Lusscroft Farm Hike(Kinda) and Outlook Lodge

Once more this weekend, I got out to hike with Darrell.This time we went out to Sussex and the Lusscroft Farm trails.This place is in the middle of fucking nowhere.This is the kind of place where alien abductions would happen.This is the kind of place that might have Bigfoot sightings.It was scenic, peaceful, and you had a great panoramic vista even at street level.So, naturally, I forgot to bring my camera.

The hike itself was pretty rough.There had been a snowstorm on Wednesday that left about 3 or 4 inches, but then it had warmed up a bit and rained and things mostly melted...everywhere but here.The whole trail was covered in snow and ice.We needed walking sticks to pull ourselves up the icy hills and we were surprisingly accident-free.

The highlight of the hike was within the first mile.That was the abandoned Outlook Lodge.Luckily, Darrell brought his camera and took some pictures.So, to give proper credit, any picture you see here is one taken by him and not me.

The outside of the Lodge had several stone carvings.You can see the biggest one in the picture above, but here it is closer up, with me standing next to it.

There was a fish carved into the chimney and there is a small bird on the right side of the above picture.That I was able to enlarge.

There was also a carving of a face on the side of the building.

The inside looked like...an abandoned building.

There were old mattresses everywhere.The stairs and floor were quite sturdy and you could walk around the whole place.

One surprise was finding some very fancy woodcarving downstairs.

There was a plaque at the peak of one roof giving a date and some initials.Thanks to the Lusscroft Farm website, I can guess that the J.T. is probably James Turner, who was a founder of the farm.

He did manage to take one or two other pictures besides the lodge.The first is a building we found about 1/2 mile from the lodge.We weren't completely sure what it was, but it was locked tight and the door had once said something about a spring.

The lock had obviously been beaten to shit by god knows how many people, but it was still holding.I thought that spoke very well of Masterlock.

The second picture was taken under a tree, where either some sap or some water colored by the tree had dripped down and frozen over some twigs, making a neat, accidental little sculpture.

I will most definetely be back here when everything melts.We could have covered a lot more ground if we didn't have to inch our way up every incline to avoid falling on our asses.There's also supposed to be a plane wreck up here, but we did not find it.It may have been buried in the snow.We also only hit about half of the trails.Next time...