Dewey Mountain Springs Eternal

If you don’t like the weather in the north country, just wait 20 minutes.

Recently I went for a walk on Dewey Mountain. A few years back, I wrote about skiing at Dewey, my local right here in Saranac Lake — OK, it’s just outside the village, technically in Harrietstown. But let’s not quibble over details.

Dewey Mountain Trail Map

After knocking back an espresso at Origin Coffee, I drove over to Dewey. Three months post knee replacement, running is off the table and it ain’t coming back. It’s too hard on the prosthesis, and my surgeon bluntly told me, if you come back in, like, 8 years, and the prosthesis is messed up from running, I’ll probably decline to do another surgery.

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Letchworth State Park

The Empire Pass is a great product for New Yorkers who want to get outside. This summer Farah and I used our passes at a bunch of beaches. Now that swimming season is over we’ve been looking for places to hike and continue to explore. Recently we visited my parents in the Finger Lakes and from there, we checked out the Grand Canyon of the East, Letchworth State Park.

descending the stairs

I visited Letchwork and had my first white water rafting experience as a young kid. It was Farah’s first time; she’d wanted to go all summer. With unseasonably warm weather and leaves turning, it looked prime for a visit. We left early in the morning making stopping once, in Dansville for coffee.

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Hook Mountain and the Long Path

Hook Mountain State Park, together with the adjacent Nyack Beach, Rockland Lake and Haverstraw Beach State Parks, is one of my go-to local recreation spots. The Mountain itself is about 700 feet tall and part of the Palisades, a string of cliffs along the western shore of the Hudson River that begin further south in New Jersey.

The Hudson River from Nyack Beach State Park

In the past I have used it more as a spot to launch my kayak into the Hudson or to ride my bike but this year I decided to spend more time hiking there instead, as a way to improve my endurance and overall fitness — sort of a challenge to step it up a bit.

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