[2/4/21. In background, the abandoned Terrence Building at the site of the former Rochester Psychiatric Center. Except where indicated, all photos by David Kramer]
Since last March, we’ve visited the Highland Crossing Trail in Brighton several times, usually after a snowfall. (SEE SERIES AT END)
Last Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, we received our first big snow storm of the season as the remnant of a Nor’easter brought many inches.
On Wednesday morning, I ventured to the Crossing expecting to be the first to trample the virgin snow. I knew I was in for a hard slog when the STAY SIX FEET APART was buried in a drift, although I did not expect to be doing much social distancing.
The mounds of snow on the edge of the Monroe County Juvenile Detention Center parking lot were daunting. The old Psych Center looked more forbidding than usual, like a ruined Teutonic castle in the Alps.

2/3/21 The abandoned Terrence Building at the site of the former Rochester Psychiatric Center. See Terrence Tower Without Diagnosis: A Photographic Montage of the Old Rochester Psychiatric Center
Persevering, I discovered I was not the first on the trail. Ahead of me were recent light hoof prints of a deer that became my trail marker.
Hoping to find the creator of the prints, I felt like Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, trapped on a desert island, discovering the footprints of a man Crusoe would find and later name “My Man Friday.”

Scene from Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) where Crusoe discovers the footprints of My Man Friday. (luminarium.org)
The track continued until veering left near the bridge.
There, My Deer Wednesday had veered off into the woods and the track grew feint. Unlike Crusoe, I’ll never know my friend, although we may have met last April.

April 16th, 2020 Deer near the trail. From On the Highland Crossing Trail in Brighton after an early March snowfall
I crossed the bridge alone, leaving plodding human holes in the snow in contrast to the delicate marks left by My Deer.
Suddenly, I was not alone. Ahead of me were two humans on skis: Dr. David Kotok and his wife Wahyu Dilts.

2/3/21 Wahyu Dilts [Photo: David Kotok] Wahyu is from Indonesia and this is only her second time skiing. David proudly noted that Wahyu is a former Indonesian fashion designer, social activist and federal social welfare leader
I returned, the next day. By then the path was nearly overpopulated.
The spot where the deer and I last crossed tracks was undisturbed.
THE HIGHLAND CROSSING SERIES
Following a gaggle of wild turkeys on the Highland Crossing Trail in Brighton
The first December snowfall at the Highland Crossing Trail in Brighton
First November snowfall at the Highland Crossing in Brighton
During a dusting of May snow, revisiting the Highland Crossing Trail in Brighton
On the Highland Crossing Trail in Brighton after an early March snowfall