Hiking in the catskills
At first, we were supposed to go skiing for the whole WE in Killington, VT because it is the place to ski in the east (200 trails, a good vertical drop etc.). But it turned out that, as Richard said, 'the force was not with us': bad weather forecast, and not enough people to share the outrageous price of the car rental and accomodation (the skipass being $90 per day per person on top of that).
But, what happens when you have to give up an active outdoors week end you had thought about for a long time? Plus you hear about your friends back in France who start again tho go hiking every other week end... We miss the outdoors.
So we ran to Barnes & Noble on saturday, bought hiking guide books and maps and organized a hiking sunday in the Castkills mountains, less than 2 hours away from Manhattan! Richard took care of renting the car and driving, thanks a lot!
It was supposed to be a light rain day (showers, 60%), but we were are bit worried and sad in the car on the way because it was raining raining and raining all the way from NYC to the interstate exit. Then, as we took the small mountain road, the rain turned to snow, and we arrived at the parking place (as the only car of course, being the only crazy people to go out with such a weather) in a snow storm.
"Let's go!" we all decided, motivated as ever.
Then it was a long story of slipping on snow, ice, icy snow etc... In the lower part, the snow has melted and we were walking in a creek rather than on trail... Then as we gained altitude, the snow staid on the ground and it was for a while easier. But higher again, and there was so much snow that just walking was difficult... Trying to be as lightweight as possible but it didn't work most of the time. We were definitely very slow, but at least the track was very well marked. We followed the signed posted on trees every few meters, because we couldn't see the trail anymore. We could say there was up to 50cm cm of nice, half packed snow at places.
We didn't have a very precise map but knew it was 'only' 2000feet up to go (about 650m). It took us about 6h up and down...
And the summit was at an altitude of about 3500feet (about 1150m).
Quite an adventure for us, people from the city ;-)
It was also a good test for my technical gear : The North Face 3 layer GoreTex jacket and Arcteryx fleece : excellent result, the Quechua quick drying pants : very good, the Salomon low hiking shoes : oh-oh, not adapted, I felt as if I was walking on sponges all the way...
So anyway, we all had a good time, on what Loic would have called a 'warrior hike'. It was not so hard, just the conditions would have necessited snowshoes and more hot tea. It'd be a good idea to come back in summer to see how the place looks like. By the way, we chose this trail because of the announced 'rewarding vistas' and 'often spotted wildlife'. You bet none of this occured ;-S...
Conclusion: April in NY, it's still winter. On nous l'avait bien dit, ne te découvre pas d'un fil...
For Elise's version of the story : http://elisedrouyer.blogspot.com
But, what happens when you have to give up an active outdoors week end you had thought about for a long time? Plus you hear about your friends back in France who start again tho go hiking every other week end... We miss the outdoors.
So we ran to Barnes & Noble on saturday, bought hiking guide books and maps and organized a hiking sunday in the Castkills mountains, less than 2 hours away from Manhattan! Richard took care of renting the car and driving, thanks a lot!
It was supposed to be a light rain day (showers, 60%), but we were are bit worried and sad in the car on the way because it was raining raining and raining all the way from NYC to the interstate exit. Then, as we took the small mountain road, the rain turned to snow, and we arrived at the parking place (as the only car of course, being the only crazy people to go out with such a weather) in a snow storm.
"Let's go!" we all decided, motivated as ever.
Then it was a long story of slipping on snow, ice, icy snow etc... In the lower part, the snow has melted and we were walking in a creek rather than on trail... Then as we gained altitude, the snow staid on the ground and it was for a while easier. But higher again, and there was so much snow that just walking was difficult... Trying to be as lightweight as possible but it didn't work most of the time. We were definitely very slow, but at least the track was very well marked. We followed the signed posted on trees every few meters, because we couldn't see the trail anymore. We could say there was up to 50cm cm of nice, half packed snow at places.
We didn't have a very precise map but knew it was 'only' 2000feet up to go (about 650m). It took us about 6h up and down...
And the summit was at an altitude of about 3500feet (about 1150m).
Quite an adventure for us, people from the city ;-)
It was also a good test for my technical gear : The North Face 3 layer GoreTex jacket and Arcteryx fleece : excellent result, the Quechua quick drying pants : very good, the Salomon low hiking shoes : oh-oh, not adapted, I felt as if I was walking on sponges all the way...
So anyway, we all had a good time, on what Loic would have called a 'warrior hike'. It was not so hard, just the conditions would have necessited snowshoes and more hot tea. It'd be a good idea to come back in summer to see how the place looks like. By the way, we chose this trail because of the announced 'rewarding vistas' and 'often spotted wildlife'. You bet none of this occured ;-S...
Conclusion: April in NY, it's still winter. On nous l'avait bien dit, ne te découvre pas d'un fil...
For Elise's version of the story : http://elisedrouyer.blogspot.com
posted by Jn at
11:55 PM
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