09.17.07
We’re at the gunks!
so we’ve come to NY for our vacation (holiday for you euros) and so far we’re enjoying it VERY much! Our flight out was uneventful as was our drive up to New Paltz from La Guardia. We passed Yankee stadium on the way, we’re pretty excited to head back for the game on sunday 
It seems that New Paltz is INSANE on the weekends, so we opted to take it easy and explore the area a bit. All of the parking lots to the climbing areas were overflowing and it cost $15 per person per day so we figured we’d be better off waiting until monday to do any climbing when we could have the cliffs mostly to ourselves. We ended up tooling around town – bought a guidebook and researched what climbs to do later. I ended up meeting an older woman who was at the deli we were hanging out at. I think she was lonely so i chatted with her a bit… she’d lived through polio, had been paralyzed or something and couldn’t move her one hand well due to falling down when she was little, she also admitted to talking quite fast, which sort of explained why i only got half of what she was saying. Bela rescued me, as he assumed it’d be hard to leave otherwise. It was a little sad, she kind of reminded me of my late grammie. But i had to give her credit she was out and about. We spent the rest of our first night enjoying doing nothing, and it was everthing we thought it would be.
On Sunday the parking lots were insane once again so we opted to go to the state park just down the road, where there was a geocache . It was a bit chilly, but we got moving to stay warm. There weren’t too many cars when we came in and we tried to stay away from the other hikers as much as possible. We really enjoyed the hike around the lake. We found some froggies and a salamander eating a moth in the water. The area had some awesome rock- tho the park didn’t allow actual climbing, but that didn’t stop us from scrambling all over hehe. We found what would have been the perfect beginner spot: big blocks and wonderful ledges, right on the lake… the hike took us past one of 2 resort buildings set atop rock cliffs in the area. This one was abandoned – the other is right by the gunks and is still in use (so we hear). It looked amazing but we’re guessing not terribly stable. Much of the area has carriage trails which are often used now as hiking/biking paths. The geocache we found was right off one of these with a lovely view of the lake where the ladies used to stop on their way to the resort. We decided to keep caching and started back to the car. By the time we got back, it was getting crazy- just about all the lots were full (we had parked in the first one that was only 1/4 full). We had timed it perfectly!
So on we went, the next cache was just up the road. We pulled off at an viewpoint, and started our way up what looked like a trail. It took us up to a ridge where we got some spectacular views of the catskill mountains off to the north. The gnats were a bit nasty so we didn’t stay long.
As is usual on our vacations we always see a movie – well if we’re near civilization we do… so when we saw that the traffic coming into town was backed up all the way out of town we thought it’d be perfect timing to hit the cinema. We grabbed a quick bite, and saw “The Brave One” with jodie foster- probably not the best choice considering the movie is about her getting attacked in central park and that’s exactly where we are heading this weekend! But it was a good movie (and don’t worry we’ll be careful- no late night excursions to the park!)
Not sure what to do next, we figured we’d do some more caching up the road a bit. we took the interstate highway but probably should have just taken back roads… the next exit was way far up and we ended up driving farther beyond the cache than where we started! so we started randomly driving using the gps to get us in the general area. after a lot of u-turns we finally found the trail they were near by parking in the local cemetary (it did tell us to!). it was pretty fun wandering around the countryside. we found the 2 caches in the area and started heading back. We noticed 2 deer in the woods just off to our side. so we stopped and just played peek-a-boo with a few moments, which apparently was when another deer was just passing behind us (a couple just up the path told us just after). On our way back, we happened upon even more deer- this time with 3 little babies! I told bela we had to turn around to try to get a pic, but the people traveling on that road are maniacs, so i only got 1 very blurry shot as a huge truck roared by and almost hit them as they ran across the road… we were just happy they didn’t get hit.
Monday morning we hit the rock. I was glad we had waited as my knee and hand were still healing from a bike accident i had had early in the week (i could finally bend my knee- which makes climbing way easier haha!) We went looking for a nice classic climb to start off with, we ended up with Minty a nice 2 pitch climb with a little exposure. Bela did a nice lead and decided to pass up the belay and just do it in 1 pitch. I followed up, and said the usual things… “he’s crazy”, “no way in Hell i’m ever leading”, even tho it was an easier climb the exposure made it feel harder in a few sections. But the climb was more than worth it- the views were just amazing.
We’d passed a really nice crack on the way to Minty, so we headed back to give it a run. Bela of course led again and sewed it up nicely. I had to follow to clean, but i had a bit of a harder time. You can see my true feelings….
Bela had a good laugh at me. That was my rest ledge- i really liked it… i also really liked the tree when i got to the top- i gave it a hug! We both were pretty tired… so we packed it up and went out for yummy seafood. We’re off to massachusettes tomorow, so we’ll have another update soon!
Happy Travels!
Heidi & Bela