.829 --> 00:22:37.309 that. They're big stones. If someone had to move 00:22:37.309 --> 00:22:39.190 them, that would have taken a whole lot of work, 00:22:39.269 --> 00:22:41.549 especially... whether they were going up or down 00:22:41.549 --> 00:22:44.890 that ravine. But it intrigued me that a lot of 00:22:44.890 --> 00:22:48.750 these were piles, the stone piles were each around 00:22:48.750 --> 00:22:52.210 these central boulders. It makes me wonder if 00:22:52.210 --> 00:22:55.390 they're so old that they were actually stacked 00:22:55.390 --> 00:22:58.130 up higher at one time, but because it's in a 00:22:58.130 --> 00:23:01.890 ravine and, you know, a lot of erosion over hundreds 00:23:01.890 --> 00:23:04.730 of years or who knows how long, maybe the stones 00:23:04.730 --> 00:23:08.079 kind of fell around. I'm not sure, but... It 00:23:08.079 --> 00:23:11.960 was, I mean, not only was it a really intriguing 00:23:11.960 --> 00:23:16.259 and crazy thing to stumble upon, but it wasn't 00:23:16.259 --> 00:23:21.160 the one we were looking for. That's the oddity 00:23:21.160 --> 00:23:24.720 of it all. And I think the other oddity is how 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:28.279 it actually was pointing to where we should have 00:23:28.279 --> 00:23:31.880 been. But at the condition we were in and the 00:23:31.880 --> 00:23:35.039 heat, the scale that other side of that ravine 00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:38.670 would have been. An undertaking to say the least. 00:23:39.029 --> 00:23:41.210 Oh yeah. I don't, I don't know if I would have 00:23:41.210 --> 00:23:45.150 made it. There's definitely another trip in the 00:23:45.150 --> 00:23:48.390 future here. Yeah, for sure. So yeah, after we 00:23:48.390 --> 00:23:52.150 took a, took a good look at the pile, we headed 00:23:52.150 --> 00:23:54.869 back up the ravine, which ended up connecting 00:23:54.869 --> 00:23:58.029 with one of the main trails and found our way 00:23:58.029 --> 00:24:00.509 back to the truck. I think we found our way back 00:24:00.509 --> 00:24:02.369 a little bit easier than we found our way in 00:24:02.369 --> 00:24:06.480 for sure. Yeah. And also all those all those 00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:09.640 trails. Once I realized which one we were on, 00:24:09.740 --> 00:24:12.559 I knew right where I had to go and where I had 00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:15.579 to be. Yeah. At that point. But it's you know, 00:24:15.579 --> 00:24:18.720 you're talking to go off trail like that. If 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:22.359 you don't have someone with you that knows the 00:24:22.359 --> 00:24:24.839 woods or whatever, you could get into trouble 00:24:24.839 --> 00:24:29.900 out there for sure. There's some nasty drop offs 00:24:29.900 --> 00:24:33.720 into the. The ravine where the creek flows through 00:24:33.720 --> 00:24:37.420 there and it's quite a drop. I mean, you would, 00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:40.339 you've got a good chance of breaking a leg and 00:24:40.339 --> 00:24:43.079 trying to get yourself out of there. If you did 00:24:43.079 --> 00:24:46.099 do that would be a catastrophe. Yeah. Yeah, for 00:24:46.099 --> 00:24:49.259 sure. Also, I just, I did want to mention that 00:24:49.259 --> 00:24:52.359 when we earlier on, when we were in there, probably, 00:24:52.400 --> 00:24:55.299 I don't know, 20 minutes into our walk, we came 00:24:55.299 --> 00:25:00.059 upon a point where. The trail split off in like 00:25:00.059 --> 00:25:03.720 three directions. And you made the mistake of 00:25:03.720 --> 00:25:07.119 asking me which direction we should go in. So 00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:09.319 I was like, I think the middle, I think the one 00:25:09.319 --> 00:25:12.339 that I picked. And that was how we ended up getting 00:25:12.339 --> 00:25:16.220 turned around in the first place. Yeah. Yeah. 00:25:16.299 --> 00:25:23.240 And, you know, sometimes I just like to just 00:25:23.240 --> 00:25:26.940 let the person that's with me make a choice on. 00:25:27.450 --> 00:25:30.190 Which way to go. I would have stopped you if 00:25:30.190 --> 00:25:32.250 we were going somewhere we shouldn't have been. 00:25:32.609 --> 00:25:36.029 Yeah. But you were, you had, you had, there was 00:25:36.029 --> 00:25:39.109 a sense of direction there. So, you know. Yeah. 00:25:39.410 --> 00:25:41.990 And yeah, I mean, usually I'll rely on intuition 00:25:41.990 --> 00:25:44.150 or whatever, but I don't think my intuition was 00:25:44.150 --> 00:25:46.730 working. I think I was, I was hot and a little 00:25:46.730 --> 00:25:49.690 disoriented or whatever. So, so we got back to 00:25:49.690 --> 00:25:52.930 one of the main trails and found our way back 00:25:52.930 --> 00:25:54.990 to the truck, but it wasn't done. We weren't 00:25:54.990 --> 00:25:58.380 done yet. You. Took me for a trip up to the Connecticut 00:25:58.380 --> 00:26:01.259 Hill Cemetery, or I think it's also called Snyder 00:26:01.259 --> 00:26:05.579 Hill Cemetery. Yep, that's correct. And this 00:26:05.579 --> 00:26:10.539 is the location of the witch's grave. Right. 