Soggy report from Gathering 7.0

[bigmoose]

VFTT members attending this year's gathering were tested not so much in their climbing prowess, but rather in their survival instincts during torrential downpours. Friday treks such as the classic Slide-Cornell-Wittenburg ramble (with two groups totalling 13 hikers) were okay, as the rain was light and intermittent. A spirited and boisterous evening at the Woodland Valley Inn made the encroaching remnants of Ivan irrelevant. Overnight, though, the heavens really opened up and our campground was awash. Soggy, hung over VFTTrs crawled out from damp sleeping bags and emerged from saturated tents Saturday morning as the drenching continued. Huddled under jury-rigged tarpaulins, they debated the logic of further climbing in this weather. The celebration of Jean and Nat's 115th atop Hunter was delayed til the afternoon. At this point, this correspondent had to bail (literally and figuratively). If you're expecting someone to return from the Gathering, and you don't hear from them, you might find them tubing down the incredibly swollen Esophus Creek....

In any event, a well-deserved round of applause for TJ who brought the whole thing together. A shame the weather gods rained on his parade, but nothing can DAMPEN the spirit of a Gathering!
-JT

 

[SherpaKroto]

Swimfest 7.0 Update

We finally got ourselves in some sort of organized mud encrusted brood by noon. I had already told a few the night before that I was getting in my car at noon:30 and was heading up to hike Hunter, the easy way (I had no idea what or where that was). Jean, Nat and HarryK were definitely going, and as I returned from changing in the shower room (a heck of a lot easier than in the mud), I spied Nancy heading toard me saying "ok, let's go!". I tried to convince Seema that we were a heck of a lot more fun than a nice book (of course I have no idea what she is reading these days. Probably something like "Indigenous Flora and Fauna on the LT, and how to cook it"), but when Blue (who had steadfastly insisted that there was no way she was hiking either) leaked (pun intended) that she'd go if Seema would, Nancy begin her devious plan. As soon as she saw Blue filling her unbottle (her constant companion, it seems), she walk over to Seema and said "look - Blue is going, so you'll be bored all alone" (she actually had a better delivery, but if you want to whole story, you should have come out there!). Seema, looking a bit under the water (freudian slip intended), finally gave up, and soon askus3 was bouncing along ready to join us. Luckily, Tom Eske was also headed that way as it might have been a bit crowded in the Subaru. I guess I could have convinced Aaron to drive, and I could have sat in back with the Angels .

We headed off to a trail that starts with "B" (don't ask - my mind didn't work this weekend) and got there juat as the last of the crew was heading out. We headed up with the tandem pair of Tom and Dawn (hikethe115), Tom Eske, AlG, askus3, Seema, Blue, HarryK, and of course Jean and Nat. (if I missed anyone, remember- mind wasn't working). Pat, Audrey, MArge, LittleBear had already headed out on the flume ride ahead of us, so we were to be a big group on the summit (btw, I believe spongebob was also there, but the mind, you know...).

We soon lost Nat, Jean, and HarryK - it almost looked like they had something important to finish. Aaron proved that his idea of slow means "steady", and the rest of us kept swimming upstream until we met everyone at the "summit" junction. Then we went to the Fire Tower (which I was told earlier was not the summit), and stood on the summit rock. (Typical NYers, we have one summit on our mountains, so I guess you folks need to have 2 ). It was high fives, and smiles all around, pictures everywhere, and the Views! Unbelievable! (whoops, I think it's that no mind thing again). Some climbed the tower (I did - damn cold). As I was walking up, nearly everyone said "watch your head at the top". I guess they meant the cloud ceiling... bump. Oh now I get it.

Anyway, we headed down, and I think all of us no longer need surfing lessons. Ever. We reached the road in no time, and a red beetle with the plate ADK47er (Dave and Carol White) pulled in and added to the celebration. I do know that they are authors of one of the well respected Catskill Guide Books (which I wanted to buy, but Ms Sherpa bought one too many pairs of shoes, and I was broke). We continued congratulating Jean and Nat for a job well done and finally convinced Jean (and reluctantly Nat ) to end with their usual roadside ritual :Beers and Rage against the Machine's "Killing in the Name of". A fine way to end a nice cool swim in the mountains! Coincidentally, as the mellow, soothing sounds of Rage rose to the clouds, we got our first glimpse of blue sky! Sweet!

