Escape the Escarpment '05 report

[Jay H]

THANK YOU to all the hikers and volunteers who made it to the catskills this weekend for a great hike. I'm happy that all of you out of area folks got a good chance for some awesome views from the entire trail. The sun actually listened to me and provided us with a pretty spectacular day being cool and a slight breeze.

I would like to thank all the volunteers who make this event happen, Warren, Margaret, TeeJay, Rich, Darren, Ian. Thanks for another smoothly run event. The car shuttles and the ice cream (as always).

I will have a more detailed trip report and some more info on what to do with donations very shortly. Pictures will come soon too once I find room to store them on.

Other than Kareoke night in Acra, it seems to have run pretty well. Looking forward to next year and another trail.

Jay

[ajtiv]

Jay I second your sentiments.
I would like to add a big thank you to Jay for setting up this fund raising event for the second year.
He puts in a lot of time and thought in setting these up and all for a great cauase.
Can't wait to see what Jay dreams up next year.
The volunteers were great they made a nice day in the woods even better.
Snacks, water, ice cream all pretty nice treats especially when you don't have to carry them in.
I had a great weekend with a wonderful group of people.
Top it all off we helped support a great not for profit The Brain Tumor Society

Thanks all
Al

[askus3]

Just to let you know I made it home OK but admittedly exhausted. Slept like a baby till 9 AM.

[MattC]

Glad to see you guys got home safe, hope the same goes for all. It was great seeing all of the NY/NJ crew and meeting the New England folks. Good folks, good weather, good food, good beer, good hiking, good cause. Special thanks to Jay for organizing this thing, Darren for giving us a reason to do it in the first place, all the volunteers, Al for the beer, Warren and Margaret for picking good restuarants, Freddy for loaning me the book, Dawn for her relentless good cheer, and Sponge for his relentlessly warped sense of humor.

Thanks to all who participated in any capacity, and here's to next year. Maybe if we're lucky we can find a karaoke-free campsite. BTW, late-night noise aside, it was a pretty good campsite, and it was generous of those folks to allow us free camping. I'm going to give them a thank you call as a courtesy. As for the donations, I should get another check or two at work tomorrow, then I'll send the whole batch to TBTS w/ a note mentioning VFTT and the Escarpment hike.

Matt

I hope everyone is now safely at home and resting quite comfortably. It was great to finally put faces to names and meet so many VFTT'ers. I'm sorry to have missed Al and Aaron....Thanks to Jay and everyone else for making this trip and benefit a success!!

This was my first hiking outing in the Catskills and I hope to be back for more. We were treated to perfect weather (it began to rain about 40 seconds before I finished!), spectacular views, great company and a wonderful support crew. I look forward to reading more and seeing the photos too.....
.......Jade
PS Seema and Brian, did you need your headlamps to finish?
Carol, thanks for the Keri lotion!
Happy belated birthday to Jay!!!

[Papa Bear]

I was a support person and I would say all those who did the hike were just phenomenal!

Here's a batch of pictures. I'll add some names to go with the faces when I get a minute.

VFTT folks at the Escarpment

If I got anyon'e name wrong or missed it, let me know (and sorry).

There is a "slideshow" option in the upper right of the screen.

[mavs00]

Wow, Looks like fun. Sorry I missed it

[sli74]

GREAT FUN !!!

Brian and I made it out safely, though EXHAUSTED !!
Headlamps in and headlamps out
23+ miles in 17 hours but I walked every blue marker and stopped at every lookout and spring flower display and that is what I wanted to do
Sunshine and cool temps, GREAT views and a terrific cause.
Nice meeting new VFTTers and catching up with old friends, sorry I missed you TMax, next time

THANK YOU to Jay for organizing this trip, it takes a lot to get such an event together and you do it so well.

THANK YOU to all the support crew (TeeJay, Papa Bear, Warren and Miss Margaret, and Darren) for the yummy goodies and cold drinks.

Sorry we didn't make it to dinner but those darn last 5 miles almost did me in and so THANK YOU to Brian for being so very patient and supportive and encouraging and for constantly standing with me while I attempt these crazy stunts I couldn't have done it without you.

sli74

[Papa Bear]

Just thought I'd add one of these pictures in-line to entice a few others to get out there next time:

Here's the (almost complete) group at the parking lot at the end:

[mtn.goat]

What a great hike. It was my first time meeting some of you VFTT folk and I know it won't be the last. A great group of people and amazing weather made for a very memorable day. I just wanted to thank Jay for all the work that he put into this event and to Jim and his wife for driving me back from the trailhead and to dinner on Sat night. No better way to start the hiking season off then with a 23 mile hike! Now what to do next..... Anyone up for a presi traverse sometime around June 20-26th??

[Jay H]

Sorry Dave, I think I'm doing one the weekend before that!