00:26:10.680 --> 00:26:13.299 So, yeah, we went in there. We took a look around. 00:26:13.400 --> 00:26:17.400 We saw the famous grave of Elizabeth, which someone 00:26:17.400 --> 00:26:19.579 had knocked the tombstone down a few years ago. 00:26:19.660 --> 00:26:21.640 And there were little trinkets and offerings 00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:25.140 that had been left in coins by the people who 00:26:25.140 --> 00:26:27.440 visited there. Um, there were a couple of people 00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:29.759 there when we got there and they were just leaving, 00:26:29.859 --> 00:26:32.539 but also it's, I do want to mention to anybody 00:26:32.539 --> 00:26:35.019 who's getting any ideas of going up there is 00:26:35.019 --> 00:26:37.859 make sure you have four wheel drive, whatever 00:26:37.859 --> 00:26:40.559 you're bringing up there, um, or at minimum all 00:26:40.559 --> 00:26:44.740 wheel drive and don't get too creative on which, 00:26:44.839 --> 00:26:47.440 which roads you're going to go down because some 00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:52.589 of them are really washed out. And, um, Yeah, 00:26:52.650 --> 00:26:55.890 there's a couple of Jeep clubs that go up there, 00:26:56.069 --> 00:27:01.130 which we ran into on the way out. But, you know, 00:27:01.170 --> 00:27:04.549 those roads, some of the ditches are over three 00:27:04.549 --> 00:27:08.569 foot deep. So even a four wheel drive truck would 00:27:08.569 --> 00:27:12.549 get stuck on their bottom of the truck and not 00:27:12.549 --> 00:27:14.470 be able to get out of there if you didn't have 00:27:14.470 --> 00:27:18.210 four wheel drive or something. So after we were 00:27:18.210 --> 00:27:21.980 done with the cemetery. I wanted to show you 00:27:21.980 --> 00:27:27.599 the schoolhouse foundation, which there used 00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:32.559 to be a schoolhouse up there. And a lot of stories 00:27:32.559 --> 00:27:38.619 tell about people hearing children playing in 00:27:38.619 --> 00:27:42.619 the school grounds, which is actually a dense 00:27:42.619 --> 00:27:46.779 woods now. There's hardly anything that resembles 00:27:46.779 --> 00:27:51.819 a school there. Schoolhouse road is the one that 00:27:51.819 --> 00:27:55.920 takes you out there and I would not traverse 00:27:55.920 --> 00:27:59.680 that without four wheel drive. No, no, no. And 00:27:59.680 --> 00:28:03.140 a lot of these roads, once you get going, you 00:28:03.140 --> 00:28:05.779 can't turn around until you come to either the 00:28:05.779 --> 00:28:08.460 end where there's a bigger opening to turn around. 00:28:08.759 --> 00:28:11.859 Right. In the middle there, you're not going 00:28:11.859 --> 00:28:15.680 to turn around. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So 00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:18.180 we visited the cemetery. Nothing crazy happened. 00:28:18.259 --> 00:28:21.119 I didn't I didn't have any strange feelings or 00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:24.180 hear any voices or but I could I could get us 00:28:24.180 --> 00:28:26.500 I could kind of tell why why it is a popular 00:28:26.500 --> 00:28:28.980 place for people because it does have a it definitely 00:28:28.980 --> 00:28:32.339 does have a weird vibe because it's so old and 00:28:32.339 --> 00:28:34.920 it doesn't look like a cemetery. It looks like, 00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:38.480 you know, a wooded area. But then as you look 00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:40.220 through the weeds and everything, there's just 00:28:40.220 --> 00:28:43.019 there's a tombstone here, a tombstone here. Yeah. 00:28:43.359 --> 00:28:45.660 They date back quite a bit, some of them, into 00:28:45.660 --> 00:28:50.480 the 1700s and early 1800s. So you see, you know, 00:28:50.480 --> 00:28:54.059 the past of Connecticut Hill is there for sure. 00:28:54.380 --> 00:28:56.740 Yep, for sure. And same thing with the schoolhouse. 