Huckleberry Point: Luna's AllTrails Finish

-

 Huckleberry Point

4.9 miles

I was honored to be invited to join Luna on her final hike of the All Trails Challenge: Redlining the Catskills. The Challenge entails hiking all of the trails within the Catskill Park. Quite a feat for any human, let alone a 6 year old. 




A group of us met at the parking area on Platte Clove Rd. at 8am, and the lot was already pretty packed. In anticipation of difficulty getting out later, I made sure my car was facing out of the spot. I knew people might try to get creative with the parking and make it extra tight to maneuver.



It was pretty cold this morning, which I love. Once we started, it was incessant mud and running water on the trail. I recommend waterproof hiking boots and poles to help give stability when crossing over the stream. You’ll have to rock hop. 





Just before the lookout point we stopped to create an arch with our hiking poles for Luna to walk through. Her dad made her a sign that looked just like the patch so we all took turns taking photos. 

The views were stunning as always. The sunlight this time of year has a quality that just makes any sunny day seem particularly glorious. 




When we returned to the lot, there was a crew getting ready to film a nature documentary. The lot was already crammed so that didn’t help things. Fortunately, I had already turned my car around so getting out wasn’t an issue.

No IPA today. Days like today make it very tough to leave to go back to the city.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Balsam Lake Mountain

-
Image
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. ...
Read more

Killington

-
Image
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...
Read more

Huntersfield

-
Image
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...
Read more