Recent content by nietzschescat

I saw a squirrel today carrying a baby squirrel on her back across the ground then up a tree to a nest in a cavity where another baby came out. We weren't hiking, but riding bikes on a rail trail and had stopped a minute to take a break.

The animals use the hiking trails too. I've followed fox and coyote tracks up many mountains in the Catskills. I like to look for bird nests and you can find a lot of nests along the trails. I've seen little flocks of birds come very close to check us out in the winter. Obviously our ridiculous...

We finally saw a black bear after decades of hiking in the Catskills fairly close to the start of the trail up Slide Mountain. I guess the bear was curious about us and we were curious about the bear and it was exciting and a little scary, but the bear ran off into the woods after a bit. We...

There was about 3-6 inches of powdery new snow. We wore microspikes. It started drifting just at the lean to and we stopped there for tea/lunch and got pretty cold pretty quick and decided to head down. There was a trail from the Pine Hill Lake area that wasn't on our map and another red marked...

The trail was either running water or patchy ice. We wore microspikes on and off. There were a lot of large hemlocks down, but cleared from the trail. There was one sketchy stream crossing at the beginning that we crossed on a downed tree. Access to the bridge below the falls was difficult due...

We met this man 2 winters ago. He was concerned about the plow and his driveway being blocked and pointed out that we should be parking in the unplowed parking area above the road and we should call the DEC to complain that it isn't plowed. He started out a little aggressive and intimidating...

We took the shuttle bus from Blackwoods Campground and climbed Dorr Mt and then Cadillac and hiked across Cadillac and down the other side and back to the campground. It's a little weird on Cadillac with the tour buses, etc, but no one really moves too far from the parking area. We were there...

I've never been to High Point State Park, but I have been following the hydrofracking news and it's my understanding that there is clear cutting for a gas pipeline currently underway in the park and across the Appalachian Trail in that area. It wasn't clear from a quick look at the parks website...

I've been eyeballing that route on the VO map for awhile now and it was nice to read your report and see your beautiful photos.....nice to see ferns and not prickers on those little used trails. You're going to love the Beaver Meadow Lean to near Alder Lake when you add that one to your list. :)...

link to article in nytimes via watershed post http://www.watershedpost.com/2012/cuomos-new-plan-hydrofracking-taking-page-nrdc The link has a link to a good graphic in the NY Times article about where the shale is in NY and which towns have bans already in place. It looks like the...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/nyregion/hydrofracking-under-cuomo-plan-would-be-restricted-to-a-few-counties.html?_r=2&smid=tw-nytmetro&seid=auto

That was very cool, thank you. I saw one once crossing the road and I think I stopped breathing for a few minutes. They make a horrendous noise when they scream though, very scary.

We saw our first black bear about a month ago near the beginning of the trail to Slide Mt. We heard some rustling in the woods and Peter said "it's a bear" which usually means it's a squirrel and he's trying to freak me out, but this time it really was a bear. We were the first hikers on the...

I can't wait to go back and hike this again in June once the laurel are flowering and then I guess again in July when the blueberries are ripe.......what a pretty place and we didn't even have great views since it was a hazy day. The trail up is on an old road along the Kanape Brook most of the...

Thanks for the information. We thought it looked like the cutting had been going on for years and also noticed that it wasn't really a great trail to walk on. We'll be heading up there again soon, so we'll keep our eyes open.