Ralph Ferrusi and his tour group hardly noticed the rain thumping against their umbrellas and the wet grass squishing under their boots as they strolled through Innisfree.

In fact, as they came to a fountain jet in the Millbrook gardens, several took turns playing underneath its powerful spray using umbrellas as shields.

Ferrusi, a guide with Cross Country International Tours and Hudson Valley enthusiast, was determined to show them a good time, even if that meant getting his socks wet.

“I spend most of my time looking for poison ivy,” he told the group as they arrived at Innisfree.

Since September 2005, Ferrusi and Karen Lancaster have been working together to bring people to the Hudson Valley. But the twist is these tourists aren't taking in the sights from a bus. They are on a walking vacation.

Horse trips on tap

Lancaster owns Cross Country International, a tourism business that puts together walking and equestrian trips worldwide including Spain, France, Australia and Greece. Starting this year, Lancaster added the Hudson Valley walking tour to her list of offerings. So far, she's brought in more than a hundred people from the Northeast.

According to Mary Kay Vrba, director of Dutchess County Tourism, the business is exactly what the county needs and wants.

“We want people to see what we have here in the Hudson Valley,” she said. “Karen does a world-class job.”

A Hudson Valley-based walking vacation was something Lancaster always wanted to do but she needed to find the right guide. Enter Ferrusi.

Ferrusi grew up in Westchester County and is a lifelong resident of the Hudson Valley.

“It's a great place we live [in],” he said. He had a flexible schedule, an outgoing personality and loved to be outdoors; Lancaster said she knew right away he was the man for the job.

For $825 (based on double occupancy), the tour includes five nights accommodation at the Porter House Bed & Breakfast in Millbrook, four days of guided walking, breakfast and lunch each day and daily van transfers.

The itinerary includes the Hyde Park hiking trail that links the Franklin D. Roosevelt Historic Site and the Vanderbilt Mansion; a stroll through two of Dutchess County's gardens -- Innisfree and Wethersfield; and a tour of the Dutchess County Wine Trail.

Lancaster, who lives in Millbrook, started her tourism business in 1987. Today, Cross County International is headquartered in Pleasant Valley and has 11 employees.

She said she “took a leap of faith” when she left her full-time job with CBS in Manhattan to start her own business.

At that time Lancaster had traveled the world to find walks that would interest the baby boomer generation. But what she found was that people didn't want to see the sights with their face “pressed up against the glass” in the tour bus, she said.

“Active vacations became more and more popular. That's why my company did so well,” she said. Lancaster strives to give people a real experience when they travel. Her walking tour vacations include walking between five and nine miles a day.

“I put together trips that I would do, what I am looking for. Something that's down to earth and fun,” she said.

For Kerri Brandon of Lexington, Mass., going on the historic Hudson Valley tour was an opportunity to do something she could not do with her husband. He doesn't walk, and he is from Westchester County, she said, so he isn't awe-struck by the area's beauty. Since he was away on a trip, Brandon recruited her 21-year-old daughter, Anna, to take a walking vacation.

“It's been wet but nice,” Kerri Brandon said.

Shelly Hunt and her husband, David Fredenburg of Hudson, N.H., wanted to take a trip that was fun and didn't involve an airplane.

“I'd rather be wet out here than at home,” said Hunt, who celebrated her 50th birthday on the trip.

These travelers, along with Bridget Flint of Alexandria, Va., formed friendships during the trip. At Innisfree, they shared stories and laughed at Fredenburg's humor as much as they looked at the rocks with lichens and sedums.

(Sarah Bradshaw can be reached at sbradshaw@poughkeepsiejournal.com)

PROFILE

Name: Cross Country International.

Owner: Karen Lancaster.

Location: Pleasant Valley.

Employees: 11.

ON THE WEB

- For information on walking vacations visit www.walkingvacations.com

- For the historic Hudson Valley walk visit: www.walkingvacations.com/walking-vacations/historic_hudson_valley_walk.php