Trip Report: Catskills Roadtrippin 18-21 May 2023

[dabaron]

a few months ago a ham radio camping trip in the Catskills was planned and camping sites booked. this would be the first test of the engine after replacing the rings in the #1 & #2 cylinders.

instead of driving up Friday morning i decided to hit the Delaware State Forest Thursday night to get a little solo time in the woods in the Westy.

traffic was insane in the Allentown area. instead of taking US 22 to PA 33 north to meet US 209 at Shroudsburg, i continued north to the US 209 exit. this took me east thru a number of small towns with ZERO traffic. the Westy filled the tunnel with a nice low rumble from the Go Westy exhaust. it really does sound nice.

US 209 thru the Delaware Water Gap is a very scenic drive. there were very few cars which meant an easy drive thru the 20 miles of the park.

the forest road is in better shape than a few years back, but in worse condition than last July when i took my son to New England.

i love this camp site. it's far enough in the forest that you feel isolated from the world, yet there is still cell service.

dinner was ziti with spicy Italian sausage. i made a huge batch so i would have quick meals the rest of the trip.

as the sun set the forest came to life. several owls began to fill the forest with calls, and the song birds would add to the atmosphere. it was very relaxing but oh my was it chilly.

it had been a few months since i was last out camping and i missed the Westy. it felt good to be back "home" in the forest.

after a rather chilly night it was time for breakfast. nothing too fancy for me, but the hot oatmeal was perfect for the mid 30's morning air. there was not much time to hang out, i had to get going...

i headed to Port Jervis, NY to check out the progress at the Tri-State Railroad Museum, as a member and donor it was my first time seeing it since some major investment had taken place.

a few shots of some of the locomotives in the collection. the #76 was purchased with another group and is being used as a donor unit to make three units whole and operational. when it was moved, the unit was numbered 76 in honor of the number it wore by it's first owner, the Western Maryland Railway. super classy of them to honor the unit.

details here: https://railfan.com/museums-unite-to-restore-three-ge-44-tonners/

leaving town i spotted this Scirocco and HAD to get a picture.

from Port Jervis i headed north on US 209 following the remains of the Delaware and Hudson Canal which ran from Honesdale, PA to Kingston, NY. it cut northwesterly from Port Jervis to Kingston in the scenic Neversink Valley.

i stopped at Lock 50 where Sullivan County has an interpretive center and a small section of the canal restored. the museum was closed for the season, but i was able to walk the grounds.

a surviving structure from the canal days

Lock 50 is located near Summitville and is the top of the summit from Port Jervis and where the canal begins it's descent toward Rondout Creek and the port of Kingston on the Hudson.

at Kerhonkson, NY i left the D&H and US 209 and began to climb thru the hills into the Catskills.

while the trip is a hiking and ham radio adventure (more on that in a bit), i can't miss a chance to ride my bike on a former railroad right of way. this is the Ashokan Rail Trail on the former Delaware and Ulster Railroad which ran between Kingston and Oneonta NY.

it is an incredibly scenic ride which at the western end of the 12.5 mile trail runs along the Ashokan Reservoir which required moving the railroad out of the valley and onto the ridge in 1912. this added a stiff grade in both directions with the top of the grade being about the 1/2 way point on the trail.

with the riding complete it was time to head to Woodland Valley Campground, a 20 minute drive into a deep valley in the heart of the Catskills.

i lost cell service a few minutes after leaving the rail trail. thankfully there was not much traffic along NY 28 and i was able to find the turn to the 5 mile back road to the camp. the staff was super chill even with some opening day issues, like no printer ink to print hang tags! they told me to just setup and swing by after i got setup and grabbed a shower. a hot shower. it was delightful.

the purpose of this trip was to attend the Northeast Summits on the Air (SOTA) Club campout. Summits on the Air is a subhobby of ham radio where crazy people mix hiking up mountains with ham radio. this would be my first SOTA activation and i had picked a legit serious mountain to be my first. we had a fun evening making introductions and confirming plans over some very high quality IPAs (Foam Brewing from Vermont was a crowd favorite).

after a good night's sleep and my side adventures out of the way, it was time for the main attraction, hiking up to the summit of Cornell Mountain where i would setup a portable ham radio station and make contact with other hams who were doing the same on other summits in the region as well as anyone else we could make contact with.