00:28:56.839 --> 00:29:00.819 It was really cool to see, but, you know, nothing 00:29:00.819 --> 00:29:06.700 paranormal or whatever happened when we stopped 00:29:06.700 --> 00:29:09.359 off there. I remember we were there at 2 o 'clock 00:29:09.359 --> 00:29:12.559 in the afternoon, so we would have time to... 00:29:13.119 --> 00:29:15.160 like through the trails there without getting 00:29:15.160 --> 00:29:18.799 into dark or something like that. Right. But 00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:21.799 I, I liked your comment about the schoolhouse 00:29:21.799 --> 00:29:25.039 and how remote it was and how, how would you 00:29:25.039 --> 00:29:27.079 bring your kid all the way out to that school? 00:29:27.380 --> 00:29:32.059 Right. I mean, I guess, you know, years ago there 00:29:32.059 --> 00:29:35.140 was, there were a lot more people living up on 00:29:35.140 --> 00:29:38.079 the hill, but yeah, it, it didn't, it, it was 00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:40.700 just a weird place to find a schoolhouse. Like 00:29:40.700 --> 00:29:46.509 how. And why would you find a place and put your 00:29:46.509 --> 00:29:49.190 schoolhouse? Seems like a place that's so hard 00:29:49.190 --> 00:29:53.130 to get to. Yeah. I couldn't even imagine trying 00:29:53.130 --> 00:29:55.849 to take a carriage, a horse and carriage out 00:29:55.849 --> 00:29:59.170 there. You would have to walk to all these places. 00:29:59.269 --> 00:30:01.869 That's the only thing I could think of. Right. 00:30:02.130 --> 00:30:04.890 You know? So it took you two hours to get to 00:30:04.890 --> 00:30:06.910 school in the morning and two hours to get back 00:30:06.910 --> 00:30:12.220 home. So, yeah, then we. Then we kind of headed 00:30:12.220 --> 00:30:15.440 back. We did go by, I remember, you know, you 00:30:15.440 --> 00:30:17.019 were pointing out different things. We went by 00:30:17.019 --> 00:30:20.779 like a pond, a pond that's up there. Yeah, they 00:30:20.779 --> 00:30:25.799 referenced it as the Beaver Pond. There's similar 00:30:25.799 --> 00:30:29.460 stories that there once was a mill there. I don't 00:30:29.460 --> 00:30:32.539 know for sure if there was or wasn't. I'd never 00:30:32.539 --> 00:30:37.660 found the foundation of it or anything, but that 00:30:37.660 --> 00:30:42.140 pond is spring fed. So there's always water in 00:30:42.140 --> 00:30:46.500 there and it's cool. And it's a good place to 00:30:46.500 --> 00:30:49.759 take a swim, which should have probably jumped 00:30:49.759 --> 00:30:52.960 in and cooled off a little bit. Yeah. And it's 00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:55.559 interesting to me that that spring fed pond actually 00:30:55.559 --> 00:30:59.500 eventually ends up in Seneca Lake. So ties it 00:30:59.500 --> 00:31:03.740 all together. Yeah. And what is really cool about 00:31:03.740 --> 00:31:08.579 that area is it's the point where some places. 00:31:09.529 --> 00:31:14.650 drain to the south and some streams drain to 00:31:14.650 --> 00:31:18.829 the north. So that's like a divide there where 00:31:18.829 --> 00:31:24.190 that all happens. And yeah, if you do some research 00:31:24.190 --> 00:31:28.750 into it, you'll see that, um, there's cat, uh, 00:31:28.930 --> 00:31:33.970 I believe it's Cayuga Creek and that one runs 00:31:33.970 --> 00:31:42.009 down to, um, the Susquehanna, but yet the other 00:31:42.009 --> 00:31:47.829 one runs to Seneca Lake from there. I mean, they're 00:31:47.829 --> 00:31:52.910 going in different directions, but I guess it's 00:31:52.910 --> 00:31:57.150 just the way the ground is from there. Sure. 00:31:57.369 --> 00:32:01.630 Interestingly enough, that could be part of the 00:32:01.630 --> 00:32:06.410 oddity in the whole Alpine portal thing is that 00:32:06.839 --> 00:32:10.940 That area is like a water divide, like it splits 00:32:10.940 --> 00:32:15.380 there. Right. That completely slipped my mind 00:32:15.380 --> 00:32:19.700 until you brought it up just now. Yeah. Yeah, 00:32:19.759 --> 00:32:22.420 I didn't know that. It's a place in between the 00:32:22.420 --> 00:32:27.019 two. It's sort of a liminal location, which ties 00:32:27.019 --> 00:32:31.359 in with what everybody says about Connecticut 00:32:31.359 --> 00:32:33.559 Hill or the Alpine Portal, whatever you want 00:32:33.559 --> 00:32:36.660 to, whichever one you prefer. It would be interesting 00:32:36.660 --> 00:32:40.339 to have that fellow look at if there are any 00:32:40.339 --> 00:32:45.079 ley lines in that area that you find on his map 00:32:45.079 --> 00:32:48.720 that you had on that other episode there. Yeah, 00:32:48.720 --> 00:32:52.160 for sure. So yeah, from there, I think we just 00:32:52.160 --> 00:32:55.940 made our way back to the house. I was ready to 00:32:55.940 --> 00:33:00.019 stop walking and get my other water bottle out 00:33:00.019 --> 00:33:03.319 of the car. But there was a couple of things 00:33:03.319 --> 00:33:06.910 you mentioned. right before I took off. And, 00:33:06.970 --> 00:33:09.170 you know, we went up there, we went up there 00:33:09.170 --> 00:33:12.630 looking for one spot. We ended up finding a different 00:33:12.630 --> 00:33:15.410 one. So now I know of two that are up there. 