This weekend, the hike we chose was the Leon Levy Loop in Westchester County, near the Connecticut border. This was a little father out than we normally go, an hour from the City. Also, we went out on Sunday, instead of our normal Saturday, due to errands, such as going to REI to exchange my boots for a half size large, (And true to REI’s policy, they exchanged the boots, no questions asked) and I wanted to get a proper daypack for our hiking adventures.
Another reason I picked the Leon Levy Preserve was that there were the “ruins” of the Black Mansion on the trail. I thought that this would be a little more exciting for the kid. Such as “discovering” some ruins and exploring the grounds sounded like a fun adventure for her. The land used to be a summer home estate, but fell in to disrepair, then was ravaged by a fire. The Jerome Levy Foundation donated the money to the Town of Lewisboro to purchase the land, and to create the preserve and trails.
The Leon Levy Loop was the type of trail we were looking for. The was rated as “easy” and I will agree that it was, which makes it very kid friendly. The main Blue Trail was wide and well maintained. The canopy of the forest made the hike cool on a very hot and humid day. We saw a handful of other families on the trail that morning, but by no means did it feel crowded, which let us feel like we could explore unencumbered. We ventured off on the Pink Trail to take a look at the ruins of the guest house, which the kid loved. Her imagination was intrigued, and she came up with wild stories of what happened at the house, long ago.
In our one hour+ hike, we didn’t even cover half of the Preserve, which was great, as we all enjoyed it out there. As we returned to our car at the trailhead, we decided that this was a place we would like return to, and explore the other trails around the Preserve.
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