The Flatlands Blog

Man, I Wanna Be a Local

Posted on by Harvey

Man, I want to be a local. And this year, I’m not alone. Second homes in the mountains have been occupied full time since the spring, and the real estate market in the Adirondacks and Catskills has been off the hook.

But for me, this isn’t a new thing. I’ve been dreaming of living in the mountains of New York since I found them for the first time back in 1988. I discovered my love for cold and snow and remote locales, freeheeling in leather boots in the Siamese Pond Wilderness.

While we have a plan to make it happen, it’s a few years off, in 2024, so it’s not going to help me this season.

In pursuit

Continue reading →

Tagged: Flatlands, Ski Life8 Comments

Big SNOW: New Jersey’s Best Mall Skiing

Posted on by Brownski

I skied at Big SNOW American Dream last Friday. To be honest, I didn’t expect much. I’ve been curious about it and only live about 40 minutes away, so maybe I should have gone sooner.

As cool as off-season skiing sounds, the tiny little beginner hill, packed into a mall, wasn’t too appealing. I just couldn’t summon the motivation.

Big SNOW

Last weekend, I needed a box of doughnuts for a Halloween event I was attending first thing Saturday morning. Krispy Kremes are the best-in-class product closest to me, and ten minutes away from Big SNOW, so I combined trips to check the place out.

Continue reading →

Tagged: Flatlands20 Comments

Allamuchy: Cheating Death

Posted on by Peter Minde

Usually, my overdistance day is on foot, or on skis. The pandemic hasn’t changed my training routine; I’m pretty solitary during dryland season. Before the lockdown, I was looking forward to two big events in August: the Whiteface Sky Race and the App Gap Challenge roller ski race.

With social distancing the new rule, NENSA served up the #25KinMay Challenge. You can choose different distances depending on your goals. With my eyes bigger than my stomach, I signed up for the Keep Up With Beckwith class — Justin Beckwith is NENSA’s competition director and an all around good guy. 200 kilometers in a month? Looking back through old training logs, I saw that I generally log around 60 km a month on roller skis. Gonna have to up my game.

Continue reading →

Tagged: Flatlands5 Comments