00:33:15.670 --> 00:33:19.369 And then you told me about a landform or whatever 00:33:19.369 --> 00:33:22.069 you want to call it that's up on Connecticut 00:33:22.069 --> 00:33:25.730 Hill. And do you want to tell us about that? 00:33:26.130 --> 00:33:33.029 Yeah, it's like a large quartz deposit. it would 00:33:33.029 --> 00:33:38.289 be like a just a bunch of quartz that's you know 00:33:38.289 --> 00:33:43.430 running through the area um we found a couple 00:33:43.430 --> 00:33:46.130 of rocks you know and you just kind of like pick 00:33:46.130 --> 00:33:48.069 them up and bring them home and look at them 00:33:48.069 --> 00:33:51.170 but i had showed you the one piece of quartz 00:33:51.170 --> 00:33:54.190 there with the it's got like a grayish colored 00:33:54.190 --> 00:33:57.930 metal in it yeah sure if it's lead or silver 00:33:57.930 --> 00:34:03.369 i don't know but um Yeah, it's just the whole 00:34:03.369 --> 00:34:09.150 side of the hill has large pieces of quartz that 00:34:09.150 --> 00:34:14.309 are up there. How big are they? Some are six 00:34:14.309 --> 00:34:18.750 foot pieces of quartz. So you're not going to 00:34:18.750 --> 00:34:21.010 just pick it up and walk out of there with it. 00:34:21.110 --> 00:34:25.349 Right. It's definitely like a heavy machinery 00:34:25.349 --> 00:34:30.420 kind of situation. But, you know. There's things 00:34:30.420 --> 00:34:33.739 that you're not allowed to, you know, dig up 00:34:33.739 --> 00:34:37.500 there and take out like that. So I don't want 00:34:37.500 --> 00:34:40.340 to stay away from it, but it's, it's cool to 00:34:40.340 --> 00:34:44.780 see. And it's interesting to add to, um, all 00:34:44.780 --> 00:34:49.159 of the theories about how energy and how people 00:34:49.159 --> 00:34:52.280 feel differently up there and call it the portal. 00:34:52.519 --> 00:34:56.420 And it could be just the giant energy battery 00:34:56.420 --> 00:35:00.159 from all the courts. Right. Yeah, the quartz 00:35:00.159 --> 00:35:02.739 and the metal that's running through it as well. 00:35:02.980 --> 00:35:07.820 Yeah. And the little sample that you did show 00:35:07.820 --> 00:35:11.679 me was so, so interesting. Just because, like 00:35:11.679 --> 00:35:14.340 you mentioned, it's pure quartz. And then you 00:35:14.340 --> 00:35:19.059 just see these grayish silver veins that are 00:35:19.059 --> 00:35:23.039 just running through it. Yeah. And that's exactly 00:35:23.039 --> 00:35:27.909 what the larger stones up there, you know. or 00:35:27.909 --> 00:35:31.269 coming out of the ground like that there's it's 00:35:31.269 --> 00:35:34.349 hard to determine whether how deep it goes into 00:35:34.349 --> 00:35:37.309 the ground because you can't big it but you know 00:35:37.309 --> 00:35:41.110 sticking out of the ground so yeah i mean it's 00:35:41.110 --> 00:35:44.769 huge and uh but the other the other story uh 00:35:44.769 --> 00:35:47.650 you told me that you saw some kind of strange 00:35:47.650 --> 00:35:52.829 light in the sky near the near the hill so we 00:35:52.829 --> 00:35:56.550 have a a patio in the back and we had the hot 00:35:56.550 --> 00:35:59.969 tub. So we'll spend time relaxing out on the 00:35:59.969 --> 00:36:05.710 patio and stuff. And the one night we saw what 00:36:05.710 --> 00:36:10.030 looked to me like the, it was like a orangey 00:36:10.030 --> 00:36:14.489 reddish fire. It just looks like fire, but they 00:36:14.489 --> 00:36:18.889 kind of like swing around and swirl like the 00:36:18.889 --> 00:36:22.289 fish fireworks that you would see on the 4th 00:36:22.289 --> 00:36:28.469 of July. Right. These were coming across the 00:36:28.469 --> 00:36:32.230 sky. And then when they kind of like got right 00:36:32.230 --> 00:36:36.969 over our area, which would be the north -facing 00:36:36.969 --> 00:36:42.210 side of Connecticut Hill, and they kind of like 00:36:42.210 --> 00:36:45.389 did all this swirling in the sky and then just 00:36:45.389 --> 00:36:49.969 kind of like, not burnt out, but just dissipated, 00:36:49.969 --> 00:36:54.530 I would say. They didn't. They didn't do anything 00:36:54.530 --> 00:37:00.289 spectacular. When I saw them, the first thing 00:37:00.289 --> 00:37:03.590 I thought of were Chinese lanterns, like oversized 00:37:03.590 --> 