Slowing Down the Pace in Watkins Glen, NY

“When you’re 70-years old, you won’t move up the trail at that pace,” remarked the woman Ed and I had just passed briskly along the Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park in New York. That’s when we stopped our race up the inclined path.

“It’s tough at 50 too,” I replied. “Where are you folks from?” I slowed and turned to ask her and her husband.

“Near about Lancaster,” the man replied for both of them.

Simple as that, Ed and I were reminded to slow our clipped pace and enjoy not only the scenery but the people who were out on the blue sky September day as well. We encountered a smiling couple from Harrisburg who asked us to take their photo for this year’s Christmas cards. There was a flannel shirted farmer from Kansas good-naturedly herding six of his eight kids along the trail. And, later, a busload of Watkins Glen race fans asked us jovially about our day fishing the flats though we obviously had no rods were just resting stream side.There truly was more to the Gorge Trail than its cathedral walls and 19 waterfalls. There’s the chance experience of meeting “nice” people if you just slow down the pace.