The Catskills Blog

Kayaking North South Lake

Posted on by Brownski

I used to spend more time at North South Lake than I do now. When my kids were younger, we would go there for weekend camping trips or just to use the lake and beach for a day. It’s a great place to introduce kids to camping.

North South Lake map

In addition to swimming and hiking and canoeing at North Lake, there are all the other great things the Catskills offer in the surrounding area. Hunter Mountain is right up the road.

The trailhead to Kaaterskill Falls is right there and just a little further south is Esopus Creek where you can rent tubes and spend the afternoon floating downstream.

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Tagged: Catskills, Paddling6 Comments

Plattekill Mountain Race 2023

Posted on by Peter Minde

Three days afterwards, despite plenty of foam rolling and stretching, my quads were still sore.

With no Whiteface Sky Race this year, my focus turned to the Plattekill Mountain Race. Yes, that Plattekill, beloved mountain for so many readers of this blog. Saturday night after closing the wine store, I hopped into the Fortunate Son, my new used shooting brake, and lit out for Platty.

Plattekill Mountain

I’ve never been to that part of the Catskills. Driving west of Phoenicia on Route 28, I entered terra incognita. In the pitch dark, I began questioning the wisdom of my plan: leave work at 8:45, drive straight to the mountain, and flop in the parking lot. Maybe I should have done dawn patrol.

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Tagged: Catskills, Hiking, Plattekill7 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