00:37:07.909 Chinese lanterns. I mean, because they look big, 00:37:08.150 --> 00:37:10.769 you know, because you're seeing them from the 00:37:10.769 --> 00:37:13.230 ground and you could see them up in the sky and 00:37:13.230 --> 00:37:17.130 they're up there a couple hundred feet. And at 00:37:17.130 --> 00:37:19.349 first I thought, okay, so maybe they're getting 00:37:19.349 --> 00:37:21.650 caught in the wind current and they're just... 00:37:21.880 --> 00:37:24.940 flailing around and I was waiting for the fire 00:37:24.940 --> 00:37:27.960 to kind of like burn whatever it was and then 00:37:27.960 --> 00:37:31.300 watch it fall to the ground, but it never fell 00:37:31.300 --> 00:37:34.699 to the ground. Like I said, they dissipated. 00:37:34.800 --> 00:37:39.760 It didn't, it didn't take off. It didn't, you 00:37:39.760 --> 00:37:42.400 know, fizzle down to the ground. Nothing like 00:37:42.400 --> 00:37:46.780 that. It just, just went out of sight. Yeah. 00:37:47.469 --> 00:37:50.829 We see a lot of the satellites and stuff, and 00:37:50.829 --> 00:37:55.730 we've seen Starlink go through. So this was definitely 00:37:55.730 --> 00:37:59.710 different. We're used to seeing those other things 00:37:59.710 --> 00:38:04.170 and planes and everything like that. But this 00:38:04.170 --> 00:38:07.989 was just something different. Yeah. All right. 00:38:08.070 --> 00:38:10.550 Yeah, I think that about covers it. It was an 00:38:10.550 --> 00:38:13.909 amazing day. And now I want to go back. I got 00:38:13.909 --> 00:38:17.920 to get back there. I'm always game for going 00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:23.000 up there. It's a really cool area. So I'd like 00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:26.380 to get you to go see that quartz that's up there, 00:38:26.440 --> 00:38:30.820 and I'd like to bring you to that original rock. 00:38:31.059 --> 00:38:35.780 Yeah, 100%. So part two. Part two coming soon. 00:38:36.019 --> 00:38:46.349 Yeah, thanks again. Thanks, Jim. So I hope you 00:38:46.349 --> 00:38:48.570 enjoyed my conversation with Rick as much as 00:38:48.570 --> 00:38:53.190 I did. It was quite an epic journey we took with 00:38:53.190 --> 00:38:57.309 quite a startling discovery along the way. So 00:38:57.309 --> 00:39:00.710 now I want to fill you in on some details that 00:39:00.710 --> 00:39:02.730 were left out of the conversation that you just 00:39:02.730 --> 00:39:05.710 heard. For starters, I said on the recording 00:39:05.710 --> 00:39:08.969 that there were three or four other boulders 00:39:08.969 --> 00:39:11.730 that were found in addition to the stone pile 00:39:11.730 --> 00:39:14.949 and the... the first stone pile and boulder that 00:39:14.949 --> 00:39:19.130 we found after reviewing the photos and the videos 00:39:19.130 --> 00:39:23.190 that I took that day there were actually far 00:39:23.190 --> 00:39:27.789 more than three or four and the totality of all 00:39:27.789 --> 00:39:31.869 the all the boulders and stone piles we found 00:39:31.869 --> 00:39:36.170 in my opinion points towards something truly 00:39:36.170 --> 00:39:41.820 unique and significant so the first stone pile 00:39:41.820 --> 00:39:46.119 that we found was roughly 20 feet long 15 to 00:39:46.119 --> 00:39:49.159 20 feet at its widest and somewhat triangular 00:39:49.159 --> 00:39:53.480 in shape with a boulder about 18 inches wide 00:39:53.480 --> 00:39:58.099 and 18 inches high placed prominently at the 00:39:58.099 --> 00:40:03.960 northern tip of the triangle about 15 feet away 00:40:03.960 --> 00:40:09.000 from the southern end of the mound of the stone 00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:13.019 pile was boulder number two which was roughly 00:40:13.019 --> 00:40:17.940 two feet by three feet then about six feet away 00:40:17.940 --> 00:40:21.380 from boulder number two was boulder number three 00:40:21.380 --> 00:40:26.199 which was slightly smaller than boulder number 00:40:26.199 --> 00:40:30.699 two at about two feet by two feet there were 00:40:30.699 --> 00:40:34.940 also smaller stones gathered around these two 00:40:34.940 --> 00:40:38.530 boulders mostly on the east side that looked 00:40:38.530 --> 00:40:42.090 somewhat like remnants of an older, smaller stone 00:40:42.090 --> 00:40:46.409 pile. Now, 15 to 20 feet from boulder number 00:40:46.409 --> 00:40:50.949 three was another stone pile, roughly 15 feet 00:40:50.949 --> 00:40:55.030 by 15 feet. Very noticeable. It included many 00:40:55.030 --> 00:40:58.909 larger stones as compared to the first stone 00:40:58.909 --> 00:41:02.710 pile. Now, this second stone pile also has a 00:41:02.710 --> 00:41:06.030 fairly mature tree, full -sized tree growing 00:41:06.030 --> 00:41:09.690 through it. which indicates that this stone pile 00:41:09.690 --> 00:41:14.590 is quite old. And about 15 feet from that second 00:41:14.590 --> 00:41:18.989 stone pile lies boulder number four, which is 00:41:18.989 --> 00:41:22.670 a large flat -topped rock that's roughly triangular 00:41:22.670 --> 00:41:26.690 on top and about three and a half to four feet 00:41:26.690 --> 00:41:32.050 in length and just under two feet high. About 00:41:32.050 --> 00:41:35.929 10 feet away from that one was boulder number 00:41:35.929 --> 00:41:39.849 five, which was partially embedded in the ground. 