jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
Today was my birthday gift: a relaxing daytrip to the Catskills accompanied by my wife, who did everything in her power to make things nice and stress-free for me (joke). We met Jason and crew at 10 am; conditions were more like April 17 than March 7. It was fun skiing soft bump fields that I’d normally avoid because I suck at icy moguls. The groomers were nice, occasionally sticky in spots until the clouds moved in after lunch.
Belleayre is still comparatively civil on weekends (ski-on lifts for the upper hill). And when there’s decent cover, the woods are fun — Hunter and Windham don’t really have tree skiing to speak of. I’d go to Plattekill more often if it had consistent conditions. Bobcat was my favorite, but she is no more. I’ve been twice to Hunter (steeper terrain, but an ugly mountain and bridge-and-tunnel crowds that get on my nerves), and once to Windham (fun groomers to ski with the wife, but better in the spring when the ice softens).
Here are some apres pix, a mile from Belleayre:
So we pulled in to show Claude how maple syrup is made:
Here’s where they evaporate it (or use a reverse-osmosis contraption) — amazing to think that it takes 45-50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. The guy who was inside running the operation was the exact opposite of a moonshine purveyor… he was this bookish, well-spoken guy in his late teens who looked and sounded like he should have been doing research in the library of an Ivy League school. He gave us a great explanation of the whole process. And yep, not cheap at $9 for 16 oz/500 ml, but that’s what you lay out for nectar of the gods.
We followed that with dinner at the excellent Peekamoose Restaurant:
Belleayre is still comparatively civil on weekends (ski-on lifts for the upper hill). And when there’s decent cover, the woods are fun — Hunter and Windham don’t really have tree skiing to speak of. I’d go to Plattekill more often if it had consistent conditions. Bobcat was my favorite, but she is no more. I’ve been twice to Hunter (steeper terrain, but an ugly mountain and bridge-and-tunnel crowds that get on my nerves), and once to Windham (fun groomers to ski with the wife, but better in the spring when the ice softens).
Here are some apres pix, a mile from Belleayre:
So we pulled in to show Claude how maple syrup is made:
Here’s where they evaporate it (or use a reverse-osmosis contraption) — amazing to think that it takes 45-50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. The guy who was inside running the operation was the exact opposite of a moonshine purveyor… he was this bookish, well-spoken guy in his late teens who looked and sounded like he should have been doing research in the library of an Ivy League school. He gave us a great explanation of the whole process. And yep, not cheap at $9 for 16 oz/500 ml, but that’s what you lay out for nectar of the gods.
We followed that with dinner at the excellent Peekamoose Restaurant:
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