On July 4th, I decided to go for a walk up to Thatcher Park/OSI parcel to check out the cliffs once again now that we are fully in the summer season with all of the grass out a bright green color.
High Point and Beyond.
Corn growing along Gardner Road.
Light and dark landscapes off High Point.
The trail passes several meadows and open areas.
The old query with some interesting rocks stacked up.
The trail when it follows hedgerows in farm fields.
On Friday evening I decided to go for a little walk at Five Rivers Nature Preserve, not all that far from my apartment in Delmar. It was a cloudy evening out, but with some sun peaking through the clouds.
There was lots of wildlife out there enjoying the moist weather between the bands of showers that where coming through.
Then it started to rain, so I ran over to this shelter.
After the rain there where some spectular rainbows.
And an almost mystical environment.
But it lead to some muddy boots.
And some beautiful flowers.
The route.
For the second day of the Finger Lakes Trip I spent a night at the Finger Lakes National Forest, a series of rather large leased public pastures interspersed with forested areas and ponds. National Forests are managed by the US Department of Agriculture, and this area in particular came under USDA jurisdiction in the 1930s when the Federal government bought out unproductive farms. This land was destroyed by the overuse of deep plowing for crops without proper management of soil erosion and fertility. It has since been well restored, thanks to controlled grazing and the creation of various wetlands.
I left around 10 AM from Balsam Pond, and headed out Route 23 to Cortland then down to Ithaca via Route 13. It was a beautiful day for sure, and there is some truly amazing country out around Pharsalia. I stopped briefly at the Cortland Walmart to buy a tarp and some windshield wipers — both badly needed as the rain would come later in the week. I also stopped down at Stewart Park in Ithaca briefly and snapped a few photos before heading west to the area of the Finger Lakes National Forest.
Here is the route I followed. The red line follows the route of my pickup on Sunday. The orange route is the auto tour I took on Monday. The blue point is Balsam Pond, the many red points are where I stopped to explore the National Forest.
Hiking along the orange trail in the northern part of the National Forest. Other trails allow horses, just not this one through the forest.
The northern portion of the Orange Trail passes this beautiful pond. There are places for tent camping along it — the USDA Forest Service is less restrict then DEC about camping, you need only be 50 feet away from water to set up a tent. They do not allow you to set tents up in cattle pasture during grazing season, for obvious reasons.
A beautiful orange butterfly was seen nearby that pond. There was an amazing amount of wild and domestic animals around when I explored things. There also was many deer, birds, and other things, to say nothing of both beeves and dairy cattle.
Many times the trails crossed into cattle pastures. To keep the cows from getting out, they had big reminder signs. It’s amazing that people could be so stupid to let the cows roam lose by accident. They don’t use cattle guards in this National Forest like they do out west, instead cows are fenced into pasture and off roads.
Howdy says the cow as you pass it on the trail. I think he liked my black stetson. They don’t see enough of them back east here.
Mind where you step on the trails.
There are some pretty big pastures in this National Forest.
Later in the day, it started to rain.
It really opened up and was raining so hard it was tricky to drive the dirt truck trails I was unfaimiliar with. That kind of sucked. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to easily set up a tent in this heavy rain, that lasted most of the evening, and unable to find the road-side sites for camping (which I found in the morning).
I decided to stay at the Blueberry Patch primative campground in the National Forest, which costs $10 a night, via the honor system. They also have a group area, where groups can stay for $10 a night + 50 cents a person over 20 people. Quite neat. I paid, in part because the basic facilities (table/firepit/outhouses/nice tent platforms), where very well maintained.
Once I got settled in, I got the tarp hung up over the back of my truck.
And made some coffee mixed with Jack Daniels, and poured it into a styrofoam cup. It was real good and strong. It was good, dulled the pain and missery of the rain, and kept me up half the night.
In the morning I drove around the National Forest to just check out some more of the lands and the beautiful pastures. This was my route around the area. Red was the drive on Sunday, Monday is in Orange. Free Campsites are marked with a tent, the $10 a night Blueberry Patch campground has a picnic icon, and the part of the orange trail I hiked along is marked with a blue line.
Here is a map of the entire parcel from the Federal Government.
One of my favorite state forests for drive-in camping, I decided to stop by on my way back to Albany from hiking Mount Tremper. I arrived around 5 PM, after checking out some sites along Cole Brook Road. This area was pretty grown up, and while a designated camping area in the master plan, it wasn’t clear where property lines where. Driving along Cole Brook Road would be rough by anybody’s terms, impassable by passenger car, but rough in a pickup with worn-out shocks.
It was a pleasant night, I stayed up until 1 AM listening to music and reading by the camp fire. The fire was big and great, although I have to admit the smoke kind of blew my way so I had to move the truck. My new truck battery was strong, although I did let the truck idle for 20 minutes around 11:30 PM just to make sure I would be good to go.
I ended up camping one site lower then my preferred site as another family was camping up there. Hopefully I didn’t keep them up with my Merle Haggard. It was a good night for sure.
I got up around 12 noon the next day, after a good nights sleep, then decided to check out the State Truck Trail north-east spur off of Tamarack Road. It proceeded about two miles back, along logged sections and white pine forests, back to an area with a sign pointing to a lake. I got out of my truck to start hiking back that way, but seeing Turkey Hunters, I decided to give them distance, and hopped in my truck and drove over to Vromans Nose.
Last Saturday I went hiking up Mount Tremper in the Catskills. This is one of five remaining fire towers in the Catskills, and I was excited to do my fifth tower in the Catskills.
