To celebrate Memorial day, CM and I went to a little hike in Catskills. The “mountain” was called the Overlook Mountain, but it could just as easily be called an Overlook Dune or an Overlook Pile. For some reason people here in northeast USA think that mountains are anything that goes up a little bit. I guess they should all watch the movie “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain“. In any case, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, there is a hill that is probably higher and is called “Smarna Gora“, where “Gora” stands for Mountain. The whole thing is of course a joke, since it takes you about half an hour to get on top.

The Overlook “Mountain” was of course a bit more challenging. It took us an hour or so to get to the top. They have a neat watch tower on top, but unfortunately the top was closed, so we could only climb to the doors. The view was still pretty cool. And when I say cool, I mean a lot of green and couple of lakes and rivers. I guess growing up going to the Alps all the time spoiled me. Now, I am used to two day hikes on the cliffs and 2000 meters and higher climbs. But I guess there is no way to understand that until you experience it.

Going up we saw the sign saying that rattle snakes were spotted. We quickly dismissed the sign, just like the signs for bears and thirty foot monsters with tentacles. However, once we came on top, we quickly heard people screaming “rattle snake” and trying to get as close to it as possible. I guess people like to leave on the edge. I took some photos of it myself, just to fit in. I wonder how the poor snake felt. I mean he was probably just trying to get home, while there was tons of people walking all around him taking pictures of him.

To finish the day, we went to see a little lighthouse on Hudson River. Looked more like a regular house on the river with the light on top. When people mention lighthouse, I usually imagine tall round building, but hey, Statue of Liberty was also a lighthouse once.

So, overall the hike was short but nice. We got some vitamin D, exercise, and a nice view. I just hope the snake managed to skulk away, before the paparazzi squished him.

Tags: Hiking
Categories: Outdorsy, Rants, Travel