Let's Give these Catskills a Try

In an effort to get as much car campin' in as possible before the season's over, we paid a visit to the Catskills this weekend. Found a quiet, but slightly crowded, tent campsite at Woodland Valley. The weather was nice and the mosquitoes were mean.



On Sunday I had it in my head that we would take the trail from the campground up to Panther Mountain. Then we got to the trailhead, saw the mileage, and stared straight up the hill we were about to climb- and decided to go for the closer overlook, Giant Ledge. Hell of a trek up that damn thing, but pretty nice at the top.

Adirondack High Peaks

Took a trip way up north this past weekend to a wee little A-frame house in the mountains near Jay, NY. My boss, Jeanne, offered it to us for the weekend, and I couldn't say no. It's about 5 hours drive north of NYC, dangerously close to the Canadian border, but in the middle of the High Peaks region of Adirondack Park. The house is up a dirt road at the front of a 30 acre wooded property.





It rained all day on Saturday, but on Sunday we took a 3 mile trail up to Hurricane Mountain, near Keene, NY. This isn't one of the 46 high peak mountains, but it was pretty spectacular anyway. The trail we took started at the Crow Clearing trailhead and gradually climbed up the north side of the mountain. There is a firetower at the summit, and 365 degree views of the surrounding terrain and Lake Champlain many miles to the east. This hike was so nice, it just makes me want to spend more time up here- just not during the 8 month long winter.

Summer Recap

Here's some highlights from this summer.

This past weekend we camped at Blue Rocks and hiked at Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania. This nine-mile death march started at the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, where they have trails for old people to watch birds. But they also have a bunch of crazy rocky trails that run over the crest of the mountain. We crossed the ridge on one of these, and met up with the AT on the other side, then down the mountain, then back up the mountain.

The view across the valley:


At Dan's Pulpit on the AT:




Over Labor Day, we went up to an AT section in Harriman State Park. The best part was the giant rock formation, 'Lemon Squeezer'.





Some August weekend we spent up in Connecticut at Macedonia Brook State Park. Camped at the park, but the AT crossed the road on the way in, so we hiked all over the place.

AT in CT:



The cottage in the mountians:



These are from the first weekend we spent up at Blue Rocks in PA.

Glaicial rock field:


Sweet campfire:


Red Eft in the middle of the trail:


The Pinnacle:


Rocky trail between Pinnacle and Pulpit Rocks:



And the rest is summer miscellany:

First Post!

Hello friends, as you can see here, I've got myself a blog. But don't worry, I'll never write about anything like politics, crazy folks on the subway, or hating my job. I'm just going to post the pictures and a little description from all the places where Danny and I have been traveling to- mostly so we don't forget.

Although I don't think anyone besides our kinfolk is going to be looking at this page, I suppose there's a remote possibility of someone else reading who enjoys getting the hell out of Brooklyn every weekend, too. So, you know, that's cool.

Basically, we've been leaving the city every weekend to go about as far away as we can without spending the whole time in the car. So, give or take, that includes parts of New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and unfortunately New Jersey (which stands in the way of getting anywhere). We like camping and hiking, so you're going to see a lot of pictures from all of that.

Special thanks go out to Russ and Arlene for a great deal on a car that makes all this possible.