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
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Last weekend, gorgeous Sunday, BK, FB and I went to hike the Gothics Mountain. Overall this was the best hike I ever did in US. It had everything you want except maybe snow. There were flat sections, steady climb sections, and almost vertical sections. The weather was perfect and I cannot imagine anything being better that day, but let start at beginning.

I woke up at 6 AM and prepared my stuff for the hike. Since it was pretty cold morning, I thought I will need lots of clothes, but it turned out to be so warm that I was carrying way too much stuff. But hey, better safe than sorry. At around 6:45 BK came over and not so long after, FB. Once I finished my breakfast, we drove towards the High Peaks area.

High Peaks area is located in Adirondacks Mountains Region near Lake Placid. The best access is via interstate I87 at exit 30 follow 73 and the signs for the Keene Valley. Once you pass Noon Mark Diner, there will be Adirondacks street on your left and there should be sign for the “Trail To The High Peaks”. You can also use the following Google Map. Once you get there, you have two options. First one is to take a chance and drive to the parking lot called “the Garden”. This means drive straight until there is a sharp right over the bridge and then some more up hill until you come to the parking lot. It may be full, so, there is option two, which is to park next to the Marcy Airfield (about 2 more miles along 73 on the left side). There is a fairly cheap shuttle that drives from Marcy Airfield to the Garden.

The hike begins from the Garden. First there is about a three miles hike to the “Johns Brook Lodge”. This is a pretty relaxing hike and there are no surprises. Once we reached the lodge, we had to change, because the morning clothes were way to hot. But, as I said before, the weather was perfect and this includes the temperature. From the lodge, there are signs, but soon there is an intersection without signs. We chose straight, which turned out to be the right direction.

Following the trail, there were river crossings, mud, rocks, and similar obstacles. Anything to make trail more interesting. After couple of miles we came to the section where trail turns into almost vertical rock. Here it was kind of hard to climb. Several places had leaders to help you climb. The interesting thing was that when we reached the bottom of the climb, the elevation was 3500′. Half way into the climb, the elevation was about 4000′. It took us about 20 minutes to do 500′.

Once we reached the point between Saddleback Mountain and Gothics Mountain, we meet a couple that was hiking these mountains and camping. They were concerned about going up, because of the hike so far. That said the way down was just as hard. This next section, to the Gothics Mountain, was actually harder, because it was even steeper rock, but at least it was dry. It didn’t took us too long before we reached a fake summit. We were all happy that we are at the top, but then we so Gothics Mountain in the distance. The way down from the fake summit and back to the actual mountain was not that hard and it took us no time to do it.

After four hours and some change, we reached the top of Gothics Mountain. It was totally worth it. The view was spectacular and there was a lot of nice people there. BK even helped some girl with her foot blister. After lunch we continued our hike down the mountain.

On the way down, we also visited “Armstrong Mountain” and “Upper Wolf Jaw Mountain”. We would visit “Lower Wolf Jaw”, but it was getting late and we were pretty tired. The hike down was actually much longer than the hike up. First of all we visited some more peaks, but also we took much more leisure path back. At some point the markings ended and the path looked totally hopeless. But after a while the marking started again and soon we were on the known path.

We ended at the Garden at a little bit after 6 PM. At this point we were hiking for about eight hours and half. We were all exhausted and the view of the shuttle felt really good. The shuttle drove us back to the parking lot where we finally took off all the socks and other uncomfortable items. Once changed, we drove to the Noon Mark Diner, where we had a strange, but desperately needed dinner. After that we drove back home.

As I said at the beginning, this was a great hike. It was the best hike I ever did. It had all possible challenges that Gothick Precipice provided, but it was still pleasant enough to make it enjoyable.

Tags: Hiking
Categories: Outdorsy, Travel
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