36F at 8.30am, with hazy skies and mist evaporating off the mountains. 57F by 3pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.30am
Daily Catskills: 03/27/16
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The Catskill 35: Peekamoose/Table
© J.N. Urbanski
Peekamoose is a strenuous, uphill struggle, a relentlessly steep trail with two or three large boulder formations to climb over. One formation has a precipitously positioned boulder that would tumble down the mountain should the tree on which its leaning collapse. After hiking over half the Catskills 35, I’ve never witnessed a tumbling boulder. Another notable distinction of this trail is the appearance of large boulders dashed with multicolored pebbles, making the rocks look spongy. There’s also a streak of pinkish, light purple rock and dirt about halfway up the trail.
More delightful are the manmade accents: doorways and steps carved in enormous, downed trees.
Daily Catskills: 03/26/16
43F by 11am with clear skies and a hazy horizon, rising to 48F by 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
Daily NYC: 03/25/16
63F at 11am, humid and overcast. 64F by 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
© J.N. Urbanski 12.45pm
Daily NYC: 03/24/16
46F in NYC at 8.30am. 54F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm
Daily NYC: 03/23/16
55F by 10am, with hazy sunshine. 70F by 4pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.45pm
Downstate Dispatch: The City
© J.N. Urbanski
It’s about this time of year that a city makes a special guest appearance on Upstate Dispatch to honour my urban roots. There’s a lot that I miss about the city, but the most prominent difference between country and city life is that, in the country, you have to drive everywhere. In the city, you can walk or take readily available public transportation. Small towns and villages in places like my home country England are mostly very, very old and designed for walking or riding (animal or bicycle). British Towns radiate outwards like a rash instead of sprawling along lengthy American roads. You would never have an English address with more than three numbers in the street address, but yesterday I visited someone whose street number was 53939, which is unheard of in England and quite astonishing to foreigners. Even our longest residential roads, straight thousand-year-old roads that were built by the Romans, were split into sections called “high streets” like the A10, which is 90 miles long. It runs from central London to Norfolk at about a sixth of the entire country’s length.
Daily Catskills: 03/22/16
28F at 8.30am with crunchy layer of overnight snow and a mixture of enigmatic clouds. 43F by 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
Daily Catskills: 03/21/16
35F at 8.30am, mostly clear, sunny with a biting breeze and a hazy horizon. A hair over 40F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.30am
Daily Catskills: 03/20/16 Spring Equinox
36F at noon, lightly overcast and chilly. The Spring (Vernal) Equinox is the time when the sun’s rays are perpendicular to the earth, as the earth’s northern hemisphere begins moving towards the sun, making it warmer here throughout the summer.
© J.N. Urbanski 3pm
Daily Catskills: 03/19/16
30F at 8.30am, and sunny with a hazy horizon. 39F and clear skies at 3pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm
Hazelnuts
© MAU
Hazelnut bushes in the orchard, planted in 2007, get a chance to properly flourish this spring possibly because they now have a sturdy fence around them. In years past, we’ve only harvested a handful of the nuts that grow in a thick, green, furry casing. The bushes, which can grow into large trees, are self-infertile so it’s necessary to plant at least two together for cross-pollination. The male catkins, pictured above, which produce pollen that they release onto the red female flowers, are a food staple of ruffed grouse throughout the winter. The nuts are a preferred by squirrels, deer, turkey, woodpeckers, pheasants, grouse, quail and jays.
Daily Catskills: 03/18/16
39F at 11am and overcast with light snow. 35F at 2pm and more snow.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.50pm
Daily Catskills: 03/17/16
43F at 8.30am with thick fog rolling off the mountains. Update: 54F by the afternoon with a mixture of cotton wool clouds of various colors. Down to 44F with icy snowy rain by 2.30pm. Back up to 53F by 4pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
Daily Catskills: 03/16/16
43F at 8.30am, with hazy sunshine, rising to 61F by 3pm and bright despite light cloud cover.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm
Daily Catskills: 03/15/16
43F at 8.30am, overcast with morning mist over the mountains. 55F by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
Daily Catskills: 03/14/16
42F at 8.30am and overcast, rising to 39F at 2pm with a biting wind.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.20pm
Daily Catskills: 03/13/16
40F by 8.30am with hazy sunshine, rising to 57F by 3pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.41am
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
The Catskill 35 (W): Bearpen
© J.N. Urbanski
The trail to the summit of Bearpen is a long, gradual meander around a mountain, mostly on a part of a snowmobile trail that’s much longer than the walk to the summit and privately maintained. Unlike other trails to Catskills peaks over 3500ft, which are rocky, and perhaps because it’s so further afield than the others, the path is soft and grassy. There’s no tripping over boulders or sliding around on gravel. Most of all, there’s no clambering. If you like hauling yourself up over large boulders, this is not the hike for you. There are short lengths of the trail that are steeper, but they don’t last long. Bearpen is bearish, not bullish, if you like market metaphors. Yesterday, the trail was wet and that made the going very muddy with the boots sinking inches into thick banks of mud in some parts. There were long, round puddles that reflected another gorgeous winter day wearing the mantle of spring. On the ascent there are views through the trees during winter and at the summit, there are many breathtaking views. There’s also a large, rusting contraption that looks like an old ski-lift pulley converted from a car or truck, around which small trees have grown.
