Catskills to home – the last leg of our New York trip
Our stay in the Woodland Valley campground was a damp one but inside the tent it was dry – a good thing :-). When we awoke in the morning, the humidity was very high but the rain had stopped and some blue patches of sky could be seen through the foggy air. Where ever a bit of sun broke though and struck the earth, a cloud of ‘steam’ was rising giving an almost mystical effect to our surroundings. There were 72 camping spots at this location and, as far as I could determine, we were the only ones who had camped overnight. In the morning, the camp warden dropped by to remind us that we still had to pay (no one around when we arrived at 8PM) but not many other signs of life. It was nice that here was enough sunlight out in the open area to allow me to dry out the tent before packing it up, so, before having a bit of breakfast, I picked up the still assembled tent and moved it out into the open. That’s a nice feature of a free standing tent such as the North Face Mountain 25, when the poles are in place, the tent is completely moveable so you can move it to a favorite spot before pegging it to the ground. Before long, we were on the road again and heading north toward Boonville, NY.
When I am not in a tremendous hurray to get somewhere, I prefer to utilize the secondary highways when traveling in the United States rather than the Interstate highways. Often the travel time is not much longer, my speed is lower and therefore fuel economy increases, and as an added feature, I get to stop on the side of the road to photograph interesting things.
The route that I was taking this time around brought me once again to Boonville, NY except by a slightly different route which brought me past the museum rather than directly into town. Today was one of those days when the museum was closed so I ha to satisfy myself with a peek through the window, a few shots of a covered bridge and three young ladies who assured me that they were much busier at the start of the day when they had outdoor education classes underway with energetic groups of children.
Boonville is located at the upper end of the Black River canal system. When the canal was operational, it linked this area of the country with the Erie canal system but is now just another page in history.
From Boonville, we continued north, crossed the border at Ogdensberg NY and arrived home safely. I would be heading further north only two days later so just enough time to transfer files from CF cards to the computer, wash some clothes, repack and get ready for another adventure in Norther Ontario.
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Hiking Boots at Amazon
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