The Author Lining up a Run | Photo Courtesy of B. Maschal Private Collection
After a notably light winter in terms of snow accumulation on the East Coast, early March has gifted us with a couple of decent storms already.Continue reading
Category Archives: Outdoors
Winter 3500s Cont’d
B, Improving on Her Reaction to “Babe, Let Me Get a Snap” While She is Navigating Some Difficult Terrain.
Why hit a single summit on your hike when you can do three?!?!? For President’s Day 2023, B led me on a hiking trifecta. Continue reading
Winter Running Gear — Salewa Jacket
The Author Cranking Through Some Winter Miles in That New Jacket. Photo: Dr. B. Maschal Private Collection.
For the past 15 years or so, I have been using a Nike waffle fleece lined neoprene zip-up for cold weather running. It has been an awesome jacket. After a few thousand trips through the washing machine, it is starting to come apart at the seams. I have been creeping the Nike website like a fiend, looking for a new one since it first started to fall apart last Autumn. Continue reading
Windham High Peak Winter Hike
Left: B Taking a Quick Break to Apply Crampons | Right: Babe in the Woods
As this unseasonably warm winter weather continues, so does the hiking content on Jake.News, haha. Superbowl Sunday, we decided to do a quick and easy hike. The weather was couched as “cloudy” by the iPhone app. In reality, there were some high wispy clouds diffusing a very strong sun (A/K/A pretty sunny). The temp was reminiscent of late April.Continue reading
Winter Running Gear — Nike Trail Shoes
Running in the winter can be tricky because of the mixed conditions that often exist. I find this to especially be true when spending time in the Catskills. The routes that I run typically are a mix of paved and unpaved roads. In the winter, depending on when it last snowed, the last plow, if the sun is out, etc., one can encounter everything from snow, to mud, and dry pavement, to solid ice (sometimes all on the same road!). I have some friends who wear the elastic mini crampons in the winter. I think that those would be awesome for a run that is entirely on snow or ice. But when pavement and dirt/mud are also in the mix, I feel like they would probably wear out in a handful of miles. Continue reading
Halcott Mountain Bushwhack
Left: The Author at the Halcott Peak Canister (courtesy of the B. Maschal Private Collection) | Right: Waterfall Near the Parking Area
Okay, yes, there is a lot of hiking content on this rag, as of late. There is a reason for this. B is chasing membership to one of the elite Catskills hiking clubs. In order to gain entry, one must complete a multitude of hikes to the highest peaks in the park. Some of them have established trails to follow. Others do not. Cue the “bushwhack”. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like.. schlepping straight up a mountain over whatever terrain and accompanying flora stands between you and the canister at the peak.Continue reading
West Kill Mountain Winter Hike
On a recent snowy weekend, B and I hiked West Kill peak. It starts on a trail head that we have hiked many times in the past. Notably, it is the trail on which Diamond Notch Falls (see above photo) is located. The peak was mostly socked in. But the scenery along the trail was worth the effort. Continue reading
Kelly Hollow Winter Aerials
The Kelly Hollow trail is a nice little ~4 mile loop that is a fairly quick drive from our spot in the Catskills. I like this trail because it is easy enough that Lola can still make it the whole way on her geriatric little paws. It also has some nice scenery, despite being closed in on all sides by Millbrook Ridge (I think). B and I had never hiked it in the winter until recently, when some friends of ours were upstate for a holiday weekend. This is typically a pretty popular hike because the trail is so mellow. Amazingly, we did not encounter another soul on the trail that day. I launched the drone over the beaver pond located roughly at the halfway point on the trail. The pond was partially frozen over and had a very cool looking gradient from above. Another cool visual element was that the trees were only snowy above a certain elevation line, but not along the trail (see bottom photo). Here are a couple of the images (our party is in the lower right corner of the top photo, for reference).
MLK Day Hiking
B Enjoying the Views from Wittenberg
After getting off to a super snowy start, this winter has mellowed out considerably over the past several weeks. Apparently it’s not just the Catskills. I read today in Gothamist that we are in the fourth longest period in history (since they started keeping track) with no measurable snow in NYC. Not good for skiing, but not terrible for hiking, assuming that one chooses to ignore the potential future implications as they relate to the global climate. Or maybe it is just La Nina? But hey, it was a 3 day weekend, the weather was unseasonably warm and we took advantage by going on a very long hike!Continue reading
Snowy December Photo Set
December 2022 has been one of the snowiest Decembers in the Catskills, in recent memory. As luck would have it, B and I were able to spend the entire second half of the month enjoying said snow. Here is a mega-gallery from some of our adventures in the snowy outdoors the last couple of weeks in 2022.Continue reading