Head for the Hills: Hunter Mountain, NY
Our move to Keansburg, NJ has come with a lot of surprises. One of which is our Landlord. Her name is Helen, and she has been one of the nicest landlords we have ever had, and definitely the nicest we have had since we started this adventure two years ago. Recently I was meeting with her to pay rent, and we got to talking about the adventures Amity and I have been on. This was when she brought up the fact that she has multiple condo’s up at Hunter Mountain outside of Hunter, NY that we should go take advantage of. Cherry on top was the fact that she offered for us to use on for free! With an offer like that, how could we say no? With the fall colors popping in the trees up north, we had to take advantage of the timing, we were equally excited to hear that the Hunter Mountain Ski Area’s Oktoberfest Celebration was going on the weekend we would be there. Right before we set off for the trip, we got a call from some old Whitefish friends, Koben and Katie Williams, informing us that were having a birthday party for their son only 20 min out of our way in Ridgefield, Connecticut. We are set for an awesome weekend!
Mile: 50,212
Quote of the Blog: “Anyone who thinks fallen leaves are dead has never watched them dancing on a windy day.” - Shira Tamir
Song of the Blog: “Stand And Sing Ein Prosit” - Walter Ostanek
The drive to Hunter, NY is only three hours from Keansburg. The only problem is that we would be going through tolls. We have had some issues with New Jersey’s toll system and ended up having to pay $150 in service fees for less than $20 in total tolls. So, we started this trip with a stop at a local laundromat to get some coins. Yes, NJ toll stations do still physically operate on change tolls like 80 cents that you have to have exact change for. Even though we ended up not needing the coins for the tolls in New York and Connecticut, we were happy to have the coins in the car for when New Jersey wants to be a pain! The drive up to Hunter was smooth and easy. We quickly got away from the urban world and into the rural stretches of the state. Amity pointed out how it is easy to forget that most of New York is very rural and dense forests. As we climbed up into the mountains around Hunter, NY we were greatly pleased with the mountainous terrain and the beautiful landscapes.
Hunter is a very small town with a ski hill in it. The population is less than a few thousand people, but we have heard that during the winter this place can get to be quite the scene, because it is the closest ski area to NYC. We were very happy to be in such a quite space for the weekend. Helen’s condos are up at the ski area and have amazing ski in and ski out potential. We might have to see if these are going to be accessible this winter! We wanted to take our first night there to relax and explore the surrounding area. We started our explorations with a couple beers at the Hunter Mountain Brewery. They have a great patio with views of the ski hill. We felt very at home with all the ski gear and mountain knickknacks hanging on the walls of the brewery. We then needed to get some dinner so we headed down the road to the next town over called, Tannersville. This is another cute little mountain town. Most of the businesses were closed for the shoulder season, but we were able to find a little Mexican spot call, Poncho Villa’s, and burger joint to get some ice cream at called, Momma’s Boy Burgers. Both have a very mom and pop feel to them. They were both bomb. The next day we planned to get some hiking in before Oktoberfest.
One of the main reasons for this trip was to get a chance to take in the fall foliage colors. The tree’s leaves were close to what the area deems to be “peak season”. This made all of the views dusted with bright orange, red and yellow hills. There are things that you hear about that don’t live up to the hype, and then there are things that make the hype completely understandable. This was the latter of the two! We planned to do a couple hikes over by North South Lake. We heard from some locals we talked to that we needed to get there early before it becomes a zoo with people. So, we got up early and headed to the trailhead. We got a little lost while looking for the right parking area, but eventually gave up on the original parking plan for something closer to the trailhead we planned on doing first. Our first hike of the day was the Artist Rock, Sunset Point to North Point Loop. This was a 7 mile hike and was beautiful! There were minimal people on the trail, which made for a great morning of hiking. A funny moment on the trail happened when we passed a couple that were sitting on the trail, and the guy looked at us and said, “This is not a trail.” It was like he was a trail troll hanging out in a small cave on the side of a clearly marked trail. Amity let him know that there was a trail sign right behind him, and that we would be okay. We were not sure which rock was Artist Point and which one was Sunset rock, but there were two amazing spots for views. The first was a massive overhanging cliff that looked out over the vast valleys around us. The second was a rock that elevated you over the tree tops to see the lakes bellow and the surrounding mountains. Both were amazing! Toss on the blasts of color from the leaves and we were totally getting spoiled by nature! This trail looped back to the car where we made the choice to see if we could find parking closer to our next trail for the day.
