Giant Stairs

Saturday I got up early and decided to finally try the Giant Stairs. How great a trail for experienced hikers and its only 10 minutes from my door. The Giant Stairs is a trail that is mostly a scramble over 100's of rocks which have come down the cliff side of the palisades over the last 1000 or so years of erosion.
I checked the weather and all looked good, they predicted rain but I figured I could get through the scramble before then if I hit the trail early enough. It starts out with a beautiful steep descent that zig zags its way down the cliff side until you are basically on the shore of the hudson river (note in the pictures how different it looks than the hudson river photographed in my last hike 1hr away from where I live)



one of the coolest spots ever for a blaze

Once you get to the river you're in for a great 1 mile scramble that is more horizontal than vertical but takes you at points both up and down. It's a difficult scramble for different reasons than the one at Breakneck Ridge, mainly because you are walking sideways while trying to keep yourself from falling sideways if that makes any sense. Also you need to watch out for stuff like this



A nice place to put you leg if you'd like to spend the night

So remember earlier how I figured I would beat the rain. Well about 5 min into the scramble it started to snow...Snow? They didn't say anything about snow. So I picked up the pace in hopes of getting through before the rocks were slick. This did not happen I ended up going very slowly for most of a one mile scramble using my hands most of the way and testing my footing with every step. Still it was a fantastic scramble.



The first step





You see why they call it the Giant Stairs?





Some smaller steps




The long and windy bumpy road





This big boy probably had a nice view of Manhattan from the top of the cliff 1000 yrs ago.

After a good hr on the rocks you come out on a path that takes you up the shore of the river for a good 20 minutes. Its not often that you get to literally walk along the Hudson river that close to NYC. It was mostly beautiful but I did imagine at some point I could see a body wash ashore...I didn't however see this. After this you come to a little clearing with oddly enough a tree swing hanging out over the water. It kind of looked like a Edward Gorey illustration.



I imagine the twins from the shining on this swing




Fancy a dip?




I have to get back up there somehow

As you head back up the cliff you hike up alongside the Peanut Leap cascade which seem to come right at you because well its coming right at you. Even on the trail you get a few drops of water from the falls on your head....which normally would be refreshing after the strenuous Giant Stairs of course it was now raining and I was already drenched.




Cool




Shortly after getting above the falls I started day dreaming about eating my lunch and bears for no particular reason. I wondered of trail and found what I believe is the only house in the Palisades that Rockefeller didn't have destroyed as it posed no threat to the view from the Cloisters in Manhattan.



I feel sorry for your Mailman

Eventually you join the Long Path (see earlier posts) and make your way back up the cliff and loop back to where you began. A great hike I intend on doing many more times but preferably in drier conditions.

Longing for home, west, or France

This is the year it all clicked. Even though this is the year I almost knocked myself unconscious and boarded into the non-padded side of a chairlift support pole, I definitely think I am getting the hang of it. In all fairness I hit my head on the first day, which fortunately was also the first day I decided I should be wearing a helmet, and I slowly slid (on my ass) into the pole on a sheet of ice in order to avoid hitting some lady that had fallen right in front of me. As we prepare for our extra long weekend (4 days) in Stowe at the end of the month, I am day dreaming of the powder that really doesn't exist in the north east. Since France is far, and ski resorts out west are expensive, I settle for slushy, ice, and granulated snow but hopefully we will be blessed with some powder up in Stowe. We got lucky on January first in Belleayre, the Mountain was empty, the lift tickets were $19 and it snowed all morning stopping just as we arrived for a day of the best powder I imagine you could have in New York state. It's amazing how your skill level improves when you trade hard ice for soft snow. I started to push myself a little and I am totally addicted. I wish I could go every weekend throughout the winter. This is only a wish as my attempt to make this happen involved going back to Mountain Creek which is only an hour away and still in New Jersey. Its safe to say that no one is coming out of state of from Switzerland to ski the hills of NJ. So for now until I have a private jet I will have to settle for occasional trips upstate with decent-to good conditions, and one trip a year to VT for hopefully good-excellent conditions. Here are some photos from this years trips.




Our first day of the Season at Belleayre





Erinn back on Skis and remaining Vertical





Can you see the real snow? (Thats Yi and Rocco BTW)





What a view





See previous caption





A little Powder got us easterners giddy.

Breakneck Ridge MLK 2008

Woke up early this morning packed heavy (for safety, and training purposes) and hopped into Elie (What we affectionately refer to our Element as) and headed up the Palisades to Cold Spring to hike Breakneck Ridge for the first time, knowing only two things....Its generally crowded with hikers, and in my book its difficulty level is Buttkicker. So I figure excellent its 19 degrees, today is a good day to hit the trail and have it mostly to myself. Indeed the trail was rather empty, only a few troopers out, and it was a Buttkicker assuming you scrambled well, otherwise Facekicker may be a more accurate difficulty level. Here are a few photos of the initial scramble to the first peak.




