Catskill Mountain House & The Otis Elevating Railway

Part of our hiking excursions at North South Lake have included visiting the former site of the Catskill Mountain House, which was serviced by the Otis Elevating Railway.

For history and  a picture of the railway:
http://www.mths.org/archive/landmarks/otis.html

There was a really great website out there with all of the history and great pictures, but the web site is down as of 10/1/11.  I don't know if they just went the way of Facebook or what happened, but I wish I had swiped the images while I could.  So much for linking to other web sites...


Here are some of our pictures from exploring what's left of the site of the railroad.

 When hiking from the boat launch parking lot @ N/S Lake, you can see the "top" of the Otis Railroad cutout.  See the Hudson River in the center, near the horizon.

 Here, the wires run up the hill.

 Further down the trail, you can look up to the "top" of the railroad cutout.

 This is the view down the hill from the same spot (as the picture immediately above).

 What remains of an old structure near the top of the Otis Railroad at North South Lake.

 From the other side of the Hudson River, you can see the shadow of the cutout in the mountain from the old railroad.  Click on the picture to enlarge / double click to really zoom.

North South Lake - Try Again Without The Fog

Ahhh, our favorite campsite.  Oh no!  An army of children parked outside our campsite!!!

 For Saturday, we chose to go fishing.  The weather was perfect. 

Advice to first timers: they are serious about

checking fishing licenses and life jackets.

  

Slippery!!

 

Time to dry some wood for cobbler later!

On Sunday, we went for an impromptu hike.  The pictures here show the lookout, which was the final point of the hike.  See the other post (July 1) about the Otis Railway for the rail area photos along the way.

These photos are from the lookout at the end of the trail.  Rt. 23 is below in some of the photos.

Ron braved a snake to bring us these shots.  I refused to go that close to the edge, 

and was eating blueberries while he was risking life & limb.

Little Pond ~ Big Pond

Wow are we off to a late start with camping this year!  Between family events and really awful (WET) weather, it took a while to finally get out to camp.  First stop:  Little Pond.

Ron was able to leave work a tiny bit early and we got a great start setting up.  We were quickly visited by a camp ranger, warning us about some very aggressive bears in the area.  She reviewed the rules and assured us that they would patrol for our safety.  Well, that's a good way to start!  Two weeks later, we found out that the rangers had to "destroy" the bear because of it's threat to people.  Guess they were not kidding.

Speaking of wildlife, last year Amy swore on her life that she saw a mountain lion near the Pepacton Reservoir as we drove to Margaretville.   We asked the rangers about mountain lion sightings.  The "official word" is "bite your tongue."

Trying out the new EZ Up.  Chance of rain 40%. 

I think this is a good luck canopy, with no rain for the weekend!

Day 2:  Fishing at Big Pond.  We did not catch ANYTHING, other than these pictures of nature:

Beaver Lodge

 

I seriously took about 10 pictures to try to capture a school of fish jumping.  

This was the only one that worked! 

 Camping season is official with the first peach cobbler of the year!

Remember,  you can enlarge any picture by double-clicking.

North South Lake - If You Can See It

We went for the first "long" ride today, to North South Lake.  Dad joined too!  At the gas station in Haines Falls, the sky was blue and it was a little warm.  Here are pictures from the beach parking lot at North South Lake.  Needless to say, I'm thinking the rangers at the check-in were laughing as they took the $4 day use fee.  Still, it was a good long ride.  We didn't get terribly wet.  And, we tried out the new walkie-talkies with push to talk helmet communication.  These worked wonderfully and added some fun to the ride!

 

 

All broken in!!

This is the first weekend without rain, so it was time to take the new ride out and test her out.  As of Sunday night, I have almost 400km on bike. 

Sunday, Amy got brave and we went all the way to "our camping spot" and then to up to Red Hill.




All went relatively well, until we got to mom's and Ron wanted to go "off-road".  With zero experience at this, I frequently lost control as she pulled hard left, and got stuck in the mud.  Deep in the mud.  Even with 2-wheel drive engaged, I couldn't figure it out.

Then, I had further issues getting her from the bottom of mom's yard to the driveway.  I managed to make enough noise that several neighbors came outside to see what was going on.... I was more than a little embarrassed.  After she had some rest parked at the bottom of the driveway, Ron worked his magic on her and everything was back to normal.   Then he made me sit in the sidecar and took me out to the same "off-road" area to show me how "easy" it was.  Both bikes need a bath!  (Double click for closeup.)





I made it home without incident.   Every kilometer is easier than the one before it.  Except, I have no idea how many miles that is.   I need to get an app for that. 
Lesson learned:  I have no business riding in the mud, no matter how cool my bike looks!

A New Addition.....

The newest member of our family has arrived
just in time for Easter. (How many eggs
do you see?)

All that's missing is the puppy!

Spring

Spring.  Snow melts.  Fog.  How many days until summer????