Queen of the Catskills

Bearpen Is this place ever not beautiful? I put bug spray on because the ticks have been out of control this season. I got one watering plants on my deck so now I’m paranoid. Mosquitoes are out but the spray kept them at bay for the most part. Some landed while I was taking pics, but totally tolerable. Trails are dry. That snowmobile trail is looking increasingly like a straight up road. The vegetation has definitely thinned.

When you learn in the middle of a hike that your senior dog is more senior than you realized. Fortunately, a snowboard pack can do double duty as a doggie carrier.

Blackhead Bagging another peak with @pathswithpadilla We did not have the usual pre-hike IPA and that was a mistake. Deborah might be learning firsthand that IPAs do, indeed, prevent bonking. We did a straight up and back via Lockwood Gap. The trail was dry with a couple of damp spots. The black flies and mosquitoes were out in full force. It’s manageable as long as you keep moving, but the instant you stop, they swarm. I used to think being on a mountain top at night was spooky, but it’s really grown on me. I can’t believe I went from sleeping with the lights on to hanging out on summits until it’s dark enough to see the stars pop. We got back home around midnight and I was eager to try the beer Deborah bought. Some background, I have this admittedly (somewhat) irrational bias against NJ. Maybe because I’m an old school NYer. Maybe it’s because I remember them trying to claim the Statue of Liberty as their own. I don’t know. But Deb lives in NJ and cleverly attempted to start shifting...

Day 86: Killington If the worst thing about your day is that your Tipsy Elves radical leggings didn’t arrive in time to ski @killingtonmtn then I think life must be pretty good. I have had a Bloody Mary jones in the worst way this week. Normally, they are absolutely vile to me, but something about the Killington ones just works. Met up with some friends (Nichelle, Bobby, and Mike) and did some runs. Superstar is skiing top to bottom, no walking required. There are definitely rocks and ice on the headwall. So you either commit to sending it over them or proceed cautiously in picking your way; there is no in between. The headwall is becoming challenging. When the head of Magic Mountain ski school acknowledges that, it’s pretty validating. It’s easier to avoid the rocks once you leave the headwall. The challenge then was more just the soft snow and huge bumps, though some rocks did peek through toward the last stretch at the bottom, where you don’t want to fall lest you be heckled. It’s b...

Huckleberry Point Sunset hikes / night hiking are becoming my thing. I’m starting to really enjoy the dark and seeing the stars. This is good because I’ve been toying with the idea of a hiking project that entails night hiking, but it might have to wait for next summer. I arrived at the trailhead and these 3 women who had just finished their hike were tailgating. They were concerned because I was getting such a late start, but I could tell they didn’t want to overstep boundaries either. They wanted to give me their phone numbers and make sure I signed the book and had my headlamps. I thought they were super sweet and super cute. One of them kept saying, “She’s going to be fine. I believe in you!” The trail was really wet because it had just rained and because that trail just tends to hold a lot of mud. It wasn’t that bad for the initial mile, but once you start on the trail to HP, it’s deep puddles where you sink in to your ankles. It doesn’t bother me so long as my feet stay dry. HP a...

Overlook and Echo Lake I think weekday hikes are my favorite ones because the popular trails are much less crowded and you can feel some sense of solitude—especially if you don’t mind hiking in the dark. I had to grab gas on the way, but when I saw the prices I thought my car must’ve traveled back in time to the first Gulf War. Sorry, my precious Outback, you’re going to have to deal with the 87 for now. The trail up to Overlook is super dry. I kind of like hiking Overlook because it has the most diversity in terms of people you’ll see on the trail. I also dig the hippiness of the crowd that frequents there. I saw people hiking down with guitars and other instruments so I guess I missed the summit party. The trail to Echo Lake is another story in terms of conditions. It’s pretty wet and muddy. Wear waterproof boots. I saw this serpentine bike track that had cut through the long puddles of water and mud. No one was at Echo Lake when I arrived except a couple beavers (I think) doing laps...