Straight up that rock basically (thank you wikipedia for the pic)







Side View...not quite doing it justice though







Other Side.....thats more like it


the pictures almost do justice to the awesome scramble that starts about 5 minutes into the hike, next best thing to experiencing it for yourself would be video, but what kind of idiot scrambles with a video camera.....well a quick youtube search and the answer is several idiots.




I have to say I have never attempted anything like this and it was really a thrill and a test of my abilities both mentally and physically, the hardest part was probably not expecting it to be this difficult, and having decided to pack an extra 40lbs on my back. I took it slow and really thought it out and did the first scramble safely but still the adrenaline was pumping through my body like never before. Oddly enough the first bit of the hike is the hardest with only one more difficult scramble, then slightly more sane terrain for the rest of the day. Of course I didn't know this so I stopped to take what I thought would make a nice last picture.






No Fear?







The serene Hudson River calms me down.


I caught my breath collected my thoughts and headed on. At first glance of what lay ahead on the trail, I believe my first thought is are you &$*#@ing kidding me





The 2nd scramble


but a couple minutes into it I realized it was far easier than what I had just done so I trekked on.



Sidenote: If anyone is hiking Breakneck Ridge and finds one red ems glove it's mine I can pick it up if you have it.



the biggest challenge on the second scramble was that is was colder and there where a few ice patches so I had to tread carefully. I got to the top fairly quickly and snapped a few pictures from the highest peak on this hike.





It almost looks drinkable






The hot sun made it feel much nicer than 19 degrees







Hey you got a lot smaller







See its bigger from the bottom fancy that??

I forgot to mention that I was trying out my new safety toy. The Garmin etrex Vista Hcx and I had a trail map so how could I possibly get lost right? So I can't make sense of either and I am convinced that the GPS has something wrong with it and the map is wrong, I bump into a trio of Hikers and ask them how much longer until the end of the Breakneck trail. 1.5 hrs they reply which makes no sense to me but since they started in that direction I take their word for it. I hike for another 20 minutes and I meet up with a red trail so I whip out my map and look for the place where red and white meet...hmmm...ok this isn't good its going to let me out about 4 miles from my car and I'd prefer not hike 4 miles of road...what I don't understand is how I managed to miss both the blue and yellow blazed trails that seem to join with the trail I am on well before it meets red. So I turn around and head back to find these other blazes. I find myself back where I met the last group of hikers and now I am really confused. Where the heck are these other trails? I guess I can just go back the way I came. Figuring I have no other choice I head back trying to ignore the fact that these scrambles going down are well, maybe not possible for me. As I start to head towards the second scramble I see another group of hikers and figure I can ask them if they know where the trails I am looking for are. As they approach I hear one of them yell "Hey I know you from the climbing wall?" Wow what are the chances, I met this girl last Thursday climbing at the North Meadow Rec Center in Central Park and we bump into each other in the middle of the woods. Freaky. Anyway we start talking and it seems they aren't quite sure where to go either so we decide to join forces and figure it out. Turns out the reason I couldn't find anything is, as it happens when you climb straight up you really haven't gone anywhere as the birds fly, and so I was looking about 4 hrs ahead of myself on the trail. After I got over the disappointment of realizing that pushing myself to the limit for 3 hrs had me close enough to the car to hear the alarm go off, we all headed out as a group and finished up the trail in about an hour. Although I initially wanted to spend the hike alone it was a good stroke of luck that I bumped into these folks, and not just because one of them had chocolate covered pretzel...though that helped. Can't wait to do this one again, and maybe my glove will still be on top of the mountain.





Reality check

The Wall

This isn't really a post about a single outing but rather a bunch in one since I am playing a little bit of catch-up on this blog. About a month and a few weeks ago, me amigo, Rocco brought me bouldering in Central Park. It was a blast, we started on a real boulder in the park then jogged our way up to the North Meadow recreation center to have a go at the indoor wall. For $7 you get a day pass and shoes, not a bad deal when compared to the $50 fee at Chelsea Piers. Although there is quite a difference in both walls.



