It all came together better than I could have hoped.
I had initially hoped to travel from Thursday to Sunday, but there were very heavy rains on Thursday, so I elected to depart early for the Catskills on Friday. In the meantime, I had reached out to Bret and Mark to see if they might be interested in getting together while I was within driving distance to New Jersey. By Thursday night, I had plans to meet with Bret at the trailhead near North South Lake Park.
This would prove to be the shortest and easiest drive to a campsite so far. I drove east and then south on the NYS Thruway, exited off the highway and had a brief drive to arrive at my destination where I would wait for less than 30 minutes before Bret would make his own turn into the lot.
The ground was sopping wet from the rains that had persisted until only a few hours before we arrived. We walked the the trails carefully, trying to avoid getting our feet wet, which was a bit easier for me in my boots than it was Bret in his shoes as we were often forced off the trails by rain water run off that was running along the trail like a small stream, exceeding 4-inches in depth in some places.
Photographically, the best images were available at Kaaterskill Falls and The Escarpment Trail as it overlooked Route 23A. The colors proved to be most attractive when looking down on the falls from the overlook above.
The view of the same falls from above offered less color, but more dimensionality.
Meanwhile, the best views were to be seen from Inspiration Point on a portion of the Escarpment Trail.
We spent approximately 3-3.5 hours on the trails before returning to the lot and visiting Rip Van Winkle Brewery for some food and drink. It had been too long, frankly, since Bret and I just hung out and talked like we always used to. It feels like only yesterday – rather than 20 years ago – that we would hike and smoke cigars on the Ramapo Trail in New Jersey. It feels a little bit longer since we day hiked into state/conservation lands from Greenwood Lake to primitive camp over night, but if there is anyone that I would want to spend days like these with, Bret is that dude. We are both in our element and the conversation always flows so freely. This day was a needed and delightful treat for me.
After parting ways at the brewery, I made my way to setup camp before visiting North South Lake Park to see if I could chase some evening light. While the light was nice, the opportunities were quite limited from that location in the evening, but I had reason to be a little more confident in the morning light that would be rising behind me the following morning.
After the sun set, I found some firewood and returned to camp for a drink and some flame. The wood that I had acquired was not seasoned though, so I was struggling to get the fire going with my small tinders. As I struggled, though, I couldn’t help but notice that I could see the cloud of the milky way above my campsite, so I decided to get out the tripod and camera to capture an image before I got the fire going in earnest.
I grabbed the equipment and found that I could center the milky way framed inside tall trees the bounded the car-path to my campsite, so I set-up there. I fiddled with my settings a bit and within a few frames, I had an image that would probably work … until my camping neighbors at the adjacent site rolled in with their vehicles casting light all over the scene that I had just finished carefully composing. Then in a stroke of luck and circumstance, they backed in their vehicles, uplighting the very trees that were framing my scene. I needed to adjust my settings a bit to not blow out the highlights, but I immediately recognized this as my strongest-yet image of the milky way.
All the while, I was on the phone talking with Mark, who had just recently returned to the area and was able carve out some time in his day on Saturday to meet with me in Hackensack. I was thrilled; it would be the first time we had seen each other in nearly a decade.
I woke up the next morning to an alarm that I didn’t need to go to the park again, this time for sunrise.
There was a very thin mist coming off the water this morning and the skies were mostly clear, sorta squashing my idea of the calm water reflecting a pretty sky in this scene:
But the light did not disappoint, as I watched scenes evolve as the sun rose above the mountain behind me. This scene in particular really benefited from warm morning light, even if the image isn’t amazing. I was hoping that I could capture an image of an automobile in motion on the bridge, but it wasn’t meant to be.
As the morning light intensified, I shifted my attention to 3 geese who were swimming along the shore from far to near, then began honking. I’ve seen enough of these creatures to know that might take flight, so I got my camera “at the ready” and waited for the moment and capture that I had been aiming for all month. As the famous quote says, “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today,” and I had spent many todays doing my best and failing to get a quality image that featured one of these creatures in flight, but I did not fail today.
After the light became a bit to direct, I decided to explore a bit, realizing that a portion of the Escarpment Trail came behind the park and less than 1000 feet from where I was parked. As I came to the trail, I was both amazed and disappointed.
