Good morning! Happy Columbus Day. 🍂

Partly sunny and 60 degrees at the Catskill Scenic Trail. There is a southeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 54 degrees.

You can probably guess where I’m out hiking today. 🚶 The part of the scenic trail between Grand Gorge and Stamford that I haven’t done yet. After today, I will have walked most of the trail.

Yesterday I finished reading most of JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy. 🤠 In many ways that book really strikes close to home, a culture I know well but also are somewhat distant from as my parents were college educated.

Good morning! Happy Columbus Day Weekend 🍂 !

Partly cloudy and 54 degrees at the Catskill Scenic Trail. 🌥 There is a east-southeast breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 49 degrees. Beautiful autumn day. The skies will clear Monday around 5 pm.

Yesterday, I hiked Bearpen Mountain for the first time. I had been there previously tried a few back but I missed the driveway to the parking area as I lacked a good map of the area. 🗺 The track on All Trails was pretty good and that got me started. Ironically, once you find the trailhead, the trail is a gated gravel road, in pretty good maintenence – looks like part of it was rebuilt and rerouted after Hurricane Irene. 🅿 The best views are to the north and west, definitely don’t stop after the first view, take the trail north across the summit to additional views. 🏞

I wanted to also do North Bearpen but time was tight and the trail across the col was soggy unlike the gated road up Bearpen. 🍂 Good color on Bearpen but some of the views were less colorful. Autumn is late this year, we’ve yet to have a good frost. 📸 Photos to be posted Monday or Tuesday.

I got to Betty Brook fairly early last night as I wanted to have time to get a campsite should the first one I wanted be taken. ⛺ I got set up – it was a beautiful night – the kind of night you don’t even need a long shirt for. Something more akin to August then October but the sun still set early. Despite the threat of clouds it actually was a very starry night. ✨ I would have liked to have laid back in the hammock but I dropped one of the straps in the dark and couldn’t find it until morning. I thought I had left the strap home. Maybe tonight will also be good for laying in the hammock.

There was some litter 🚮 on the other side of Betty Brook from the summer when somebody had set up targets for blasting. Just some cans and paper targets 🎯 but I didn’t want to look at the garbage all weekend so I put on my muck boots 👢 and crossed the creek. Picked up the litter and proceeded to slip on a log 🍁and get completely soaked from head to toe and had to change. Fortunately it was a very mild evening so I just toweled off and changed.

Today I’m hiking the Catskill Scenic Trail south of Stamford. It’s a nice day with more sun ☀ than I expected. There was a slight delay getting down here due to a detour from an auto crash on NY 10 but I still got an early start. 📸 I misplaced the battery 🔋 for the camera but was able to find another one so I’ll be able to get pictures today. One thing I’m is I’m a bit disappointed with the scenery here compared to the other part of the rail trail but I think it will be better father south I go. I’ll drive up Utsaythana later and through the township valley which is always beautiful in the autumn.