Author: Steve Aaron

The High Point Carriage Road at Minnewaska

Posted on by Steve Aaron

In the last days of August, the High Point Carriage Road, a historic 2.8-mile piece of the Minnewaska State Park’s carriage road network, officially re-opened to the public. On September 1, my friend Brian and I set out to explore the new road on bicycles.

Smiley Carriage Road
Smiley Carriage Road

We started at the Minnewaska parking area and rode on the Upper Awosting Carriage Road to Lake Awosting. From Awosting, the Smiley Carriage Road would connect us with the new High Point road. Although I’m a frequent visitor to Minnewaska, this was my first cycling trip on the full length of the Smiley Carriageway that was restored a few years ago.

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Tagged: Biking, Gunks, Hiking8 Comments

A New York Skier’s Season in Photos

Posted on by Steve Aaron

The 2022-23 ski season has come and gone for most of us, and looking back, mother nature delivered a bit of a mixed bag. The season started on a good note with a little early snow, followed by prolonged warm temps with little snow mid-season. Then, March snow storms really made for an outstanding late season into spring. Here’s a look at my season in photos.

Hunter summit

The early natural snow combined with snowmaking started the season with a feeling of optimism. Hunter got off to a good start making snow, and hope had me thinking we were going to see pre-pandemic level operations on the mountain.

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Tagged: Catskills, VT11 Comments

Hunter: Two Days, Two Trails, Too Fun

Posted on by Steve Aaron

Hunter Mountain opened Saturday November 19 with two main routes down the mountain – the Mainline and Belt Parkway. I was fortunate to ski days 2 and 3.

morning snowmaking

The unseasonable cool temps in the days preceding opening day enabled Hunter’s team to lay down plentiful volumes of high quality snow. On the two open routes, conditions resembled mid-January more than late November. Kudos to snowmaking for a great job getting the mountain open.

My first day, Sunday November 20 was cold and windy. Between the weather and the snowguns blasting, it really felt like mid-winter.

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Tagged: Catskills, Hunter8 Comments