Then it was off to Mudfest 7.0: "The Return of the Doctor" or "Devils in the Mist". I'll leave those chapters to those mudbowlers who's minds were working this weekend

I had a fantastic time (read that "my tent only leaked a little"). I was amazed at the number of participants who attended, and the hiking accomplishments that these folks have. We are truly an obsessed group of hikers. I wouldn't want it any other way, and I thank you for letting me walk in your foot steps (ok, slip behind you in the mud)

To all the friends who joined in, both old friends and new, thanks for another great weekend!

To teejay, great job! Always remember that although in Maine, "5mph means 5 mph", in NY 5 dollars means...

Oh yeah, I was very sad to HEAD home

 

[hikethe115]

It was Dave and Carol White who stopped in the red beetle and autographed Jean and Nat's copy of their book. It seemed quite appropriate. It was a fantastic weekend. I'm too tired to say any more right now....neeeeeeed sleeeeeeep.......

 

[bogorchis]

Thanks, TJ

TJ - Fun weekend, even though the weather gods didn't cooperate! I must say that coming down off Panther in water that was ankle deep was something else! Spongebob liked that part of our hike the best! I have never seen braided streams of water coming off a mountain side. I felt like a kid again, as we went slogging through the water.

Met many new hikers, and I won't remember your names, but anyway I did enjoy hiking again in the Catskills. Last time I was there was 1994!

Easy trip home with Pat, Audrey and Marge.

Cheers to all!

 

[sli74]

Re: Swimfest 7.0 Update

Oh yeah, I was very sad to HEAD home

HEAD? Who said HEAD? . . . .

I had the best time ever. Thank you TJ for organizing a GREAT Gathering and thank you to Sherpa and Nancy for twisting my arm on Saturday and a special Thanks to Blue and Darren for being there for me "Douche on smile duty"

sli74

 

[bigmoose]

Beaucoup congratulations to Jean and Nat for completing 111/115 on Hunter Saturday... In less than ideal conditions!
And some may not know, but Nat, I believe, is the first Canadian woman to complete the list! Bravo!!

 

[MichaelJ]

Thanks to EVERYONE for coming together for that great Gathering! I'm sorry to have showed up after the rain stopped (er, no, I'm not) and glad to have gotten at least one hike in, the night trip up to Overlook (thanks, Dawn!). The image of 10 people in orange lighted devil horns heading up the trail is one I won't soon forget!

Congrats to the finishers - I can't wait to see a whole bunch of you again this coming weekend. Think dry thoughts!

Did everyone remember to wish Darren a happy birthday?

 

[Jay H]

Congrats to all for a wonderful time at Mudfest '04. Did anybody have time to check out the tattoo festival going on in Woodstock? Al (AJTIV), FunkyFreddy, and I happen to go through Woodstock on our way to Platte Cove Road and it was like a timewarp.

Anyway, for such crappy weather initially, it turned out to be a great weekend, including a charming nighthike to Overlook Mtn (thanks again Dawn, the weather couldn't have worked out better). And our hike to Huckleberry Point on saturday turned out to be ideal because it was below the cloud cover and we had great views of the hudson valley and could see the tower on Overlook which we went to that night.

For those of you from far away, on Sunday, Nancy, Fred, and I did a bushwack from Moon Haw road to the summit of Wittenburg which turned out to be fun, a bit different than what I expected but nothing that we haven't seen before, all three of us having hiked in the catskills for a bit. Found a cave beneath the ledges on Wittenburg and we hit the trail just about 100yards west of the summit. Fantastic views from the summit on Sunday, nothing close to the torrent on saturday! Pictures to come. Got home last night around 8pm.

Thanks to Teejay for setting it all up, and for everybody else to be there. I didn't do any of the 4 peaks I have left, but that's no big deal, I'll do them in their own time.

BTW, for those of you who missed my Devil's path hike for charity this past may, I'm planning another hike next May timeframe, this time to do the Escarpment trail, "Escape the Escarpment". A bit easier than the devil's path but it has different views, being north of the DP. Hopefully, all of you can make the trip south again and we have as good weather as we did for the DP thing.

