Amazing Ashokan

The morning today was just about as close to perfect of a hike as you can get. You know, right, that if there are 10 things that make a perfect hike and you get all 10 of them, it's a dream. Wake up. Nine would be amazing, probably 6 is about normal for a good hike. This was close to a 9. I guess you could wish for blue water instead of ice (but then we would have missed one of the most interesting things). You might have wanted natural surface and that we would have actually seen the eagle. But this was seriously wonderful.

The weather was great. Mid fifties, warming a bit more before we finished. We had gorgeous views. We got to watch something really interesting. I managed to ID some of the surrounding mountains. We met an interesting couple and had a surprising interaction with another man.

Marie took me out to the Ashokan Reservoir where we hiked once seven years ago (link at end). The reservoir was built in the early 1900s to provide water to New York City. This trail used to be a road, but was closed and turned into a trail when a new road farther from the water was built. This is the view east, and I think the jagged peaks are Snake Rocks.

But not so fast. First we tried to do another piece of the Ashokan Rail Trail. I had not been on that before. However, the piece that has views of the reservoir was totally ice covered, and we opted not to do that. We walked a bit the other direction. This is one of the old mile markers indicating 16 miles to Kingston.

But we wanted to see the water, so we turned around and went to a different trailhead. You can see what a beautiful day it was!

The whole edge of the reservoir is lined with native rock. It makes dizzying patterns.

Our first interesting people encounter was with a man to whom we said, "Good morning." He countered with, "Why is it a good morning?" I don't think anyone has ever asked me that before at least after the casual greeting! I quickly said, "Because I am hiking with my best friend and it's a beautiful here."

This is South Mountain (which is west of the reservoir) on the right, and the larger one is Ashokan High Point which is the tallest peak surrounding the reservoir on the left. Ashokan is 3,081 feet tall.

This is perhaps my favorite view from the Reservoir. The little nipple to the right of center is, I'm pretty sure, Slide Mountain which is the high point in the Catskills at 4180 feet. The eastern terminus of the Finger Lakes Trail has been extended to there, but I've not yet done that new piece. It will be an all-day hilly hike to get from the last parking area to the new terminus. At least 8 miles total. In front of that is Cornell Mountain with, I think, Samuels Peak in the front left.

This is the roadway that crosses near the middle, and I'm pretty sure the peak in the background (these are all part of the Catskill Mountains) is Ticetonyk (TICE-tun-ike) which is from the name Mattias TenEyk who owned it.

We walked all of the roadway today. This was where we watched the most interesing thing. The ice is breaking up, and there is one of the arches of that bridge where water is flowing from one side of the reservoir to the other. There were slabs of ice being swirled around in a huge circle on the downstream side. You can see a few in the picture above. It was like watching plate tectonics speeded up. We watched the slabs (plates) hitting each other. Sometimes one would go beneath the other (subduction). Sometimes the lower one would be tilted upright and some even flipped completely over. It was fascinating. I began to realize how big slabs of rock could get tilted and even flipped.

We even saw some mergansers.

Walking back to the car we met a couple who were training to walk the Camino de Santiago (in Spain) in the fall. (They were wearing backpacks and I asked if they were getting ready for a hike). The man has walked all of the Appalachian Trail, and they plan to walk the Superior Hiking Trail next year. They also have some other trails in Europe in mind because their son lives in Zurich. We traded stories and names.

We saw an eagle nest, but not the birds. The ice patterns were artistic. We saw an air boat that almost certainly belongs to New York City Department of Environmental Protection (which operates the reservoir) going over the ice to reach a buoy of some kind (water sampling?).

What a wonderful day! It rained in the afternoon, but that's OK. We played our game, fixed dinner, read a little in the book we are currently sharing, and then I had a Zoom meeting.

Miles walked in 2026: 87.8

New York, Ashokan Reservoir Rail Trail 1.2 miles, and Ashokan Promenade 4.2 miles. Total 5.4 miles.

See Ashokan Reservoir Hike

More Empire State Trail Connections

Marie was tired today, but she spotted me to walk two more little sections of the Empire State Trail. The first was a roadwalk from where we turned around two days ago down to Rondout Creek (really a river). There was sidewalk for most of the way, so it wasn't a big deal but not very scenic until I reached the creek. This is Rondout Creek leading to the Hudson River.

The bridge carries Road 9W, and there was a barge coming down the river just for me!

Then we skipped a piece because I had walked it previously, although more interesting things made it on the blog when I did that (two years ago, I think). The link below is on Rondout Creek when we toured a tall ship, and saw the steamboat Mathilda. These are right along the trail.

So we drove to the top of the hill near Marie's church, and I also walked the next little piece. Marie walks this section a lot, so she didn't care if she missed it today. It's actual trail, off road although not too picturesque.

The best part of that section is a tunnel. It is much older than the trail, and delightfully cool inside. The temperature this afternoon got to 78° and I'm sure not used to that yet!

I wanted to walk a little bit today after our 6 miles yesterday. I hate to admit it, but at 77, I have a harder time building up my stamina in the spring. But I feel good about doing even a little walking today after the longish warm walk of yesterday.

Marie has flowers in her garden! Snowdrops...

...and crocus.

Don't worry, you'll eventually get to see lots of Flower Show. But when I'm hiking new-to-me trails, I want to share them. I've now hiked continuous pieces of the Empire State Trail from the Walgreens in Kingston to the east side of the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, about 8.5 contiguous miles.