I had no idea, but there was a wonderful opportunity to look to the due east from the top of a cliff-side trail that meandered from the park. And not only was the view spectacular, there was a cloud inversion this morning and the sun was already too high in the sky for me to capitalize on it. Of course, I can’t be in too places at once, and if I were photographing the low clouds from above, I wouldn’t have been photographing the goose in flight. I know that, but … ugh. I don’t know how often something like this happens, but I doubt it will ever be when I am there to witness it.
Disappointed, I continued on the trail to Sunset Rock, which featured a lovely view of North and South Lake from 400 feet above.
After Sunset Rock, it was time to get back to camp and get prepped for my trip into New Jersey to meet up with Mark and meet his wife, Ewa, for the first time. I was a bit proud of myself, actually. When I left from the house a couple of days earlier, I was less than convinced that I would be meeting up with Mark, but I was really hoping it would happen. And even though it has been many, many years since we were last together, I knew that he would aim to go somewhere very nice for a meal if we were to get together this weekend, so I brought my nice slacks with a button down shirt and my black Chucks. I felt a little strange sponge bathing at a campsite only to put on these nice clothes, but I figured that was the way to go, and I was right.
The restaurant that Mark chose is one that is very special to him; it is where he and Ewa celebrated their nuptials and he has a great relationship with management and the restaurant. The service was great, the food was wonderful, but the company was exceptional. Ewa strikes me as a centered, kind, and bright woman, and she would have to be to live with Mark after all (#winkwink). We would spend over 3 hours at the restaurant before Ewa parted ways with us and Mark and continued the evening by walking the mall, driving through Hackensack, and walking along the Hackensack River before bringing him back to his home.
I forgot what it was like to be social with folks like this. I hang with Kevin once in a while, but it is in small doses and our dialogue is often moderated for our audience. I talk with Michael (and the guys from SD) via text message and I love it, but I only get to spend a weekend a year with Michael. This weekend made downstate feel familiar and home-like, even though I was sleeping in a tent each night. I could have gone the entire weekend without capturing a single image and it would have proven to be a top 3 weekend of 2022. The photography was just the icing on the cake.
I arrived back to camp between 1030 and 1100 and burned a fire to both stay warm and to not waste the wood that I purchased. Even so, I wouldn’t be able to burn it all and would bring it to the adjacent camp the next morning for their use.
I woke up on Sunday morning with a plan. I was going to catch the sunset at the lookout (Artist’s Rock) less than one mile from the parking lot at the state park, then I would return home traveling diagonally in a northwesterly direction through upper Catskills to arrive in Waterville in the mid afternoon for a soccer game, photographing covered bridges along the way.
The hike out to Artist’s Rock was an easy one. I had done it before, it was well-marked, and there was little to no leaf litter. The view was spectacular, but the scene was as bland and unremarkable minus much interest in the sky and not much in the way of foreground interest. Even so, I hung out with 3 other parties (a mom with 3 college aged young adults, a young couple, and a dude with his loyal canine companion. I would be the first to leave to make my way for the car.
I was on the road and on my way home from the site before 0930. Much as I had the week before, I traveled with my camera accessible, stopping to photograph or explore interesting scenes along the way.
Along the way, I was able to stop and photograph two separate bridges, the first of which was Blenheim, by all accounts one of the best maintained covered bridges in the state. Of course, it is easy to maintain a bridge that no one uses and that only connects to a road on side. The craftsman ship is really neat, but I have no idea how much the construction today resembles the original construction to the bridge, which has obviously been renovated (as it should be … it is a 200 year old wooden bridge after all).
The other bridge was only 45 minutes east of Waterville at Glimmerglass State Park. It too was relatively well maintained. Not pictured are all the engravings and penciled/penned graffiti inside the bridge, which is a bit saddening, really. Still, it is a neat structure that would might photograph nicely with an IR camera body on a sunny day in the summer. Even so, my shots this date would have been better served by some pretty clouds as well, but I ultimately ended up walking away with a couple nicely composed snapshots.
And then I was in the car on my way to a soccer game, which topped off what had been a tremendously fulfilling weekend that was better than I ever could have imagined.