I will let you guess which one costs $50

Anyway since that day I bought myslef a nice pair of Italian made Scarpa climbing shoes a ball of chalk and I've been heading out at least once a week to the wall. Last time I decided to go ahead and get the year pass which probably makes this the cheapest way to climb without climbing a real rock. The rec center has also been a great place to meet like minded individuals which proved most true when I bumped into someone from the wall in the middle of the woods only days after meeting them. I am pretty awful at climbing but get noticeably better each time and always have a lot of fun. I'd like to get out on to real rock more often but not really looking at ever climbing a cliff face. I am a little scared of heights. Some may say if you are scared of heights why rock climb. Well honestly I do a lot more left to right than up and down. Eventually I figured out how to traverse 5 sections of wall using only 4 hand holds. My current goal is to try and pull myself up from the bottom to the top on one of the steeper slanty pieces of wall (I am sure there's a more technical name for that). Anyway this is becoming one of the activities thats pretty high on my lists for both fun and exercise, and I recently inherited 2 large buckets of holds. The plan is to rip out some of the sheet rock in the garage and build me a little cave (updates to follow). Anyway here are some photos from the Rec center.




Day one on the wall





Jamal one of the rec center employees

These Boots Were Made for Hiking

Ok so I got my new boots (see post below...way below...long post...keep scrolling) now I got to try them out. So I did some googling to see what was nearby and I came upon the lovely hikes of the PIP (Palisades Interstate Parkway) immediately I wanted to try the scramble of all scrambles called the Giant Stairs, but in order to get there you have to do a 45 minute hike so I set off on the Peanut Leap Cascade hike. The hike starts out from a lovely lookout where you can see the Tappan Zee bridge, the George Washington Bridge, and Manhattan.




One of the only nice views of Yonkers

The first thing I learned about my boots is treads mean very little on ice, though being Canadian means something as I was able to steady myself and do a triple lutz onto the safer snowy part of the trail. At this point I figured the scramble was probably out of the question and I would simply do my best to do the Peanut Leap Cascades without falling on ice. Considering its a short 7 minute drive from home this hike was fantastic. I especially enjoyed the solitude of hiking in the winter it was just me the woods and a nice healthy dose of nothing, doesn't sound possible considering I could see Yonkers and the Bronx, but it was.






Sweet Solitude


Or is it?



The hike takes you through a fairly tame but scenic trail through the forest that with a little more snow makes for great cross country skiing.





Then you arrive at a monument marking the state line between New York and New Jersey




Leave your Bon Jovi cds, and mullets behind, your not in Jersey anymore


After this you begin a fairly steep cliff side descent with fantastic views and thankfully a strong cable fence to keep you from going from cliff side to cliff dive.








These pictures do neither the steepness or scenery much justice


At this point I decided that because of the need to move slowly over the slippery ice and snow I should turn around and head home before it got dark. All in all it was a great hike, but perhaps a little to slippery. I knew I wanted to continue hiking in the winter and that perhaps it would be my favorite time of year to hike but what did this mean do I buy crampons, crampons in New Jersey, that somehow seemed ridiculous. Thankfully I was able to reach out to a great friend and avid hiker who told me about a fabulous product called Stable-icers



My great friend Rich and me at the top of the Tower on the Blue Hills reservation trail in Massachusetts.

these combined with a set of telescoping trekking poles (long going down, short going up) and I could continue to hit the trails in lonely weather without looking like an idiot in New Jersey in search of Mt. Everest.



and here are some more photos....







Me laying on a rock 100's of feet above the Hudson river





Ya I'm a tree hugger so what.

Thanksgiving Activities

Thanksgiving is a time of year I really must say I enjoy. Why you ask? (Seriously ask why?) Well there are several reasons.

1) I spend it every year at my sisters house in Cambridge where I get to see my family and friends

2) I always find some great deal on either a jacket or bag at the TJ Maxx in the Fresh Ponds Plaza

3) I get to walk over to Whole Foods from the hotel and buy some snacks and be thankful I no longer work for the organization

4) The food is always excellent and the Thanksgiving leftover sandwich is the best (thank you Dan....if you don't know Dan he makes the sandwich)

Although I wouldn't say I attend the most traditional Thanksgiving dinner ( Perhaps in Cambridge a lesbian, vegetarian, gluten free thanksgiving is more traditional than I realize) lately it seems that the tradition of Thanksgiving has become more of a holiday of traditions. Let me explain. It began with the first Thanksgiving, not the one that preceded real estate dealings and pox covered blankets, but our first Thanksgiving in Cambridge. We all had a good time and decided lets do it here annually. Then came the second tradition, for me, which was the annual post-thanksgiving Walnut Hill (my high school) alumni dinner. Every year we get together for drinks and food and catch up the inane details of everyones life while enjoying drinks and trying to enjoy the food at whatever local craptacular eatery has been chosen. This always is fun regardless of the fact that I don't really like the food, and know nothing about finance nor do I wish to. Last Thanksgiving two new traditions were born, both that I hope have a long life as they are welcome additions to the beginning of the holiday season. The first new one was the pre-thanksgiving Annual Bike-Run-Stretch Conn, Klein family triathlon.