Miles walked in 2026: 82.6

Empire State Trail, two disconnected pieces in Kingston, NY. 2.0 miles.

We are going to try to hike a piece in the morning, but it's supposed to rain in the afternoon.

See Bits and Pieces

Connections in Shirtsleeves!

Today was gorgeous! It got to about 68°. Marie and I decided to connect up a couple of the previous hikes on the Empire State Trail.

This was mostly a roadwalk although it has a pedestrian/bike lane on the side of the road. Very noisy. But you can see the rocks, which are ordinary Hudson Valley Precambrian gneiss.

We were connecting what we did yesterday to the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, and as we approached the bridge, there was actually 0.6 mile of off-road trail, which was quite nice.

This is just to prove we made it to the bridge. We walked across it two years ago.

The elevation of our hike went from 13 feet above sea level to 126 feet, almost all of that in the first half mile. This is looking down that hill on our return to the car. The peaks in the distance are on the other side of the Hudson.

It was so beautiful, we went and took Selma outside for a little while. She is now 97, and really can't see anything. But she enjoyed the sunshine, and she's still sharp enough to make jokes.

Marie had a harder day than I did. She started at the dentist. I stayed here and edited some. Then we hiked, visited Selma, and played our game. We have also got our camping reservations for the NCT/Buckeye Trail Fest this fall.

Stay tuned- it may snow again on Wednesday, but summer for a day was pretty darned nice!

Miles walked in 2026: 80.6

Empire State Trail from Sojourner Truth north parking to Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge and back. 6.0 miles

See Empire State Trail Again

Empire State Trail Again

The Empire State Trail is a 750-mile multi-use trail/route that has two branches like a T through New York. The north-south branch goes from New York City (Battery Park) to Montreal. The east-west branch goes from Buffalo to Albany, largely along the route of the Erie Canal.

I've now encountered it enough times that I'm trying to add up what I've done of it. We did another 2-mile piece today along the Hudson River.

The ice on the river is breaking up and because the air temperature made it over 50 degrees, it created strange moving fog banks that were really interesting to watch.

I loved this spot.

This area is being made into a state park, Sojourner Truth State Park. Marie and I hiked in the area last year, and the jagged edge of the cliff in this picture is where we took pictures from last year.

Coming back, we also saw the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge through the fog. Marie and I hiked that in 2023- link below.

This whole area was noted for brickyards which created most of the bricks that built New York City. These two pictures are part of a factory and smokestack from a brick works.

Here's what I know I've hiked of the Empire State Trail:
about 1 mile to Rondout Creek
2 miles at Sojourner Truth park
2 miles Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge
1 mile Historic Hudson Walkway
about 18 miles from Canastota to Rome, concurrent with NCT
? on Conservation Trail near Buffalo/Niagara (need to compare maps when home)

So total is something approaching 30 miles. I don't really have a goal (they don't offer a patch or even a sticker) but hey... I like making connections

We went to church, hiked, and crashed. I felt like cr*p all day and Marie didn't sleep well last night, so we read a little and napped.

Miles walked in 2026: 74.6

Empire State Trail, Sojourner Truth State park out and back 4.2 miles

See Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge See Conservation Trail See Back to Canals

Philadelphia Flower Show 2026- Community: Where We Garden

Today I'll show you one of the Standard Flower Show competitions. This was one of the fairly large spaces that was to be decorated with this theme- Community: Where We Garden. The directions say: Design a culinary community garden with the focus on community. Must include a seating area for at least two people. Must include one sustainability element or cultivation technique.

There were four entries and they awarded one blue, two red, and one yellow ribbon. So I guess the yellow ribbon came in last. It is titled "Nature's Classroom: Rooted in Community," by Tierra del Sol Environmental Education Center. The primary reason it did poorly is that they did not follow the directions. Their plants were not culinary.

They said, "This junkyard turned sculpture garden is a magical playground." (Note that I am just pulling a phrase or two from the Intent statements of each entry.)

It was a beautiful exhibit, and if they had featured edible plants instead of ornamental ones, I'm sure it would have done better.

This second place exhibit is by Abington Senior High School and is called "Rooted Together." The intent states, "Nestled within an urban footprint... a central table invites neighbors..."

The judges called it simple and classic with nice textures. But they didn't like the turf in the center front.

The other second place went to Chester Eastside Incorporated with the theme "Eyes Open, Communities Come Alive." Their intent says: "Contaminated lots... have become sunny raised beds."

The judges said the quality of plant material could have been better and the bug house was out of scale.

This display had numerous, cute paper mache animals. I'll show you the cat.

They also had beautiful canned goods.

We know I don't always agree with the judges, but I think they got this Blue Ribbon right for sure. We really enjoyed this exhibit. It's by Monmouth County Vocational FFA and called "Gather & Grow Bookshop Garden." The intent states, "The neighborhood gardens and book clubs work together to invite the community to read, grow, and harvest."

The judges said, "Plant Quality excellent, clever labeling, attention to detail."

We loved the books- here are just a few.

Today, we did laundry, did a neighborhood walk, and went to lunch with several of Marie's friends that turned into an all-afternoon event. I managed to edit a little bit.

I have to share this- first clothes dried outside of 2026! And yes, that is the clothesline Marie and I built together several years ago. It was pretty chilly to do this, but we did it anyway!

Miles walked in 2026: 70.4

Roads in Ulster County, NY, 2.3 miles.

See PFS 2026- Bloombill