All the devil horns were courtesy of that and I still have a couple left!

Jay

 

[ALGonquin Bob]

mountains, mud, booze and VFTT

It may be known as Mudfest 7.0, but the only mud I saw was at our gathering site. The trails up Hunter and Slide were surprisingly muddless! We hiked Hunter just hours after the all-night/all morning rain stopped, and although there was certainly lots of water, there was very little mud. Certainly no boot-sucking muckhloes like we're used to in the Adirondacks.

Thanks to teejay for organizing this. Thanks to Darren for showing up for this one and sharing the VFTT love in the mud (photos to follow). Thanks to Sherpa for "the Doctor", and HarryK for the beer!.

Favorite quote of the weekend by a certain young lady, after much beer the night before:
"I don't know what happened"... "I had sausage in my omelet"!


Rock on.

 

[SherpaKroto]

I rather enjoyed teejay's light show. Both before and after he went to bed

I am looking forward to all the new avatars - I think. So far, Julie's is by far the best one out there (although I'm guessing that she will be getting a new one real soon)

 

[TomEske]

Very nice Gathering. My apologies to all for bailing out 3/4 of the way up Hunter, but things just weren't right in my processing plants, and I thought it prudent to head home before anything let loose (It turned out my timing was spot on).
It did turn out well for me though because I ran into Ken when I stopped to take some photos of the stream crossing. Ken had missed the crowd on Hunter, did SW hunter, then came back to Hunter again. He came down behind me and must have missed the group by minutes. Did y'all ever get hooked back up? I know Ken went to the car to get some dry(er) stuff, then was headed back up.
I had a great time and didn't mind the rain too much. If you think we had it bad, just over the hills to the south, in Livingston Manor (southwest of Balsam Cap) they had MANY road closures and washouts. Another group I am lightly associated with had a bunch drive up the hill Friday night, but couldn't come back down Saturday Morning. The road was under 2 feet of water.
Congrats to Jean and Nat on the big finish. Sorry I wasn't there to share it.
Best part of the weekend was meeting you all. I am dissapointed that I did not get more time to chat with many of you about something besides rain stories.
Till the next time,
Tom

 

[chomp]

Re: Re: Swimfest 7.0 Update

HEAD? Who said HEAD? . . .

I'll take some of that.... (next)

Ok, so I am a little worried about making this post and finding out that I have a new Avatar myself. The Gathering was a great time, good to see old friends and meet a bunch of new ones.

Just to add a bit to the trip report, I did actually get out and hike this weekend. On the way back home, Darren, Carmel, Blue and myself drove through Woodstock and hiked Overlook. The "trail" to the top was rather uninteresting, but the hike was cool. We spent a good deal of time exploring the ruins near the summit. I am always amazed as just how fast nature works to reclaim things.

From the ruins, its a short jaunt to the tower and a really great view of the Catskills. Not sure of every mountain that were were looking at, but I think we could see Hunter. It was a beautiful day to be up and I was glad to get a good look at the mountains before heading home.

Anyway, it was great to see everyone for another eventful Gathering. Thanks, teejay for putting everything together and providing some very side splitting entertainment back in your tent on Saturday. Till Gathering 7.25 (when is that going to be again?)

chomp

 

[Blue]

Mud Bowl I

...and I did...


Thanks for a nice (wet) weekend!

I arrived for dinner in the pouring rain, and was very pleased
to see so many familiar and friendly faces. I could have been happy staying at the restaurant just about forever, to wait for the Sox-Yankees game to resume and to avoid the monsoon waiting back for us at the campground (mud wrestling anyone?)

Saturday didn't start out looking very promising, as we went out for breakfast, sat in a car at the campground and then sat in a gas station with coffee. The river was AMAZING!

I was very happy that Sherpa convinced (?) Seema and I to hike
Hunter - there was a good stretch that allowed me to push myself, especially up the river running down the trail! It was great to see Nat and Jean finish! Then we headed into town for a slice of pizza that couldn't be beat. Equally as pleasing was the hot shower afterward with Seema and Nancy, as we'd shout back and forth between the stalls comparing water temperature.

As the skies cleared and people put on glowing horns and headed out for a night hike, we hung around the fire and traded stories and waited for the new avitar opportunities to develop.