00:41:39.989 --> 00:41:43.650 So while it appeared to be an individual stone, 00:41:43.989 --> 00:41:47.349 it's possible, I didn't look at it closely enough, 00:41:47.429 --> 00:41:49.530 it's possible that it was actually part of the 00:41:49.530 --> 00:41:54.050 bedrock. Now boulder number five is long and 00:41:54.050 --> 00:41:58.030 rectangular, roughly four feet long and two feet 00:41:58.030 --> 00:42:02.190 wide. Now keep in mind that so far, all five 00:42:02.190 --> 00:42:04.730 of these boulders are laid out. in a straight 00:42:04.730 --> 00:42:08.269 line the trees and overgrowth made it hard to 00:42:08.269 --> 00:42:11.250 take photos showing the alignment of all these 00:42:11.250 --> 00:42:14.010 boulders but i did take one photo that shows 00:42:14.010 --> 00:42:20.030 several of the borders in a line anyway about 00:42:20.030 --> 00:42:23.710 15 feet away from boulder number five was boulder 00:42:23.710 --> 00:42:28.309 number six the most striking and conspicuous 00:42:28.809 --> 00:42:32.010 boulder in the entire arrangement. Boulder 6 00:42:32.010 --> 00:42:35.929 is probably about four feet long, three and a 00:42:35.929 --> 00:42:39.369 half to four feet high. It's more or less egg 00:42:39.369 --> 00:42:42.289 -shaped and appeared to be a very light gray, 00:42:42.489 --> 00:42:46.170 almost white color. It really stands out when 00:42:46.170 --> 00:42:49.150 you're looking at it from a distance. Now coincidentally, 00:42:49.150 --> 00:42:52.889 at the moment that I saw this big boulder, the 00:42:52.889 --> 00:42:55.780 sun was in a position where It was coming through 00:42:55.780 --> 00:42:59.059 an opening in the tree canopy and was shining 00:42:59.059 --> 00:43:02.480 directly onto this big boulder, which gave it 00:43:02.480 --> 00:43:06.579 an even more mysterious and eye -catching appearance. 00:43:07.280 --> 00:43:12.820 And finally, another 15 feet past the huge boulder 00:43:12.820 --> 00:43:16.480 number six is the final boulder in the alignment, 00:43:16.519 --> 00:43:19.760 which was roughly the same size as boulder number 00:43:19.760 --> 00:43:24.949 one, about 18 inches by 18 inches. And beyond 00:43:24.949 --> 00:43:29.849 boulder number seven, there were no other rocks 00:43:29.849 --> 00:43:34.170 in the area. So all told, the seven boulders, 00:43:34.170 --> 00:43:37.469 as well as the two large stone piles and several 00:43:37.469 --> 00:43:41.630 smaller stone piles, cover a distance of about 00:43:41.630 --> 00:43:46.389 80 to 100 feet. And they're all lined up along 00:43:46.389 --> 00:43:51.690 a near -perfect north -south alignment. Now again, 00:43:51.809 --> 00:43:55.070 this is a large ravine. very steep at points 00:43:55.070 --> 00:43:59.070 that is difficult to access. It's just not a 00:43:59.070 --> 00:44:04.190 place where farmers in the 1800s would have cleared 00:44:04.190 --> 00:44:08.989 the land for agriculture or needed to build a 00:44:08.989 --> 00:44:13.690 stone fence or a stone property boundary. And 00:44:13.690 --> 00:44:17.170 if it were some sort of glacial deposit, it wouldn't 00:44:17.170 --> 00:44:20.389 drop all the stones, including multiple large 00:44:20.389 --> 00:44:24.550 boulders. in a nearly perfect straight line along 00:44:24.550 --> 00:44:29.909 a north -south axis. So to me, the location in 00:44:29.909 --> 00:44:32.769 the ravine, the arrangement of the stones, and 00:44:32.769 --> 00:44:35.570 the size of the stones, the smallest of which 00:44:35.570 --> 00:44:38.230 were maybe eight inches across, but many that 00:44:38.230 --> 00:44:42.489 were larger, all of this points towards ancient 00:44:42.489 --> 00:44:46.929 human construction. In my estimation, this collection 00:44:46.929 --> 00:44:50.050 of boulders and stone piles, which I would call 00:44:50.050 --> 00:44:53.449 a stone complex, was built with intent and care. 00:44:53.730 --> 00:44:56.730 It might have been a trail marker, but trail 00:44:56.730 --> 00:45:00.650 markers likely wouldn't be such a large arrangement 00:45:00.650 --> 00:45:06.469 covering 80 to 100 feet total. So at this point, 00:45:06.489 --> 00:45:11.130 I believe that this is most likely an ancient, 00:45:11.230 --> 00:45:16.869 sacred, ceremonial stone complex built with intent 00:45:16.869 --> 00:45:22.090 and care. Now, I'll be releasing a video. In 00:45:22.090 --> 00:45:25.769 conjunction with this podcast. Where I will share 00:45:25.769 --> 00:45:28.210 some of the photos and footage that I captured. 