A Child Of Atom

Camping was fabulous! We headed out Sunday afternoon about 2 up through the Catskills to a place called North-South Lake Campgrounds. It's a small state parks in a valley where there are two beautiful lakes. The lakes though are the smallest part of what is available in the campground scenically.

Sunday was cold and rainy, a trend here this summer, and ass we drove up we started to notice that the trees had not even come into full green yet at some of the altitudes we passed. That scared us a bit. By the time we reached the campground though things were looking pretty good. Most of the afternoon was spent setting up the tarps and things that we would sleep under for the next two nights, and then a short hiking trip to see a small waterfall called Mary's Glenn. The park is beautiful but three straight days of rain had left everything pretty swampy and the hiking paths had literally been turned into streams that we had to wade through in order to get anywhere. It was a good day, but it made for a cold night sleeping in the damp, and trying to dry out our shoes by the fire.
The next day was full of adventure. The sun had come out and dried up a good deal of the area so we set out to see what the park truly offered. First up was Kaaterskill Falls, the tallest falls in New York State at 150 feet. We approached the falls from the top first, then scaled down the mountain so that we could see it's full glory. The falls has three different levels where it plateaus, and at the second level you have to pass behind the falls in order to complete the hike down. It was a staggering view. The falls from the bottom were truly amazing though and we spent a good while photographing and sketching and just basking in it.

After that was Artist's Rock a cliff face where the whole of the Hudson Valley is visible. That was followed by Sunset Rock where we shared a watermelon on the peak and enjoyed the view of the lakes that give the park it's name. Then came a short hike to the former site of the Catskill Mountain House, a former resort hotel that overlooked the valley. It left us all pretty wiped out and the we were in our sleeping bags as soon as the sun set.

The next morning we were up at 6, and on the way back to the theatre for a day of work. we were all stiff and tired and it was a long day of building scenery and trying to recover from our adventures.

The next dark day we are planning a trip to a campground in Montauk, and while on this trip we saw a rafting place in a town called Pheonicia that we plan to take advantage of later in the summer. It's nice to be in the outdoors and actually taking advantage of it for once, unlike last year.