It was a nice day out, warm, but not to warm. It also was quite clear which I discovered when I reached the top of the mountain. The trail is 2.5 miles to the top, but it’s elevation increases are moderate, following an old woods road to the tower the entire way. Parts of the old woods road are eroded away, but it’s still an easy hike, as long as your patient.
As I often go hiking along, one technique I use on such a trail like this is to bring my Mp3 player and listen to podcasts as I hike on up. I knew it would be about a two hour hike up, so I put two hour long programs on the player, and the time passed quickly.
About 2/3rds the way up the mountain there is a lean to, the Baldwin Shelter once can stay in. There also is another lean-to adopt the mountain.
Once you reach the top, there are no views except a few between the trees. The only views you can see from this mountain are from the fire tower, which are quite spectaular, however you must go all the way up into the tower’s cabin before your above the tree level.
The views from the tower are amazing. This is out toward Hurley and the Ashoken Reservior.
Here’s Devils Clove. Some reflections are noticeable from trying to shoot through the windows of the Fire Tower cabin.
Slide Mountain through the windows of the tower. It was hot up there, and the bugs and glass made it hard to get pictures. I tried to open a window in the tower, but the latch wouldn’t budge.
Descending the tower.
I walked a ways onto the blue trail beyond the tower, searching for other views, however there are no views except on the tower on Mount Tremeper. A nice hike for sure, but I would have preferred some views where I could sit down, have my lunch, and enjoy the edge of the mountain.
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I got up at 5 AM on Saturday and headed off to the Tongue Mountain Range. I arrived there around 8 AM, because I made several stops on the way up, and didn’t really get in my truck until 6:30 after getting ready and having breakfast.
I wanted to hike up Fifth Peak and French Mountain, famous for their views of Lake George, but I ended up hiking up Five Mile Mountain, as I parked at the wrong area based on my faulty memory of where the trail head was, based on a brief drive by some three years ago back in college.
The markers on the trail where old, but it was well marked with these 1967-era trail markers and carins.
Lake George can be seen off one view from Brown Mountain. It was raining as I hiked up there.
I was fortunate enough to make it up to the Five Mile Leanto before the sky just opened up and started to pour.
Sitting in the lean to watching as the rain rapidly approached me. This lean-to was not well thought out as it faces due west. But it must have good views of the sunset. Maybe some night I should stay up here.
Fortunately the rain passed relatively quickly.
But it left the trail fairly swampy in parts.
The trail from Five Mile Mountain has some limited views to the east over Lake George. It was still cloudy when reached this point around 10 AM but was starting to clear out.
You descend down Five Mile Mountain come to the intersection of the trail to Fifth Peak and French Mountain.
After you get on the trail to descend down to Five Mile Point, you go past a long and skinny portion of creek dammed up by beavers.
Descended down to Five Mile Point and had lunch along Lake George. It’s a relatively steep and long descend down to Five Mile Point, and it continues to be steep until you get down to the shore. Not a perfect place for a picnic, but still pretty.
Here’s a boater passing by an island on the other side of Lake George.
The trail back up from Five Mile Point was an old-wagon road, probably abandoned for 100 years now. It’s a steep climb back up it.
The views back atop of Five Mile Mountain where amazing, once it cleared out with just a few clouds remaining.
It cleared out by the time I was back up on Five Mile Mountain. There is Lake George, Bear Mountain on the other side, and the Green Mountains and Vermont in the distance.
Hiking along the trail…
The view from the lean-to when the weather is a bit nicer.
Near where the trail splits off to go over to Deer Point (which I did not visit), there was a serious forest fire in 1985. It was one hell of a fire, as witnessed from the damage from almost 25 years ago.
I arrived back at my truck around 5:30 PM, a bit tired and sore. But the views where great!
On Memorial Day 2009, I decided to go on an afternoon hike to the Palenville Overlook, along the old Catskill Mountain House Road, which was used for horse and buggies during the era of that great mountain house prior to the installation of the inclined railroad and later automobile.
The first part of the trail is a moderately steep old wagon road that climbs about 1,000 feet to the site of the Halfway House / Rip Van Winkle Hollow. If it wasn’t gated closed, it would be passable by an automobile. When you reach the ruins of the Halfway House, there are horse tie-downs and ruins of the old tavern known as the Half Way House. It’s where passengers could get a good strong drink and so could horses, as they made their way up to the Mountain House.
After this nice place for resting, the trail climbs a bit more and becomes a lot less steep. You pass by a private hunting cabin, and finally into the forest preserve. You arrive at a pinic area with nice views of the valley, a picnic table, horse tie-downs, and a fireplace full of trash.
From there the trail gently goes up, with two big switchbacks. The trail to the Palenville Overlook switch-backs down about 100 feet off the old Catskill Mountain House Road, and then winds on a narrow trail about another mile to the Palenville Overlook.
You then cross the ruins of the old inclined Otis Railroad tracks, in which all that remains are foundations. According to “AMC’s Best Day Hikes in the Catskills”, the rails and other scrap metal was sold to the War Department during World War I. By then the automobile had made this mode of obsolete as the old horse trail up the valley. All that remains is the cut on mountain, where a high-tension power wire runs.
You eventually reach the Palenville Overlook. The views are amazing, although it was fairly hazy the day I went there. There are awesome stone-built chairs out of old Palenville Mountain House ruins, that provide a great place to sit with a book, as you enjoy views of the Hudson Valley looking south-east. There is another view along the escarpment of the valley somewhat to the north, that gives more due-east views.
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From there, I hiked back to the old Catskill Mountain House road, and up to the site of the old Catskill Mountain House ruins. I took some pictures, and then started down the mountain, when I realized I had left my hat up the Catskill Mountain House site. So I ended up backtracking, and ended up missing Memorial Day dinner at my parents house. But so be it.
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