Off to the mountains
The Catskill mountains aren’t quite like the Alps. Their highest point is around 1300 meters.
We checked out of NYC to try our hands at the Catskills. Kelly was a bit aprehensive about camping, especially with the threat of thunderstorms looming and the reported 2 inches of rain they had received at our camp site the night before. We got out of NYC surprisingly fast and made our way up towards Kingston. After a horrible $15 fast food lunch break, we jumped off the highway and into the ‘mountains’.
We visited a quaint town about 30mns into the mountain range, and then headed south 6 miles to the end of the road, and camped at a State Camp site: Woodland Valley. For $18.75, we had the privilege of pitching our tent, grilling dogs, making smores and listening to hick music which was cranked out of our ‘neighbor’s’ truck up until the park ranger came by in his golf cart and told them to pipe down. To my surprise (pleasant) there was mandatory recycling and also a warning of possible black bears in the area. This scared the girls (Harriet stayed attached to my hip all night) whereas Chris and I dreamed of waking up the next morning to a huge bear claw scratch on the side of their Toyota Highlander. Imagine the story it would make!!
In the afternoon, we took the girls down to the stream by our campsite and waded through the cold waters. It was a lot of fun spending time together, exploring the stream and trying to balance on the rocks which provided a safe haven from the icy waters! Personally, I enjoyed the frigid temperatures (to even my surprise) and waded through the waters quite a bit. Coming out of the water, my legs felt wonderful. It reminded me of ‘the ice bath’ after a hard Cross Country practice in college.
Dinner was a great opportunity to introduce Harriet to Smores. The ladies went to bed and Chris and I tended the fire a while longer. I had a great time talking with him as we laughed about passed memories and talked about future aspirations. We also watched the first quarter of game 4 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals. Who said camping can’t have its luxuries!!
Unfortunately, besides the tent, the Hollinden’s weren’t able to gather up enough sleeping bags for all four of us. (Only the ladies got them!) Chris managed to sleep cozily, but I (Stu) froze by tail off despite sleeping with three layers on top (two t-shirts and a sweatshirt (hood covering my head) and three layers on bottom (undies, shorts and jeans). By 4 am, I couldn’t stand it anymore — I grabbed Harriet, who too was freezing having slept in a wanna-be sleeping bag ‘fleece’, and we slept the next few hours in the car. This was a luxury and I remembered why I had always said I would prefer being too hot than too cold.
Despite the lack of sleep, I woke Chris up at 6:30am and we headed out on a 3hr trek towards our ultimate destination, Mt Slide.
Here is Chris’ take on our 24hrs in the ’skills:
While the two mountain climbers were tired from their restless night of fighting off bears, the two men were able to struggle up their climb. Constantly hindered by falling rocks and rapidly dropping temperatures, our two heroes managed a courageous effort up their mountain to tame the beast that haunted their dreams the night before. We were miraculously able to fight off a group of three foreign travelers who were looking for a good fight. They had backpacks, we had sweat. Before Stu threw the last one off the cliff, he asked, “What did I ever do to you?” “You lived!!” replied Stu, and the man vastly fell down the mountain, skipping on stones as he went.
After our struggle up the mountain, going down was going to be easy…we thought. Our descent was made up of jumping from stone to stone, turning each ankle at least 2x, and going off the trail into a chilly creek that would quench the aches in our muscles.
We then packed up camp and headed to the town that shares the name of my future first child…Phoenicia. This lovely town inhabited by a mere 20 people were gracious enough to overcharge us on all purchases that could be made, including $3.50 cans of Campbell’s soup that was only 6 months past the expiration date.
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We didn’t make it to the top of Slide. We did, though, manage to ascend Mt Wittenburg which was at a respectable 3700ft. We had to go through Mt Wittenburg to get to slide, but we knew that we wouldn’t have the time to do that and get back at the time we told the ladies we would be back. The trip down the mountain was adrenaline packed, as we booked it back down the mountain as fast as we could safely place our feet on the rocky trail. Thankfully, we didn’t lose our way as we did twice on the way up.
We ended our 2hr 40mn excursion with a dip in the arctic waters of the stream which ran along side our campsite. The perfect ending to a great morning expedition.
We headed out of the campsite pleased to have experienced the Catskills but ready for a hotel room.