Daily Catskills: 03/12/16
39F at 8.30am, with clear skies and a light breeze. 57F at 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
© J.N. Urbanski 12.50pm
Daily Catskills: 03/11/16
43F at 11am with a mix of sun and clouds, breezy and warm. 48F by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.15pm
Daily Catskills: 03/10/16
59F at 8.30am, overcast, humid and calm. Light, steady rain for the rest of the day.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.40pm
Daily Catskills: 03/09/16
A hair over 70F at 8.30am and hazy with a light breeze. 74F by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
Catskills Conversations: Lizzie Douglas
© J.N. Urbanski
Lizzie Douglas is the proprietor of Stick in the Mud, a recently-opened cafe and store selling local goods and produce, in the ground floor storefront of the Bussy Building in Margaretville.
JNU: What brought you to the Catskills?
LD: The connection I have with the Catskills was that my daughter originally had a second home here.
Where did you raise your daughter?
My daughter lives in Brooklyn.
Did you live in NYC for a long time?
No, I have never lived in NYC. Before I came here I was living in Colorado, in the Four Corners area. Before that, I was travelling all over as a tour director and before that I was living in London.
What took you to Colorado?
As a tour director I would take my groups on authentic stagecoach rides and we would do Hollywood, Vegas, Grand Canyon Wild West Style. We would do dinner and dancing afterwards. I met a stagecoach driver.
Daily Catskills: 03/08/16
50F at 8.30am, overcast and humid. 61F by 1.30pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
Hillsound Trail Gear
© J.N. Urbanski
It certainly wasn’t the plan to complete the Catskills Winter 35 (hiking every peak over 3500ft between the dates of December 21st and March 21st). In fact, the plan was to do the four required winter peaks of the regular Catskills 35 and resume in the spring, but like many carefully laid plans, this one failed. Being a city girl, before moving to the Catskills, all my walking was of the pavement persuasion and, truth be told, I only started hiking to wear out my puppy. I am not prepared for spring at all (and never was), but thanks to my friends at Hillsound, I am perfectly winterized with crampons, ultra crampons and gaiters, which are nifty contraptions, like hiker’s leg warmers that don’t wrinkle. Gaitors have stirrups that prevent the gaiter from rising up so that snow does not go up the trouser leg.
Daily Catskills: 03/07/16
30F at 8.30am and overcast. 55F at 1pm, brighter and with less cloud.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.15am
Daily Catskills: 03/06/16
27 at 8.30am with clear skies and warm in the sun, rising to 38F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
Daily Catskills: 03/05/16
30F by 10am and overcast. Bitterly cold and dreary for the rest of the day.
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
Daily Catskills: 03/04/16
30F by 10am and cloudy with a slight breeze. 34F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
Daily Catskills: 03/03/16
24F at 8.30am with a light layer of overnight snow and low cloud cover quickly clearing in the sunrise.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.50am
Daily Catskills: 03/02/16
31F at 8.30am and lightly snowing with a mixture of sun and cotton wool clouds. Down to 25F at 1.15pm and very windy with isolated snow showers.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.40am
The Catskill 35 (W): Hunter Mountain
© MAU
I’ve written about my summer ascent to Hunter Mountain here and it was a memorable hike. Last weekend, it was even more memorable owing to the presence of a team of Asian hikers at the summit, huddled in the cabin porch, chatting effusively in their native tongue, crouched around a hissing hibachi grill. This is the second time I’ve seen such a spectacle and it couldn’t be any more delightful, but I’m not entirely certain its legal above 3500ft.
In the Catskills hiking world, there’s such a thing as “The Grid”: the ascent of every one of the peaks in the Catskills 35 over 3500ft accomplished in every month of the year. If you hike a couple of peaks a day, it’s possible to get The Grid done in a year by hiking the all 35 Catskills peaks every month for a year but, at a whopping 420 hikes, for most hikers who have a job, it’s something to accomplish over a lifetime. In addition to this, there’s the Winter 35 where the hiker must ascend every peak between the December 21st and March 21st. The Upstate Dispatch Grid is filling in at a snail’s pace, but the Winter 35 may be completed by the end of the year.
