Catskillers; Platte Clove Rd open??

[Jay H]

They had a series of races for the Tour de Trump. I believe Greg LeMond won the first ever series. It's kind of was like the World Cup where there is a points standings and a series of races, the person winning the most points wins the World Cup, much like it is in FIC World Cup Skiing or WRC World Rally racing...


P.S. The major stage-based multiday tours already drop the riders who don't finish within (I think) 10% of the stage winner's time and in short circuit races called crits (short for criteriums) lapped riders usually get told to stop. So, you can say that cycling has implemented "survivor" type elimnations before Survivor was ever thought up.

 

[daxs]

I lived in Wilmington DE when it was the Tour DuPont. I have a bike hat with Greg Lemonds Auto graph on it. The time trial in Wilmington used to take the riders up Moneky Hill, a steep cobblestoned roadway.

 

[Jay H]

My road bike commuter is a '97 Lemond Zurich, which has the rainbow stripes on it, to signify the world championship that Lemond won in 1983 (in Zurich)...

Back to Platte Clove road, anybody have an accurate count of how many cars have fallen into Platte Clove over the years?

Jay

 

[una_dogger]

Back to Platte Clove road, anybody have an accurate count of how many cars have fallen into Platte Clove over the years?

Jay

Nice touch, Jay!

Tee hee...I think its a great place to report a car "stolen"!!!

 

[imarchant]

Back to Platte Clove road, anybody have an accurate count of how many cars have fallen into Platte Clove over the years?
Jay

A few years ago, I did a through hike from the bottom of Platte Clove Rd. across Overlook to Meads Mnt. Rd. in mid March when the road was still closed. I did not count the cars off the road, down the cliff, but there were several. I think some of them were pushed off edge, but I'd hate to think what would happen if they were driven off You could see many places when the gaurd rails had done their job too.

 

[Mark Schaefer]

I did not count the cars off the road, down the cliff, but there were several. I think some of them were pushed off edge, but I'd hate to think what would happen if they were driven off

I do suspect a good many vehicles have been junked over the years in that way. I recall seeing an old wreck while bushwhacking down to the stream, just after reaching state land above West Saugerties. IIRC last autumn a truck driver on his way down the road blacked out due to a medical condition. The truck plunged down the cliff at the first bend above the hairpin. I don't believe he survived.

The number of wrecks might date back to the horse and buggy days. In 1894 Lionel De Lisser drove his horse and buggy up the road while photographing the Catskills. A reprint of his Picturesque Catskills by Hope Farm Press might still be available at the Hope Farm bookstore in Saugerties. It contains quite a few pictures of the clove. The appearance of the road and waterfalls have not changed much. That book covers Greene County and there was a companion Picturesque Ulster also reprinted by Hope Farm which covers the southern Catskills.

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Platte Clove Road, circa 1893

I thought some might enjoy reading what travelling was like on the Platte Clove Road in 1893. With real horse power in that era there was no need to close the road in winter.

This is an excerpt from R. Lionel De Lisser's 1893 rambles in Greene County, recorded in Picturesque Catskills, originally published 1894. Unfortunately this book is currently out of print, although the later Picturesque Ulster, originally published in installments 1896-1905, is still available.

The wagon-road through the clove is cut from the mountain side, and has necessarily a steep grade, required to make the elevation of nearly 1,000 feet, in about one mile of distance. Every step of the way is enchanting, wild and picturesque beyond description. I have passed over it many times, and at different seasons of the year, always finding something new to admire, and something I had not seen before.

In the fall when the leaves are partially off, is perhaps the best time to see its rugged wildness, but in winter, unless your horse is well shod, and a careful beast, take some other road. The melted snow and mountain springs run across the narrow road and freeze in sloping sheds. The way is winding, with little or no protection on the other side. Cracks or grooves are cut in these sloping ice-sheds, for your sleigh to run in, and prevent it from sliding off sideways.

As you carefully creep along you can look from your seat straight down hundreds of feet below you, and amuse yourself by calculating how many seconds it would take you to reach the bottom if your sleigh was to leave its track. The first time I came down the mountain in winter, my horse amused himself and not me, by coasting pretty much the whole distance. Placing his feet close together, he would sink close to the ground, and slide along, putting on the breaks, when attaining too much speed, by squatting. He left a trail of horse hair behind him, but brought me down safely, Then I had him sharpened.

My horse deserves some mention, and I may as well introduce him to the reader now. Of undoubted good family and breeding, he possesses good intelligence and courage, and is faithful and true, always willing, and has never refused to do his best with the hardest task I have set before him. He was named "Cherry-Tree" by the man who bred him, in memory of a cherry-tree that he claimed, and which George Washington had chopped with his little hatchet, ...

In case you were stumped by the expression of having his horse "sharpened", it referred to the horse's shoes.