Augusta Mine Loop

Looks like this jalopy we found needs a tune-up. You can find this cream-puff yourself near the terminus of the Kakiat Trail, which completes the Pound and Dater Mountain loops around the old Augusta and Dater Mine Works in Tuxedo, N.Y. Similarly, there are a dozen such junked cars over on the southeastern side of Harriman State Park along the gas pipeline on Catamount Mountain, just west of Route 202 in Pomona, N.Y. Today was overcast but at least it was the first Saturday in a month that did not threaten with any rain, even though it did snow for about a minute or two. We brought my cousin B & his wife D along with us on this easy stroll, about 4.5 hours for a 4.75-mile loop. H & I have done this loop twice before but figured it was a great place to bring our guests and show off the views from Dater and Pound mountains and the landmarks Elbow Brush and Claudius Smith's Den. We followed the Ramapo-Dunderberg, Tuxedo Mt.-Ivy, and Kakiat trails. The leaves were just starting to turn in this part of the park, and the sun eventually came out, as we neared the end of the hike. After we wrapped up the hiking, we ran over to Rhodes North Tavern, where the beer is always good even though our baked potatoes were mashed and the New York strip steak I ordered when served turned into a T-bone. D's Ceasar salad had tomaotes in it and M & B's salads stayed in the kitchen, never making it to the table. H had trouble eating any of the "German-Quesadilla" but all in all we had a great time just chatting away with the cousins. Special thanks to B for picking up that tab! We'll be sure to take you up to Mt. Fuji on the next trip!

Pine Swamp Mountain

Despite yesterday's constant rain, we took a quick trip out to Harriman's Pine Swamp Mountain today. Seems we're not the only restless hikers who are tired of the three-peat constant rainy October 2005 weekends: along the way on this 5-mile, 3-hour trip we ran into more people than ever before on any trails in this park. Among the many hikers we saw on route were a band of backpackers who'd spent the night out in the rain, a bunch of just-off-the-bus lost looking folks near the trailhead, and two--two!--dads carrying kids in kid-pouches. Trip began at the Lake Askoti trailhead, and we went up Pine Swamp Mountain until we reached an intersection of multiple trails that's aptly named "Times Square." There we stopped to peek at the map and met some older hikers who wanted to help us find our way on the NYNJTC map, telling us that one man in their group had made that map. Since we have logged many a mile out there, we weren't in need of any such help. We were going to head over to Ship Rock but once we made it to the Harriman plains up on Surebridge Mountain, we snapped a couple of photos and returned to the car via New York's Long Path, passing the glacial erractic landmark named Cape Horn.

Autumn Moon

The recent celestial recurrance of Ansel Adams' famous "Autumn Moon" photograph is what inspired us to head out to the Kittitiny Ridge early this morning. The past eight days of rain kept us out of the woods on consecutive Saturdays, and we could stay inside no longer. As we sat looking out the window early in the evening at the near full moon and the clear skies, we decided to venture out on our first night hike. After packing the bags with glowsticks, lantern, and flashlights and setting the alarm for 3 a.m., we headed out to the Mashipacong trail head in High Point State Park. Most of the way out there the moon was shining bright with a cloud or two enhancing its essence. Unfortunately as we neared our destination a thick overcast drapery had settled over the region and made lacing up the boots pointless. We carried on heading north and east hoping to find a ridgeline with a viewpoint of the coming sunrise and a trail illuminated by moon, which was creeping closer to the western horizon and losing its brightness by the minute. Needless to say our fall hiking season was thwarted for another weekend. If this doesn't change soon I may have to be commited! If we don't get the chance to walk in a crisp cool breeze under blue skies and a blazing canopy of red, gold and orange.... Well, I'll just go crazy!

Gumbo Du Monde

Jumbo Gumbo! Since we're bound indoors due to the rain I took on a big project and whipped up a couple of gallons of Gumbo. The only thing this one hasn't got is a Bourbon St. address and enough people to finish it off before it hits the freezer. I got the recipe from Chuck Taggart and his website "The Gumbo Pages." There is a lot of great recipes on the site other than multiple variations of Gumbo. I love Cajun/Creole food and you can't find much of it around here so this was a real treat worth sharing. That's my sous chef the "Swede" at the table overlooking the Mis en Place. From the top left and on you have before you...

5 qt Chicken & Shrimp Stock - Homemade completely from scracth.
Cup Carolina Rice
Ground Black Pepper to taste
2 Chopped Green Bell Peppers
2 Chopped Yellow Onions
8 Cloves Garlic Minced
3lbs Sliced Okra
5 Ribs Chopped Celery
2 Fresh Homemade Jordon Pond Popovers**
Kosher Salt to taste
Creole Seasoning to taste
Tabasco to taste
1.5 Lbs Fresh Andouille Sausage
2Lbs Cubed Chicken Breast
1 Lb Lump Crabmeat
4 Lbs Shrimp guillotined, peeled and deveined
1 Bunch Chopped Parsley
1 Bunch Chopped Scallions
Bowl of Roux also known as "Cajun Napalm"

** H made the awesome popovers for breakfast. The batter mix came from our trip to Jordon's Pond House in Maine's Acadia National Park back in May 04' and we finally had the right oven to bake them. I figured they would go nice dipped into the gumbo - Yum.

Fall Fake Out!

We had a two day backpacking trip on the A.T. planned for this weekend going from Rout 17A in Warwick, NY to RT 94 in Vernon, NJ. Would've been an easy 15.5 miles, but ahem - CANCELLED! We plan to try another route for next weekend but the extended forcasts say that rain will last forever. We are losing precious autumn Saturdays. The very best time of the year.

Eastern Pinnacle

It's week two of the fall hiking season and judging by the green in the background in this weekend's photo, we have a long way to go before we're blazed in peak colors. And with temps in the 70s and 80s lately, it will take another week or two until autumn feels like autumn. Here I am on the Appalachian Trail's Eastern Pinnacle viewpont near Bellevale Mountain in New York. We started today at Lakes Road where we left off on our Sept. '04 Hudson to Delaware section hike. Opened up with a nice climb up to 1,224 feet on our way to Wildcat Shelter. At the shelter H scribbled in the journal and I was saved by the "cat box" privy located further down the blue blazed sidetrail. Wildcat was hi-tech in relation to other area shelters, having a nice fire pit and grill with tools on hand and food hangers and a windscreen tarp which we read in the journal is the home to some bats. After a short break here we carried on down the trail until H stopped dead in her tracks and belts out a huge scream. Following too closely behind, I ran her over and nearly pushed her onto the big black snake that caused her to stop. After the monster slid into his hole, we continued on and reached the viewpoint on a rocky outcrop of Schunnemunk Conglomerate, which is found only along this ridge between Bearfort and Bellvale Mountains. After another couple of miles we came to Route 17A, where after a short walk along the highway we came to the Bellevale Creamery. This place is legend among thru-hikers and almost everyone stops here for a trail treat after logging the miles on foot. Today's trip was a repeater, so we traced our tracks back the four miles to the car, this time bypassing the AT on a few blue trails, skipping the rock scrambles we had to crawl up and down on the first half of the hike. We ran into a real nice couple of folks from Tennessee with whom we swapped many stories of parrallel experience and adventure that I swear we could have chatted with them for the rest of the day. Good luck to you P&J on your 2007 AT thru-hike! Check in here for some magic and log your story on trailjournals.com. When we finally said fairwell it was only about a mile back to George. On the way home, we stopped in at Campmor for some supplies for next weekend's backpacking trip, where we'll log some more miles on the AT in New York.