Daily Catskills: 03/01/16
21F at 8.30am and mostly clear with hazy sunshine. 42F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm
The Catskill 35: Vly Mountain
© J.N. Urbanski
There’s something magical about the valley through which Vly Creek runs and possibly it’s the wealth of great people who live there. Downstream from the Vly headwaters that originate alongside the trail to Vly Mountain, you’ll find Morse’s maple syrup, Vly bottled water and delicious, cream line milk from the DiBenedetto farm where the product is sold on the age-old, country honor system. As you drive along Route 37 crossing from Delaware County to Greene County, to get to the trailhead on Route 3, you’ll pass house after beautiful house in vibrant colors in a cozy, well-lived valley and photo opportunities galore with classic cars hidden behind barns, registered landmarks, and ancient houses. It looks like a movie set; Route 3 would make a riveting long walk in itself for this reason.
A Local Guide to Catskills Products: Local Sugar
© J.N. Urbanski
We published a piece about local sugar that you’ll find here in September 2014. Below is a more comprehensive list of the Catskills maple syrup producers. Tree tapping began much earlier this year, with tapping beginning in the southern Catskills as far back as Christmas. New York State’s Maple Weekend takes place on March 19th and 20th, and again on April 2nd and 3rd, 2016. There’s no reason not to get local sugar. At last count, for every dollar spent locally, the community benefits to the value of five to seven times that dollar, and all that money stays in the community. If you spend $20 on a bottle of maple sugar, it is the equivalent of putting $140 back into your community.
Maple syrup also has many health benefits:
Daily Catskills: 02/29/16
47F at 8.30am, overcast, raining and breezy.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.40am
Daily Catskills: 02/28/16
57F by 2pm with hazy sunshine through wispy cloud cover.
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
Daily Catskills: 02/27/16
19F at 8.30am rising to 34F by late afternoon. Clear and sunny.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.45pm
Daily Catskills: 02/26/16
21F at 8.30am, lightly snowing, a fresh layer of powder and beautifully overcast with a shimmering sky.
© J.N. Urbanski 9am
Daily Catskills: 02/25/16
50F at 8.30am and mistily overcast with the ground squelching underfoot from last night’s heavy rain. Continual rain in the afternoon contributes to the raging tributaries.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.50pm
Daily Catskills: 02/24/16
34F at 7.30am and wet with rain melting two inches of overnight snow into slush. Heavy afternoon rain. Update: heavy rain, thunder and lightning storms throughout the evening.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
© J.N. Urbanski 2.40pm
Daily Catskills: 02/23/16
31F by 1.30pm and overcast with light afternoon snow having laid an inch by dusk.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
Daily Catskills: 02/22/16
32F by 8.30am and bright with clear skies and warm in the sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.30am
A Local Guide to Catskills Products
© J.N. Urbanski
The New York Times recently published a “guide to Delaware County’s thriving craft culture” and although a few of our friends and neighbours were included, a significant portion of our wares was omitted. Here in Delaware County and in the wider area of the Catskills, you can’t throw a stone without hitting a local producer of the highest quality. We have a vast array of everything artisanal, handmade and locally produced. The Catskill Mountains are home to a huge community of entrepreneurs, craftspeople and artists but the aforementioned article only included ten local purveyors. This post is the first part of a guide to all things made in the Catskills.
Daily Catskills: 02/21/16
43F by 11am, overcast, but still bright. 45F by 2pm.
© MAU
Daily Catskills: 02/20/16
50F by 11am, clear and sunny except for a few lonely clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.15pm
Daily Catskills: 02/19/16
14F at 8.30am with the sun rising through a veil of cloud. 32F and overcast by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
Daily Catskills: 02/18/16
17F by 8.15am and still, with clear skies apart from dashes of cotton wool cloud.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.15am
Daily Catskills: 02/17/16
25F at 8.30am and overcast with a crunchy layer of frosted snow. Large chunks of ice flowing downstream and thick snow dumped on the mountain peaks only.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.50pm
Daily Catskills: 02/16/16
48F by 10.30am with the extra blanket of overnight snow having been completely blown away in an overnight storm and replaced with ice. 52F, humid with torrential rain and strong winds for most of the day. A 24-hour smorgasbord of weather.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
Daily Catskills: 02/15/16
0F at 8.30am, thickly overcast and lightly snowing, rising to 12F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
Daily Catskills: 02/14/16
-7F at 8.30am with still air and clear skies, but nostril hair-freezing cold, rising to 2F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
Catskills Cocktails: Vly Creek Vodka Lemonade
© J.N. Urbanski
After copious testing of Union Grove Distillery’s Vly Creek Vodka on Friday night, yours truly is happy to say that the vodka packs a punch. Tried frozen and neat, it’s as fresh and clean as the local creek after which it’s named. Upstate Dispatch decided to team it with the other famous product, Vly Creek Maple Farm maple syrup from Ronald Morse and make a local cocktail that’s as refreshing and invigorating as today’s 2F Catskills breeze.
Daily Catskills: 02/13/16
Still only 8F by 11am with high winds, a few more inches of overnight snow, fast-moving snow squalls and a shimmering sky. Down to 2F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski Noon