What an awesome weekend to go camping. The weather was perfect, we had a few good meals, more than a few good beers, and a couple easy day hikes aong the Hudson. Sadly, today was not a holiday for most of the NYC peeps–they had to be back in town last night–so we all left early in the afternoon on Sunday.
I got their Friday afternoon and scrounged up a bunch of wood. Bill and Angela were supposed to be there by 6:00PM (or so they thought) but when Angela called a little after 6:00 to say they were still far away I knew it was going to be a bad night for them. They got to the campsite shortly after 8:00PM for a total drive-time of four hours and fifteen minutes.
There was plenty of grumbling on their part when they arrived–can you blame them after that drive–but once they got their tent setup we went to the Eveready Diner in Hyde Park and chowed down on some seriously good diner food. The diner was a piece of work in itself with polished, curved wood and chrome everywhere you looked. With three distinct seating areas and a large kitchen in back the place was very much a modern interpretation of a classic diner that offered a little bit of something for everyone. The diner’s motto is (motto from the back page of their menu)
Their traditional shakes were made with locally produced ice cream and were amazing, thick and rich with just enough smoothness so you could drink it with a straw. Mine was Oreo cookie and every sip was full of these bite-sized bits of cookie. Angela got a plain vanilla shake and by the reactions of her and Bill I would say it was every bit as enjoyable for them as mine was for me. Dinner was hearty portions of well-made entrees such that we all had leftovers for lunch on Saturday.
Saturday began with a leisurely breakfast of tea or coffee with yogurt and fruit and a little fire to warm up the three of us. We took our time getting going but did manage to get in a nice little walk along the river’s edge before Beth and Joe arrived. (Below are pictures from our Saturday morning walk.)
Bill & Angela With Their New, Skunk-Free Tent
Look, It's Water
Life Will Always Adapt To Its Surroundings
Pretty Leaves (The Reason For The Season)
Sailing, Takes Me Away
Beth and Joe arrived just after we had finished lunch (diner leftovers). They had a quick snack and got their tent setup and then we were off to go hiking. We got almost to Rhinebeck when Angela realized she left her bum-bag, containing her wallet and all her ID, sitting out in the open on
a chair at the camp-site. After some quick discussion it was decided to go back and get it for safety sake. (As Bill said, “It’s probably fine, but if it’s not fine, then it’s really not fine.”) So, while we were in Rhinebeck we stopped at the awesome Leonardo’s, a gourmet Italian deli, and headed back to the camp-site.
After a quick snack it was decided to hike closer to camp to save our daylight hours for being outdoors (instead of sitting in a car driving to the trail-head of the original hike we had planned). We decided to hike in the Mills portion of the Mills-Norrie State Park. So, we all piled into the Mom- mobile (my Mom’s Volvo station wagon) and headed up the road a few miles to the northern section of the two, combined parks. Bill and Angela led the way as they had been there before. (I had been on some of the interior trails in this section of the park but not the portion along the river.)
Along the river, the scenery was as beautiful as in the southern section of the combined parks. Bright sunshine and ridiculously blue skies were our companions throughout the afternoon. This section of the park was a massive estate in an earlier era. So, there were built-up retaining walls and out-buildings along part of the river’s edge. We came across a small pump-house with some gear mechanism inside, and rather fanciful graffiti on the outside. (The assumption was that the pump-house was for some of the smaller outbuildings and not the main mansion on the grounds, far from the river’s edge.)
The river trail climbed in elevation and became more shaded giving us some nice vantage points for looking onto and across the river. It also provided a number of opportunities for some of us (ahem, Angela) to heave rocks into the river to make a big splash. Although, at some point, I think we all felt the child-like desire to see and hear the splash of a big rock hitting water; I know I did and heartily took advantage of the chance to do so.