this was a great idea that my sister Leah started. We all donned our official triathlon gear and went on a leisurely bike ride around Cambridge followed by a quick run and some stretching. A great way to loosen up before a day of too much food and just enough alcohol. The second new tradition was the post-thanksgiving hike with one of my best friends in the world Rich. We met up the morning after grabbed some GU, trail mix, apples, and water, and drove out to the beautiful Blue Hill reservation in Milton. We hiked through the afternoon accompanied by mild weather and conversations ranging from the deep philosophies of two minds molded by the long awesome journey called life, to the ridiculous yet hilarious musings that perhaps would be more suited coming out of the mouth of a 12 year old boy raised on sugar and Beavis and Butthead. Anyway the hike was great and the time spent with an old buddy was greater. I hope I can look back on years of these hikes and they truly will become one of the few traditions in my life.




Blue Hills trail map





The observatory at the peak of the trail





Rich and I inside the observatory

The First Hike

So....it all began close to 4 months before this hike. I had weighed more than Homer Simpson (not sure if there's some kind of human to cartoon conversion I could've applied but regardless I felt crappy about it), several co-workers at my last job decided to have a weight loss contest after reading a New York Times article about weight-gain being contagious. I asked if I could join knowing I had some tricks up my sleeve and the $650 pot would be a nice start to my wide screen hdtv fund. So I began eating nothing but low-carb low-fat food (this was also the end of vegetarian Jeremy, and also presumably the end of several unnamed farm animals) I hit the gym daily and lifted weights at least 5 times a week. 6 weeks later I had gone from 249.5 lbs to 223 lbs. I thanked all the other fatties took my $650 dollars and went home. Something else happened in those six weeks that you may say was more important than money (or you may not some people care more about money than anything) I felt good, I enjoyed using my equipment (thats me), and I liked getting better at things that required me to be physical. So instead of buying a new TV I bought a bicycle on ebay Although serious cyclists wouldn't consider the 2006 Specialized Allez Sport triple the greatest bike, the fact that it had carbon fork and seatpost, brake lever shifters, clipless pedals, a chain that stays on for the whole ride, and was younger in years than me, made it the best bike I've ever owned. It quickly became my favorite thing to do progressing from actually being able to bike the whole Palisades Interstate Path (the last time I think I went 10 minutes felt like I was dying and turned around and waited in the parking lot for my dad) to being able to do the whole path, then getting to the path on my bike from my house (that adds about 14miles to the ride), to being able to start at home do the path cross the bridge go to harlem come back go up 9w to the state line



Dad

and back home (that makes it about 36 miles).....Wait this is post is called "The First Hike" not "The First Bike" hmmm how did that happen...well anyway lets segway here (not the self propelled vehicle for twits but the real segway which is actually spelled segue) So the gym was great, but outdoor fun activities clearly are much better both for fun and exercise, so when my pal, and future member of the merry adventurers (we may change our name to something less gay....not that there's anything wrong with it) Rocco Caputo invited me to come with him and his wife to Woodbury Commons and hike while she shops I was all for it. We arrived at the mountain around noon, and with our combined lack of direction ended up parked next to a rock at the top of the mountain until we realized there was a parking lot on the other side of the rock and moved the car. Then we realized we parked at the top and decided well I guess we are going to do this hike backwards (not literally that would be dangerous). So we hiked straight down the mountain on the Major Welch Trail (The blazes look like tiny Japanese flags which is odd because we encountered several Japanese hikers who from a distance looked like tiny Japanese people). This was somewhat of a challenge for several reasons.

1) I had a bruised foot/ankle
2) Camouflage Timberland boots serve no purpose beyond looking cool
3) A big puffy coat is not ideal for hiking
4) A throwback Padres Jersey is not an ideal under-layer
5) A small bottle of Poland Springs and two apples are not adequate sustenance
6) We were racing against daylight

Regardless with Rocco's good company, hard boiled eggs, ensure, and a persimmon



I survived and actually enjoyed myself. This did however lead me to a concept that I started to learn with my new bike, and that is the right equipment makes for a more enjoyable and safer time. That was my last hike in timberlands, and just as with biking I find myself much happier now that I am riding on my new pair of Vasque Zephyr boots





and here's more photos from that day.




Thank you Blaze for keeping me on the trail, and thank you tree for all this breathable air





Ahh...Errr









What a view









Balance the key to life