For our second hike, we did the Kaaterskill Falls Trail. As we drove closer to the trailhead, we realized that we should have done this hike first. With all the cars we were having flashbacks to hiking Maple Loop Pass in North Cascade National Park last year. We were able to find parking relatively close to the trailhead. We only had to add another two miles of hiking to the trail. On top of that we were hiking with at least a couple thousand people. This kind of hiking is my least favorite. People go really slow on the trail, have no knowledge of trail etiquette and there always seems to be a group that shows up by the bus load right in front of us. We zigged and zagged our way around the “moving gates” (aka people) to get down to the waterfall. Once we were down there it was spectacular! The waterfall is a massive double falls that you can hike all around. After getting some beautiful pictures of the falls, we hiked up behind the falls into the overhang under the upper falls. This was where the most beautiful views of the weekend happened! The vastness of the overhang and the sheer size of the falls combined with the fall colors to give us a moment in our adventures that is burned into our memories! We only could have made this better by doing this hike first and not having to deal with all the people. Otherwise, this spot was one of the all-time spots we have hiked to. We navigated the chaos of people back to our car. On the way back to the car, I saw a woman hiking with a parrot on her shoulder; thats a first! Back at the car, we decided to head up to another quick hike to an overlook where we were able to see 5 states. I counted all of them while dangling my feet off of the edge of a very large cliff! I could see Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Outside of New York, all of these states were new sights for us! We took in the views, got some pictures and headed back to the car. We needed to get back to the condo to change and head to Oktoberfest.
While we were back at Helen’s condo getting ready, I wanted to pour a beer into a glass to enjoy. I opened her cabinet to find a Back Room at the Night Owl pint glass staring at me. This is a restaurant in Columbia Falls, MT and the glass is now in a condo in New York. My jaw hit the ground. I had known Helen had visited Northwestern Montana, but this just made our hearts melt! I had to fill it with a beer and enjoy it! We then walked over to the ski area lodges for the party. As we got closer, we realized the number of people that were there was massive! One of the unique things going on with this event was the fact they ran the chairlift for a scenic ride amongst the fall foliage. One of the first things I saw was the line that had formed to get onto the chairlift. This would have been a massive line for skiing, let a long a scenic ride to look at trees!!! Luckily, they were sold out of tickets so we didn’t have to stand in the line. We could just look at the trees from the lodge and enjoy the music, Bavarian themed outfits, ample beers and food! We ended up meeting and chatting with a couple different groups throughout the evening. One of the best conversations we had was with a family from Pennsylvania who had a 13 year old son with them. Their son was an actor in Revolutionary War reenactment battles. Amity’s grandad did that back in MO for Civil War reenactments, so she loved the young man’s stories! It was really nice to be back at a ski area with people who we could tell loved to ski too. We have not had this kind of culture for a while and missed it greatly! After this evening of celebrating and mingling, we now know we are most likely going to take Helen up on a stay at her condo this winter for some skiing!
We wrapped the night up watching the Yankees play the Royals at a local pub called, Ronni MacGreggors Pub, in the town of Hunter. We made more friends, learned a little bit about the area, and enjoyed a back and forth game of baseball! It was a great way to finish off a great weekend in the mountains! Hunter, NY has some serious potential. The ski hill may be a little small, but it has some steep terrain and sounds like the people here know how to do Apres Skiing really well!
On our way back to New Jersey, we made a detour to head over to Ridgefield, Connecticut to meet up with Kobe and Katie for their son’s second birthday party! We both have never been to Connecticut before, so we enjoyed checking off another state. Meeting up with old friends was exactly what we needed. We enjoyed not only catching up with them, but we also got to privilege of spending time with Koben’s dad, Ken, and another Whitefish friend, Katie Farmer. Katie and I grew up skiing together and she can rip! So we were able to pick her brain a little bit about skiing in the northeast and where we should put on our radar for this winter (spoiler alert, we are hoping to stay in New England for the next contract). Katie has also taken on endurance events recently. So we had some great chats about how Amity and I have done and plan to do a Half Marathon at each location. It was amazing to catch up with everyone, and get to know where they are at in life. Everyone is so inspirational and it was really nice to have made this detour to see them all. With one final HAPPY BIRTHDAY to their son, Fletcher, we said our goodbyes and got back to driving home. With only a couple hours to get back, we were able to make good time and be home with enough time to have some dinner and relax before going to bed. It was a long weekend and we are once again exhausted! Only a couple more days of work before the next big adventure!!!! Such is the life of Live Rad & Travel!!!