00:45:28.389 --> 00:45:32.889 Of the stone complex. And explain them in detail. 00:45:33.389 --> 00:45:36.670 And show you the layout and the alignment. So 00:45:36.670 --> 00:45:40.429 check this episode's description for a link to 00:45:40.429 --> 00:45:44.829 that video. And thankfully for all of us. Rick 00:45:44.829 --> 00:45:48.429 is excited and looking forward like I am. To 00:45:48.429 --> 00:45:52.199 get back up on the hill. revisit this stone complex 00:45:52.199 --> 00:45:55.860 we found as well as the other stone pile that 00:45:55.860 --> 00:46:00.059 we were unable to locate that day and also on 00:46:00.059 --> 00:46:03.079 our future itinerary is a visit to the large 00:46:03.079 --> 00:46:06.679 quartz outcrop that's sticking out of the side 00:46:06.679 --> 00:46:09.659 of a steep remote hillside it's not only made 00:46:09.659 --> 00:46:13.280 of quartz which protrudes about six feet out 00:46:13.280 --> 00:46:16.550 from the side of the hill But that quartz also 00:46:16.550 --> 00:46:20.150 has veins of some type of gray or silver metal 00:46:20.150 --> 00:46:24.590 ore running through it. So for students of the 00:46:24.590 --> 00:46:27.070 paranormal and earth energies, this kind of outcrop 00:46:27.070 --> 00:46:32.710 is a natural sacred site that more or less generates 00:46:32.710 --> 00:46:35.570 an electromagnetic charge to the surrounding 00:46:35.570 --> 00:46:39.389 area, almost like a big battery for paranormal 00:46:39.389 --> 00:46:44.010 activity. As excited to see the quartz outcrop. 00:46:44.699 --> 00:46:48.360 as I am about seeing the ancient stone structures 00:46:48.360 --> 00:46:50.940 again and getting a look at that other stone 00:46:50.940 --> 00:46:55.179 pile that we hadn't seen yet. So I want to thank 00:46:55.179 --> 00:46:57.780 Rick again for making it all possible and bringing 00:46:57.780 --> 00:47:02.739 these mysterious sacred sites to light, quite 00:47:02.739 --> 00:47:06.380 possibly for the first time in modern history. 00:47:06.760 --> 00:47:11.070 And it's all a great reminder to us that... There 00:47:11.070 --> 00:47:13.090 are still mysteries out there to be discovered, 00:47:13.190 --> 00:47:16.449 hiding in the woods and the meadows and in the 00:47:16.449 --> 00:47:19.630 landscape all around us. And all we need to do 00:47:19.630 --> 00:47:24.550 is look. Now, I also want to reemphasize something 00:47:24.550 --> 00:47:29.429 else Rick and I discussed earlier. So Connecticut 00:47:29.429 --> 00:47:34.269 Hill has many hiking trails, both marked and 00:47:34.269 --> 00:47:38.010 unmarked. Rick and I spent a lot of time during 00:47:38.010 --> 00:47:42.199 our visit hiking off -trail. up and down ravines 00:47:42.199 --> 00:47:46.539 through some very challenging and difficult terrain. 00:47:46.860 --> 00:47:50.840 There's piles of wet leaves, mud puddles, tree 00:47:50.840 --> 00:47:55.800 roots, a lot of undergrowth, fallen trees and 00:47:55.800 --> 00:47:59.179 branches, not to mention the ticks and the horseflies 00:47:59.179 --> 00:48:04.280 and the other insects, plus the possibility of 00:48:04.280 --> 00:48:07.239 encountering a bear or two. So it can be very 00:48:07.239 --> 00:48:10.230 easy in that environment. to lose track of where 00:48:10.230 --> 00:48:13.030 you are or where the closest trail might be. 00:48:13.449 --> 00:48:17.769 There's no cell service either. So if you're 00:48:17.769 --> 00:48:19.690 listening now and you have the idea that you're 00:48:19.690 --> 00:48:21.670 going to go wandering off trail on Connecticut 00:48:21.670 --> 00:48:24.949 Hill in search of these mysterious sites, first 00:48:24.949 --> 00:48:28.050 of all, you better not go alone because if something 00:48:28.050 --> 00:48:31.650 happens and you slip and get injured while far 00:48:31.650 --> 00:48:36.789 from a marked trail, which is definitely a possibility 00:48:36.789 --> 00:48:41.429 when you're... marching around off trail up there 00:48:41.429 --> 00:48:44.250 you could get hurt and you could be out there 00:48:44.250 --> 00:48:49.309 for a long time so it's very important i want 00:48:49.309 --> 00:48:53.329 to warn everyone please do not go exploring off 00:48:53.329 --> 00:48:56.610 trail on connecticut hill unless you have someone 00:48:56.610 --> 00:49:00.719 with