Anyway, Rich's picture from left to right:

Margaret, Warren, Teejay, Dawn, Ed, Carol, Rich (kneeling), Terri, Fred (Frytz), Jay (me!), Ralph, Adrian, Matt, Jade

Missing is Jim B, Mary, Al, Dave (I think they were all in Jim's car at the time going for a shower),

Brian and Seema, Aaron, Fred (the Funky one) were still on the trail

I think Darren was either taking the picture or off in his truck.

Ian could not make Saturday's hike or dinner so he only was around when he and I cached water on Friday afternoon.

Jay

[spongebob]

It was a fun weekend, and enjoyable meeting everyone. The hike while hard was worth the pain in my feet so we can raise money for a great cause. The blueberry pancakes are good at the Krooked Cafe too!



SpongeBob's evil take on the hike.(hey the little bugger dictated it to me.)
3AM, I went into the Pot–of-Gold bar and meet up with WR1 & WR2 from last year’s Devil’s path hike campground lore. We all karaoke sing “Devil went down to Georgia” by Charlie Daniels. (WR2 can really sing.) As I know this will piss everyone off trying to sleep. I then do sound checks for the sound system, since their volume goes up to 11 and not 10. Eleven is like one more louder then ten. 4AM, I put porcupines on the Escarpment trail to give Funky Freddy something to take pictures of, as I anticipate piece of junk New York views. I think a bunch of us started hiking around 5:30 in the morning. And there was an earlier crew too. The Hike up Windham High Peak had lots of wild flowers, and the sun was coming up. Seema and Brian are hiking up as well. The views of the Blackheads were really nice. Over to burnt knob Mtn Goat, JimB, and Hermit cruised ahead. And then we went down to Batavia Kill where Papa Bear and TeeJay were. I thought Papa Bear’s name was spelled Papa “Beer”, and I was anticipating a brewski. No such luck. Funky Freddy told a blonde joke, which was funny. He figured he should tell the joke here instead of Dutcher’s Notch as Miss Margaret would not understand the joke. Then away to Blackhead mountain. Ok, I am sucking wind going up now, Jay takes a picture of this for to my dismay. But I can’t do anything about it as I am too tired to throw a rock at his head. Matt won’t even give me a piggyback ride either. I put some rocks in Jay’s pack near the summit of Blackhead to get even with him. Tmax is on the summit too! Jade explains about her Humpty Dumpty theology. She has signed me up as they make some pretty good potato chips. Matt and Funky Freddy talked about seventies music. There are lots of view points along the way towards the Hudson and the other way towards Hunter and Sugarloaf. I took a great picture of Hunter and a nice pond, and Matt had to take the same picture; what a jerk. Then to Dutcher Notch., and there is Warren and Miss Margaret. Warren talks about how he was delivered pizza on like more than 6000 feet before, but can’t deliver one himself up to 2600 feet for us. Geesh pretty selfish. Miss Margaret threw rocks at little kittens that hiked up too! I wanted to eat more food at this stop, but if that meant Warren and Miss Margaret had to carry more weight down then a hungry stomach was worth it. I met up with Askus3 here too. Matt and I hiked up towards Stoppel point. Askus3(Aaron) was resting at a nice view point, so we hiked with him. The plane wreck was right near the trail. Matt and I devised a plan to get rid of Aaron. We told him there was a nice view point two tenths of a mile in the woods. And when he started hiking in we sprinted away. Matt pointed out a nice baseball field to me. I thought it was strange a cow was playing left field. Maybe that was a farm Matt? The trail got a bit rougher around North mountain/North point. North and South pond were nice to look at, and it was a cool stony ridge. North Point had good crowd on top. Matt & I met Darren, and he provided me with some cookies which were excellent. Over Artist rock and down to the North lake campground for the long awaited Klondike ice cream bar. But Matt ate the last one right in front of me. Then some punk hikers make fun of us as they state they say they finished the Escarpment trail several hours ago. So off to South Mountain and the last four or so miles of the hike. The view points are excellent and the woods are beautiful, but that is not what you are thinking. You are thinking who designed this trail, so it must go over every freaking bump there is? Why is the trail going in the wrong direction? And why is Matt fighting a Japanese tourist with boxing gloves? We pass Inspiration point and no Fonzie or Richie Cunningham from Happy Days. The views to Kaaterskill and Round mountain are pretty cool though. The rain started on us. At this point my feet hurt really bad and I know I have some killer blisters. Matt and I are renaming all the prominent lookouts to not so censor approved names. But Matt does have a rock named after him now. We are almost near the end of the hike, when the low point of the day happened. Up ahead could that be Dawn? Yep. So three mountain bikers and a little elevation gain and we finished the hike, where everybody is having fun.

[Papa Bear]

I've now added captions to all the photos. The problem is hikers sometimes look nothing like their hiker persona when they are cleaned up and eating dinner. So please verify that I got the right names. I've use screen names throughout, unless I didn't know them.

Here's the link again: VFTT folks at the Escarpment

Thanks