As it turns out, Bill and Angela got us lost in a most fortuitous way. They thought the river trail we were on would eventually lead to the in-land trails within the Mills section of the state park. But in fact, it took us right to the point where it connects to the river’s-edge trial in the southern section of the Park—The part of the trail Bill, Angela, and myself hiked in the morning before Beth and Joe arrived. (From the southern section of the combined parks it is not obvious that the river trail continues on into the northern section of the parks.) So, by getting “lost” we found out the way to hike along the river the whole length of the two combined parks. (That full river hike would make for a nice day-trip from the City with a stop at Leonardo’s before-hand. Sounds like a trip for next Spring.)
After we re-traced some of our steps from the morning hike we found the other trail Bill and Angela were looking for and headed inland on well-trod trails through an almost primeval-looking forest. It was quiet and still and looked like it hadn’t been traversed—other than on the trail—in a long, l-o-n-g time. There were lots of tall, heavy-limbed trees, just beginning to lose their leaves. I pointed out one Ent-like tree to Bill and someone else (Angela? Beth?) saw another three tree with a “face” on it. The picture below shows the Face Tree in profile but in both the profile and three-quarter views from which we could see the tree it really looked like it had a face on it, with the nose, eyes, lips, and mouth sized in proportion to what you would expect on a giant tree.
Further on the trail we came upon some outbuildings that were part of the original estate. There was a five-car garage (possibly for carriages as well), a cook-house/servant’s quarters, a small smoke-house or root cellar, and a work-shop. Later we came across a big mansion that was probably the estate’s summer house as it was much closer to the water and on a ridge (to provide ventilation and views on long, hot Summer days?). We surmised this was the building served by the pump-house we encountered along the river.
As we got closer to the grounds of the main mansion we came across an active care-takers house. It looked like an old timber-framed lodge and had a beautiful, wide, wooden porch spanning the width of the front of the house. A quick trek up the hill behind the Mills mansion and then it was back to the car and off to the store to get provisions for Saturday’s big, fire-cooked dinner feast. We got burgers and brats, some veggies to grill, and LOTS of beer—It was on sale; How can you not buy beer when it is on sale. Special thanks go to Beth for reminding us all at least three times to remember to get stuff to make smores.
It’s kinda sad we needed reminding about that but we did and we got fixings to make two different types of smores. We had the old-school kind with Hersheys’s milk chocolate bars and Nabisco graham crackers versus the new-world kind with Ghirardelli dark chocolate and cinnamon biscotti- like crackers. Bill and Angela favored the new-world kind with Beth, Joe, and myself going old-school. Although I didn’t pass up the chance to eat some plain Ghirardelli dark chocolate, it just didn’t seem right to put it on a smore. (I actually like the somewhat waxy taste of Hershey’s chocolate on a smore although I won’t eat it by itself. Chock up the inconsistency to a sense of devotion to my childhood memories of camping and smores.)
But I am getting ahead of myself, talking about dessert before talking about our great dinner. So, check out the pics below from Saturday afternoon and then find the rest of the story below them.
Angela, Bill, & Joe (before our afternoon hike along the river)
The Hiking Party at Mills State Park (Dennis, Bill, Joe, Beth, Angela)
The Pump House (With Giant Gear)
Pump House Graffiti
The Tree With A Face
Joe & Dennis Check Out The Old Summer House
[SATURDAY NIGHT'S STORY TO BE CONTINUED HERE.]
Saturday Night's Fire (shout-out to Angela for getting this pic)
[SUNDAY MORNING'S STORY TO BE CONTINUED HERE.]
The Evidence of a Good Time (and this is only part of it)
Sunday Morning Breakfast (Dennis, Beth, Joe, Angela)
Sunday Morning Breakfast (Angela & Bill)
Sunday Morning Breakfast (Dennis & His Donut. Yum!)
Beth Being Silly After Breakfast (Can I Trim My Nails With This?)
Tug-Boat on the Hudson on a Beautiful Sunday (The Margot)
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For those of you statistically minded, the round-trip drive from Syracuse, plus driving around town while camping, came to 488.7 miles. I averaged 29.3 mpg for the total trip. Just driving down I got 30.1 mpg but all the short trips around town brought down the overall average. This is still great mileage considering my Mom’s car is a turbo-charged Volvo station wagon that has a highway rating of 29 mpg.
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My preview of this trip can be found here.