i love a hike that starts with a bridge over a mountain creek. this is Woodland Creek at the end of the camping loop.

it's just 4.7 miles to the summit and just a little more than 2700 feet of climbing. rain was in the forecast and i wanted to be off the mountain before the heavy rain started.

classic upstate rocky trails, this was a nice grade, not too steep and nothing like what was to come.

this was starting to get difficult.

at 3500 feet, the rain had started, mostly a spitting rain and i was very much in the clouds at this point.

at the summit of Wittenberg Mountain, the view was nonexistent. on a clear day one can see for over a hundred miles. i couldn't see more than 100 feet!

it is 1.1 miles between Wittenberg and Cornell and to get there you MUST climb the "Cornell Crack" which is no joke. i was able to hoist myself up the damp rock wall, my only thought was "how am i going to get down this?"

the activation site for the summit was in a pine grove on top of the mountain. it was windy, it was wet, but i managed to setup my HF antenna and made a few contacts. i used a 2 meter handheld radio to contact others stations on several other peaks. the conditions deteriorated rapidly and after only 11 contacts it was time to pack up and head back down.

luckily i teamed up with two others on the summit for our descent. with three of us, the "Cornell Crack" was less of a challenge, but since it was now drizzling, every rock was very slippery and we had to be very cautious. it took me 2.75 hours to make the ascent and another 3.5 to come back down. there were several very tricky ledges to navigate, in the rain, which included a 3/4 mile section of a rock garden.

i wish i had taken some pictures of the obstacles but we needed to get off the mountain. there was a meet up at Woodstock Brewing at 6pm and i needed to shower and get cleaned up. the sky opened up 10 minutes after i made it back to the bus from the shower and did not let up for 2 hours, right when it was time to head to the brewery. if you are in the area, Dope Moves is a very nice 8.1% DIPA that is easy drinking.

the next morning i swung past the Phoenicia train station and now dormant Catskills Railroad. a very busy and completely booked rail bike operation has taken up residence and is using the railroad for a few miles to the south for their trips.

it was a fun trip and the Westy did what the Westy does, provide miles of smiles and a clean, safe place to call home in the wilds. thanks for coming along.
_________________
1991 Vanagon GL Camper
i had no idea i wanted to be a mechanic
"burnin oil and cookin coils" -- Destructo

BiWerks Design, LLC

[shadetreemech]

Nice pics, nice write-up, Good Report!

Thanks for sharing.

Dan
_________________
'84 GL 1.9
'01 Volvo V70 T5
'88 Westy - "MZDRTHY"

[djkeev]

Nice write up!

The Ashshokan photos bring back memories.
My Dad's Sister and many cousins lived in Ashokan.
My Uncle had to move as a child for New York took their home and it is now under water.

My uncles father used to work for the reservoir and he would take us into places that most don't ever see.
The most memorable is where the water siphons off of the lakes surface and into the tunnel to NYC.

Not unlike the incredible volume flowing over Niagra Falls, obviously a smaller area, and it all vanishes into a dark hole!
It is actually a terrifying sight when one considers "what if I should slip and fall in?"
_________________
Stop Dead Photo Links how to post photos

Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[joetiger]

Great report! Thanks for taking us along. You should submit these to the local tourist board. They make me want to go there.
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[dobryan]

Fun!
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[Microbusdeluxe]

Good to see you visited Sullivan County. My great (count 9 more generations) Grandfather was the first European settler in Sullivan County, with the earliest written record, in Dutch, from 1692. His nephew, Sam, escaped from a group of Indians by jumping off a cliff into some treetops which is now Sam's Point State Park.

Why those cheap Dutchmen kept moving west when they could have just bought a nice little spread on Manhattan Island is beyond me. It was probably the free land which lured them onward. Finally they hit the Pacific Ocean and called it quits. But then if I was a New York heir I probably never would have bought that first VW bus in 1972.
_________________
'69 Squareback RIP
'65 21 window deluxe sold before the price spike, damn it.
'70 rhd bay now a taxi in South Sudan
'81 Westy sold
'89 hightop Westy Joker syncro 16" now with Bostig!

[dabaron]

[jimf909]