you that has experience and knowledge In 00:49:00.719 --> 00:49:03.199 those woods, there are so many hazards, plus 00:49:03.199 --> 00:49:06.119 there's the long documented history of people 00:49:06.119 --> 00:49:10.000 having disorienting and strange experiences out 00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:12.300 there, which can also come into play if you're 00:49:12.300 --> 00:49:15.920 exploring alone or without a guide who knows 00:49:15.920 --> 00:49:19.280 where you're going. So please, folks, use extreme 00:49:19.280 --> 00:49:22.360 caution. If you listen to this podcast, please 00:49:22.360 --> 00:49:25.820 use extreme caution if you decide to go exploring 00:49:25.820 --> 00:49:31.099 the Alpine Portal. Oh, and one other thing. On 00:49:31.099 --> 00:49:33.440 more than one occasion in previous podcasts, 00:49:33.559 --> 00:49:35.400 I've stated that Connecticut Hill is part of 00:49:35.400 --> 00:49:38.139 the Seneca Lake watershed, which means that the 00:49:38.139 --> 00:49:42.820 streams that contain or the streams that drain 00:49:42.820 --> 00:49:45.719 off of Connecticut Hill eventually reach Seneca 00:49:45.719 --> 00:49:48.239 Lake. It turns out this isn't entirely true. 00:49:48.500 --> 00:49:51.820 Actually, the vast majority of Connecticut Hill 00:49:51.820 --> 00:49:55.300 drains to the south to another watershed. There 00:49:55.300 --> 00:49:59.429 are... a couple of small streams very close, 00:49:59.429 --> 00:50:03.949 like within a mile of the edge of Connecticut 00:50:03.949 --> 00:50:06.550 Hill that make their way to Catherine Creek and 00:50:06.550 --> 00:50:09.110 Seneca Lake. But the Finger Lakes -Seneca Lake 00:50:09.110 --> 00:50:11.630 watershed doesn't officially and technically 00:50:11.630 --> 00:50:16.889 reach all the way to Connecticut Hill. So before 00:50:16.889 --> 00:50:19.630 I wrap it up here with all the talk about Connecticut 00:50:19.630 --> 00:50:21.769 Hill over the last couple episodes, I wanted 00:50:21.769 --> 00:50:25.420 to point out that it's not the only... high elevation 00:50:25.420 --> 00:50:29.960 spot around Seneca Lake with a history of reports 00:50:29.960 --> 00:50:32.980 of the strange and unexplained. And although 00:50:32.980 --> 00:50:36.860 it doesn't have the same profile, same high profile 00:50:36.860 --> 00:50:41.840 reputation as Connecticut Hill, the Finger Lakes 00:50:41.840 --> 00:50:44.760 National Forest is a place that I'm looking forward 00:50:44.760 --> 00:50:47.340 to spotlighting more in the future, including 00:50:47.340 --> 00:50:51.239 one UFO sighting that involved multiple witnesses 00:50:51.239 --> 00:50:56.639 and multiple area. aerial objects that took place 00:50:56.639 --> 00:51:00.920 near Burnt Hill not too long ago. So if anyone 00:51:00.920 --> 00:51:04.699 out there has experienced anything strange in 00:51:04.699 --> 00:51:07.639 the Finger Lakes National Forest, please send 00:51:07.639 --> 00:51:10.440 an email to podcast at SenecaLakeMysteries .com 00:51:10.440 --> 00:51:18.739 or leave a voicemail at 607 -307 -1167. I won't 00:51:18.739 --> 00:51:21.480 use your name on the podcast unless you tell 00:51:21.480 --> 00:51:25.119 me to. or tell me that it's okay. I did receive 00:51:25.119 --> 00:51:28.780 one story from a listener who had a strange event 00:51:28.780 --> 00:51:31.179 up in the Finger Lakes National Forest, which 00:51:31.179 --> 00:51:34.699 I'll be talking about in a future episode. As 00:51:34.699 --> 00:51:37.039 always, I want to thank you all for listening. 00:51:37.579 --> 00:51:40.000 and supporting the podcast. If you enjoy the 00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:43.300 show, please continue to share it and like, comment, 00:51:43.340 --> 00:51:46.760 subscribe, follow, rate, and review everywhere 00:51:46.760 --> 00:51:49.840 so we can keep building this momentum and continue 00:51:49.840 --> 00:51:54.400 spotlighting all these mystical, magical, weird 00:51:54.400 --> 00:51:58.960 stories around the lake. And again, the absolute 00:51:58.960 --> 00:52:01.500 best way to stay up to date on the podcast and 00:52:01.500 --> 00:52:04.139 all activities and news related to Scenic Lake 00:52:04.139 --> 00:52:07.219 Mysteries is to visit the website seneca lake 00:52:07.219 --> 00:52:10.539 mysteries .com and subscribe to the email list 00:52:10.539 --> 00:52:14.139 i will be releasing new stuff in the future specifically 00:52:14.139 --> 00:52:17.179 on the website and nowhere else so make sure 00:52:17.179 --> 00:52:20.139 you subscribe on the website so you don't miss 00:52:20.139 --> 00:52:23.159 anything thanks again for listening and i'll 00:52:23.159 --> 00:52:24.139 talk to you next time