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Yeah, I think that's the NYC mindset to mind your own business and don't make eye contact. I haven't seen many Hasidic hikers, but I generally avoid the Bear Mountain area as it's too crowded (though there are some great views). There's a huge Hasidic community just to the north in Monroe...

As you saw, it can get busy there, and the hike you did is a popular one. I hike a lot in that part of the park because I'm a member of a group camp near there, but I bushwhack a lot (technically not allowed) so that avoids the crowds. There are a lot of Asian hiking groups there, I think...

Late reply, I know... I was hiking in Harriman yesterday. Snow long gone, not much mud. Yesterday was a stellar day, surprisingly not many people where I was (Kanawauke Road to R-D to Nurian to Valley of Boulders, bushwhack to A-SB, back Dunning -WB-Nurian-RD). Kanawauke Road is officially...

Can't help with locations, but... at that age, you might want to do a trial run camping in the back yard or nearby if that's feasible. When my older daughter was around 2 years old we hiked about 1/4 mile into the woods behind the house and camped near a stream. A year later, I took her and...

Right, the relatively short distance to roads and civilization compared to other mountainous areas lulls people into a false sense of security. It's part of why Mt. Washington is often called "the most dangerous small mountain in the world."

Starting a fire in those conditions with dry wood is hard enough; trying to do it with live wood would probably an exercise in futility. I've gone to a Trangia type stove for most hiking ever since my kiwi son in law turned me on to them, but it's been some years since I've done a real winter...

I remember seeing this sign or a version of it when I last skied Killington 45 years ago...

AW, I think so. Bear Mountain for sure, as the inn is open year round.

Also Kanawauke Road (Rt. 106) is generally closed for the winter between Seven Lakes Drive (actually just past the Kanawauke parking lot, which remains open) and Rt. 17.

Those poly tarps are a heavier version of the ubiquitous blue tarps you see everywhere: heavy, crinkly, bulky when folded, etc. I use a roughly rectangular silnylon tarp from Golite. It's slightly shaped, meaning that if you stretched it out with all sides on the ground it'd be like a very...

Dad's old Ka-Bar Boy Scout sheath knife from the 1930s used to sit on a shelf in the basement when I was a kid, but I don't know what happened to it. I carried it on a few hikes in the early 1970s. My current backpacking knife (other than the ubiquitous swiss army knife I carry everyday) is a...

No Sunday hunting in Connecticut, either. Supposedly it's allowed in private hunting preserves with town permission, but I don't know if any such preserves actually exist and they wouldn't be open for hiking during hunting season anyway. Public land shotgun season in CT is only a couple of...

One thing to remember is that the standard height for the anemometer that measures wind at an airport or other weather station is 10 meters or 30 feet above the ground to get it above the boundary layer... so when they're reporting, say, 20 knots, you might measure only 10-15 holding your meter...

I found an altimeter (Avocet altimeter watch) useful in the days before GPS. Set whenever at a known elevation, it makes it easy to determine your position from contour lines when climbing along a linear feature like a trail or stream. I used a Dwyer wind gauge for paragliding, which is why I...

A few years ago I was hiking Baldface with my daughter and meet another man at the trailhead who was heading out with his daughter. He was in his 80s and she was about my age (50 something at the time), he asked where we were going. We told him our route, and with a tear in his eye he said...

Best to get a copy of the NY/NJ Trail Conference maps, they show all the trails and viewpoints. There's not a lot of extended ridge walking like there is farther north in the Whites, but there are some nice hikes. Avoid the area around the Visitor's Center parking on Seven Lakes Drive on...

I can't think of any significant waterfalls, but there's lots of nice hiking in Harriman State Park, less than an hour from Manhattan. Not terribly remote, but you can avoid the crowds if you avoid the more popular areas.

Kind of like the "South of the Border" stickers you used to see everywhere on cars that stopped at that tourist trap on the way to Florida. I think they used to slap them on every car in the parking lot without asking the owner, though. When we hiked Mt Washington around 15 years ago my...

I had babesiosis and Lyme at the same time a few years ago. Wasn't fun, but neither is covering head to toe in hot weather, avoiding underbrush, or bathing in chemicals. I'll take my chances.

I do a lot of hiking in Harriman as we have a cabin in the area, and the increase in numbers starting with covid (when NYC people couldn't reach their usual destinations) is appalling. 10 years ago you could usually find space in a lean-to, now it's not unusual to see 25 or more tents pitched...