Blackhead Range Catskills Ramble

Posted on by Peter Minde

After poring over maps and calculating mileage Saturday night, I had to make a decision.

One option was the Catskills’ Blackhead range, dropping down to Maplecrest, and climbing Windham High Peak for a counterclockwise loop. That would be 17 miles, including a three-mile pavement slog back to my car.

View towards Colgate Lake

Option two was to go over Black Dome, descend the Black Dome trail and come up the steep side of Blackhead – the route used by the Escarpment Trail Run, returning back to the trail head on Barnum Road. An out and back with a small loop at the end, and a seemingly doable 11 miles.

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Tagged: Catskills, Hiking5 Comments

Riding the Ridge in 2020

Posted on by Romanski

This past weekend would have been the 14th consecutive Ride the Ridge bike tour, an annual charity event for the High Meadow School in Stone Ridge, NY, which has become one of the premier rides in the Hudson Valley.

reservoir

It draws hundreds of cyclists from all over the region and beyond; including a couple of my favorite cycling (and ski) buddies who drive up from NJ and Philadelphia every year to carbo-load on pierogies and beer, and crash on my couches the night before the ride.

Events this year threw a wrench into the works of many group rides this season, and RTR has been postponed to October 3rd. Normally, we would wake at sunrise to be in Stone Ridge for the 8am start of the 50 mile ride.

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Tagged: Biking, Hudson Valley7 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.

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Tagged: Flatlands5 Comments