Escarpment Loop from Rock Shelter back to Scutt Rd. (All Trails Challenge NYNJTC Map 141)

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Escarpment Loop from Rock Shelter back to Scutt Rd. (All Trails Challenge NYNJTC Map 141)


This part of the Escarpment has so much packed into it: Newman’s Ledge, Lookout Rock, Sunset Rock, Artist’s Rock, Catskill Mtn House, Boulder Rock, Split Rock, the Kaaterskill Hotel site, Inspiration Point, Layman Monument, Kaaterskill Falls, and Bastion Falls. Funnest run ever with, apparently, a lot of noteworthy rocks. 



I’m really starting to understand the whole trail running appeal, which is amazing to me because I’ve never been a fan of running. But I think I just like pushing my physicality. 


There is something about pushing through suffering in all its forms that brings people a satisfaction far more profound than any temporal pleasure. 

Without suffering there would be no creativity. Without a problem to fix, we become static and just exist. I think I’ve realized that there is a part of me always striving for something, and without my mistakes in life or twists of fate, I’d be stagnant and out of touch with my truest nature.


I never would’ve left my marriage, but fate took it from me. I thought it was the end of the world—that God either didn’t exist or is a sadist, and life was meaningless. The choices you have in that moment are to end your life, live a self destructive life, or figure out a way to make meaning out of what happened. But if you can do the latter, then you will feel the deepest reward and awaken something in you that feels like your true nature.

You have to start with an activity that builds your confidence back up and heals your wounded ego. (For me that’s primarily with skiing and secondarily with hiking.) Then when the chatter in your head has quieted down, you can hear your intuition and let that guide you the rest of the way to transformation. 

We’re all Sisyphus rolling a metaphorical boulder up a hill only for it to fall down again. And like Camus touched on, you have to find meaning in it every time it falls. 


Today’s IPAs: Between Pineapple and Mango Bombogenesis from @chathambrewing I like Mango the best. 



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