First Day Hikes



A while back, I wrote about First Day Hikes, which took place at several parks in New York on January 1. Well, yesterday I went to John Jay Homestead in Katonah, which was having a First Day Hike and walked almost the entire property!

The property itself is not as big as some of the other parks that were having First Day Hikes, but it still has a lot to see as you walk around. When we first arrived at the parking lot, we saw that there were more cars there than usual. It made me happy that so many people went out to support the homestead for an event on the first day of the year. We started to walk into the garden that is right next to the parking lot, but then we chose not to, instead going to a table for the event that had some workers sitting there. She went to talk to the workers, and she got a bag and a bandana for the event, and we also found out that earlier in the morning, one of the workers had gone to the New Year’s Day Polar Plunge at Tod’s Point in Greenwich, Connecticut.

We walked over by the main field, which is used for the farmer’s market in the spring and summer, and we saw an enclosure where they were keeping the chickens. It quickly reminded me of what happened when we went one week ago, when we brought my brother’s dog, and we were worried that if she got near the chickens, either she would go crazy, or she would make the chickens go crazy. We continued to walk around, coming to a building that according to the map on the website is the carpenter’s shop and garage, which had a heater going on inside of it. According to the website, the building is currently used as housing for staff.

As we continued walking, we went past the draft horse barn, which many years ago housed horses that were used to plow fields and haul loads. After that, we went past the foundations of the old wagon shed and past the coachman’s house. Then, we stopped by the carriage barn, which is currently being used to house an exhibit on farming and one of the discovery centers, and we saw a sign on the door that said that it was closed for the season. After that, we walked over to the area right behind the house where the old schoolhouse and the old playhouse are. When we looked in the windows of the schoolhouse, we saw that the old benches were still there. After that, we walked around the main house and the surrounding gardens. One of the buildings that is part of the house is the office, and when I looked in the window, I saw a sign for one of their previous events, which was the Herb Fair and Market in October.

There are many other interesting parts to the property that I didn’t go to see, like the tennis court, the poultry house foundations, the orchard, the hog shed foundation, and the ice pond. I hope that this post has made you all interested in going to see everything that you can see at John Jay Homestead!


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