Day 85: Killington Self-motivation has never been a major issue for me, but having friends that share your passion sure does help with that. I told myself I HAD to go to Killington this weekend. What kind of ski bum am I to have missed last week? So I called my friends Nichelle and Bobby to see if they were heading over too. Turns out we motivated each other to get out there. My passion for skiing has never made sense in NYC, but through @mappy_hour and the friends I’ve made through hiking and ski groups, I’ve come to recognize that a passion for the outdoors is not mutually exclusive with living in NYC, and when things return to normal, I’ll have people in the city and the country to share my love of the outdoors with. I initially put on my best Hawaiian shirt for today because that means spring skiing to me. However, when I arrived at Killington, I was pretty cold and thought I had misjudged the weather. Turns out it’s not me, it’s shoulder season. Within a couple hours of arrivin...

Hunter Mountain Continuing the foggy fire tower tour we started earlier this week, we climbed Hunter after deciding to save Sherrill for another day. The ground was firm, albeit wet, from the parking area to the junction. After the junction there were some puddles of mud—some you had to walk through and some you could skirt around. As we were walking Deborah was telling me about how her brother is a real magician. In high school he used to get into Harry Potter mischief by making the teacher’s textbooks disappear—not by hiding them, but by EFFING. MAGIC. As a teacher, I find this behavior to be charmingly funny. As a student, I would find his behavior to be heroic. We started to see some dusting of the white stuff as we approached the fire tower. After we climbed the tower, the precipitation turned over to a wintery mix. Today’s beers were actually Wizard IPA. I think I see a theme.

Huntersfield It was a banner day for Huntersfield as I believe someone else posted about it too. This hike is the perfect easy trail run—or in my case, trail jog combined with power walk. There were a couple black flies at the bottom, but they barely bothered me and disappeared once I began moving. The road to the quarry is dry and smooth. From the quarry to the lean-to it is mostly dry considering the rain, but as you approach the summit, there are more deep muddy sections. If you step in the mud, your foot will sink pretty deep, but if you wear waterproof hiking boots (and you most definitely should) then you’ll be fine. I didn’t have a beer today because my friend, Joseph , who has been kind enough to take me on a couple of hikes and show me some cool things, also gifted me some wine he made. Based on some comments from our mutual friend, Stash , I imagine having some sort of green fairy absinthe-like hallucination from it. (Joe vehemently denies this will happen.) I didn’t drink it...

Balsam Lake As much as I adore solitude, there were definitely times in the past few years where I wished I had some sense of community. Then, I started posting about my hiking and skiing and I developed an online community. Now, I’ve been meeting people from this online community in real life and am realizing the universe may have delivered to me exactly what I was looking for. Deborah and I had been following each other on Instagram this year and she asked if I’d like to go hiking, so we ended up doing BLM yesterday. She agreed to a pre-hike beer and it turns out we know some common people which seemed like crazy a coincidence. I had Sip of Sunshine and she had Heady Topper, which she liked. I was glad because when people don’t like Heady Topper, I always wish I had given them a beer that I don’t have to drive to Vermont to purchase. After a long time talking in the parking lot, we figured we should probably climb this thing. The trails were wet as it has been raining for two days. ...

Arizona Mountain During lockdown I hiked the shit out of this mountain and all the trails around Dutcher Notch because it’s so close to where I live. That being said, I was the last one of the group to arrive this morning. I was super excited about this hike because I was going to see a plane crash and scope out some possible Catskills slide skiing. It’s also really fun to find new things on something you’ve done many times. We parked (with permission) at the golf course and then shuttled over to the trailhead. Everything was dry but the black flies are out. It’s definitely bug spray season again. One thing about the Catskills is that on these mountains there are so many roads / trails that aren’t marked on maps. We took one such trail that allowed me to get a look at the slide and was near the plane crash. The slide would need to be very filled in because there are some down trees and rocks to contend with. But I would definitely like to explore that on skis. After that we bushwhacke...