May 2-6, 2024
My last stop on this trip involved time in Mohonk Preserve and Minnewaska State Park near New Paltz, New York. I drove there from Shenandoah, about 400 miles, in one day. It was a comfortable drive, no hurry, much of it on I-81, though there was plenty on “back road” highways. These parks are two of several that preserve lands in the Shawangunk Mountains. The Shawangunks are a part of the Appalachian Range. There is a campground operated by the American Alpine Club. It was a great place, where I met several interesting people and enjoyed their stories about the climbing, trail running, and overall outdoor life.
The campground is by reservation only. There are about fifty tent sites, many of which are off the camp road on a walk-in design. There are five “sites” in the parking lot for “vehicles under 20 feet in length” for people who want to sleep in their cars or van. That’s where I stayed. That area is adjacent to the check-in office and pavilion.
The pavilion is a large, covered area equipped with picnic tables, sinks, pots and pans, a refrigerator, and a toaster oven. There are bathrooms with showers. There are 110V outlets, where people could plug in their portable electric stoves, phones, computers, etc. There were also two climbing walls pitched at negative angles. One was about 45 degrees, the other about 33 degrees. This simulated climbing in a precarious position! The walls each had five vertical rows of props, structures designed to simulate rock formations where one could grab hold with hands and feet, with the degree of difficulty increasing left to right. There are no campfire rings at the individual campsites, so people are encouraged and welcome to utilize a communal campfire ring with four benches around it at the pavilion. Firewood is free, and there was plenty of it.
There was a class held one day at the pavilion by a woman with very bright red hair. She had run an extension cord to the outlets from one of the picnic tables and used a 40” computer monitor in her presentation to four other people. The topic of the class was how to be a better climber-photographer. The participants were climbers who took photos of clients doing climbs. They had to be in the right positions on their own climbs in order to have the right angles to take photos. It was interesting listening to this, as I was sitting at an adjacent picnic table having lunch.
I arrived on a Friday evening. That night I walked around and met a family (Mom, Dad, two young girls) with a Mercedes van and a large tent. The van had Colorado plates, which was the hook that initiated conversation. They have a house near Manitou Springs, not far from Pikes Peak, but currently about three hours south of the park outside of Philadelphia. I talked with the Dad for about fifteen minutes about a number of things, including the fact the next day he was doing “Rock the Ridge,” a fifty mile run on carriage roads and trails in the parks. It turns out, this and the Pikes Peak Ascent are his two favorite races. I ran the Ascent six times 1991-1996. I loved it. A little past their campground, I talked a woman from Brooklyn, who said she comes up almost every weekend to climb. She told me about a rail-trail in New Paltz to check out.
On Saturday morning I rode into New Paltz, which is about six miles east of the campground. I found the bike trail, but it was a dirt packed surface, and I had my road bike, so I skipped riding it and headed back to the Gunks. I rode up the east side of Mohonk Rest Road, rising from about 250’ to 1030’ over a relatively short distance, maybe a three-to-four mile climb with substantial double-digit gradient. It was a good, surfaced road. That put me at the Mohonk Mountain House Gatehouse. I screamed down the west side, back down to about 250’, then did a lengthier climb to a high point on Route 55 at Minnewaska State Park at 1460’. All of this climbing was under 10% gradient, much, much easier! Beautiful views. I stopped at an overlook. There were five women sitting on a rock formation, probably in their twenties, dressed colorfully. I approached and asked what the occasion was. It was the birthday of one of them. I said Happy Birthday and asked if they had a group photo. They didn’t, and they were happy for me to take one for them. Then I rode on …
I met a few people who seemed to live by the “climbing is life” motto. They were also in their twenties. They lived a life of finding temporary employment, near to climbing opportunities, where they could make ends meet and have a reasonable place to sleep, which could include crashing on someone’s couch. Two of them had recently become unemployed, and they were quite thrilled with that, as they were going to use that as an “opportunity” and head to Yosemite National Park to find work and do some climbing there for the summer. Another guy, from Puerto Rico, had put together a few part-time jobs locally – in a restaurant, a climbing gym, and at the campground – and amidst all that had recently graduated from the Culinary Institute of New York, located about twenty miles from the campground.
On Sunday, my second full day there, it rained all day and never became warmer than fifty degrees. Many campers went home, skipping a day of climbing on the rocks, while some hung out at the pavilion. On Monday, I did a ride on the carriage roads. There are about 70 miles of these dirt and gravel within Mohonk Preserve. I took my gravel bike and had a great time riding through the woods on these narrow picturesque gravel and dirt roads, which are more like double-width trails than roads. Some have great views of the valley below, all have trees, trees, trees turning very green with new spring-time growth.
On Tuesday, Day 89 of the trip, the combination of rain in the forecast and NY State spraying for moths inspired me to return to Danbury a few days early. I left in the morning and did the relatively short (75 minutes) ride to Danbury.
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