Jnster: the story of an outdoors enthusiast in NYC and wherever he wanders...

Monday, January 02, 2006

Christmas eve in a tent

Here it comes, one week after Christmas eve, I have recovered and it's time to describe that adventure!
So after an intense week a rental car searching (everything was booked because of the MTA strike), I finally found one on friday, and snowshoes on friday evening at EMS.
On saturday we set out of the city with Anton, Marta and David, driving to the Catskills, after a quick stop in the Bronx at Corinne's which lent us her maps.
We had chosen to go to Slide Moutain, where we Anton and I had made a trip this summer with the Columbia University Hiking club. Our plan was to do the ful 16 mile loop, in two days. In summer we had done it in one long day.

So after driving 2h40 we arrived at the parking lot in Woodlands valley. Weather was ok, a bit cold but not much compared to the previous week. The whole parking lot ground was frozen but slowly melting.
We hit the trail with our fairly big backpacks...
We decided to start without the snowshoes as somebody has already broken the trail since last snowfall.
The trail was steep and it was already one or two hours spent walking before we stopped for lunch break. Marta provided fig delicacies from Spain... Yummy!
We were already pretty tired. I decided to try on the snowshoes and spent even more energy walking with them on this humid crusty snow. After a while I could hardly follow the others... When terrain became more technical with easy climbing, I took them off and never used them anymore. At the break, I managed to rejoin our group and keep the pace. It was already late, and we had to change our objective: instead of camping near Slide Mountain we wouldn;t go further than Wittenberg mountain. At least I knew there was a good view.
But this mountain was still a few miles away, on a steeper trail. So it took us quite a long time to get there, and my backpack was really really heavy after all these hours....


We finally reached the summit and rested for a few minutes, then it was time to pitch the tents at the best locations, prepare the mattresses and sleeping bags, and start cooking. The sun was already setting!
We had a wonderful Kathmandu curry for Christmas dinner, with hot tea and of course wine brought for this special occasion! After the sun had disappeared, temperature dropped very quick and we decided to go to bed asap. In bed at 6.40pm on Christmas eve and asleep at 7, only awaken by a mouse, and imaginary bigger beats!
We really slept like babies, for 14hours that is. When I got out of the tent at 9am the next morning, the landscape was gorgeous: we were abode the sea of clouds that stagnated in the valley. What a view! And a nice warming sun!

We took our time during breakfast and then headed to the next mountain without our packs. The trail was more technical, but not strenuous as we were travelling light and fast. At Cornell mountain, we took a few pictures, admired Slide mountain and turned back.

We had a good lunch at the camp and then descended back to the car. Still a long way down, but easier than the previous day. Unfortunately, the sun disappeared and it started raining on the way down, and all the way to the city. We were probably the only ones in the area that had enjoyed a beautiful sun on Christmas day.

2 Comments:

  • My goodness, you are very hardcore!! Good for you! I can't believe you guys did that for Christmas..very impressive!!
    Not my kind of thing, but that's ok, right? I mean, I hiked Point Lobos in CA for a few hours..but no tents! :) Happy New Year Jn!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1/05/2006 5:24 PM  

  • it's ok, don't worry my friends are not all hardcore adventurers ;-)
    And I have to admit it was the first time I was doing this kind of Christmas

    By Blogger Jn, at 1/07/2006 12:21 PM  

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