Sunday we hiked up to Overlook - to see the hotel ruins and the fire tower. Nice hike - the lack of rocks made it a good trail to sprint up. On the way out, I took the "scenic" route, which means that I missed a turn and spent an extra 45 minutes driving around Rhinebeck lost! I must admit, however, that I was psyched to zip past Darren's truck on the Mass Pike (ha ha ha, I don't always drive like a grandma, douche drives like grandma on Pike)

Thanks Teejay for organizing,
Thanks Audrey for bringing Pat (he's our favorite, you know)
Thanks to the nice people who dried out my tent, sleeping pad and pillows.
Thanks to Spongebob... wait, why am I thanking Spongebob - it's all his fault!!

Happy Birthday Darren

-Blue

 

[Tuco]

Thanks Teejay for organizing. Nice site- excellent dinner Friday.

Nice to see familiar faces and new ones, although sorry in the limited time I had available there I didn't get to actually meet everybody.

Never did get to hike (nice move for a gathering ), Saturday mornings breakfast sounded better than a hike in a hard cool rain.

Impressive to see how many people showed up, were unfazed by the constant driving rain Friday night into saturday, and just had a good time.

And funny to see what people will do and use to keep dry (can you say beer bottle covered tarp poles?)

Hope to hike with you all soon.

 

[darren]

...and it was GOOD!....

So, contrary to all rumors, I did attend the Gathering. And I also did manage to hike...well, if you call 1.5 miles on Sat and a sprint up Overlook on Sunday hiking.

Big thanks to TeeJay for setting everything up. Great job on organizing the $5, ah I mean $10, campground, dinner on Fri, and the light show on Sat. It was amazing.

Big thanks to Harryk for the international limit of beer. Although I did only make it home with only 4 Sleemans Silver Creeks. Do you think I could get a resupply next weekend??

Congrats to Bubba for his new leather apron. Wear it proudly. I expect to see it in all your summit shots for the next year.

It was great seeing everyone again and meeting a few new people. Always a treat at birthday time.

New avatars are coming soon. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

8.0 in VT????

- darren

ps: What is up with Brio's? Who puts sausage in omlettes???? It is soooo dangerous...

 

[LittleBear]

I had a great time! Thanks everyone!

This was my 3rd September Gathering and despite the rain I managed to hike 4 peaks this weekend, including both 4K's in the Catskills. The hike on Friday - Wittenberg, Cornell, and Slide was great - just wish the clouds were a bit higher so we could have had some views (Oh well, I'll just have to come back another time). The hike up Hunter was interesting - first time I've hiked a stream the entire way . Congrats to Nat and Jean for completing their 115.

The campground certainly was a mud bowl - yuck! I had to wash my feet off before getting into my tent on Saturday night. It appears that I may have been the only person who was totally dry in my tent. No leaks, no drips, no damp/wet floor. I stayed nice and warm and dry inside my tent. - Thank you Mountain Hardware!!! I do believe it's bombproof.

I hated to leave on Sunday, but I did find myself smiling all the way home.

Big kudos to Teejay for organizing this whole thing. You did a fantastic job. For those of you who decided to stay home - well..... you missed one of the best gatherings.

Happy Birthday Darren!!!

So when do we gather again?????

 

[SherpaKroto]

I too stayed dry. SD Meteor Light. Spending 20 extra minutes setting it up paid off. Of course 17 of that was pounding in the darn stakes into "2 parts rock, 1 part dirt" as Warren so aptly put it.

I'd guess Warren also stayed dry under the ZoidWingPathfinder setup. A thing of beauty indeed!

Blue stayed wet. And when she got dry, SpongeBob was there to help out

 

[Jean]

It was indeed a memorable weekend.

Teejay, thanks for organizing the gathering. Nat and I had a great time.

Thanks also to everyone for the nice wishes and especially those you joined on Hunter on Saturday for the big finish.
I should be busy for the next couple of weeks filling in all the paperwork for the
different clubs.

The pot luck Saturday night was also outstanding. Will definitely need to spend more time at the gym to burn off all this food.

Before I forget, Happy Birthday Darren.

Looking forward to Gathering 8.0.

 

[Jay H]

FYI, for those of you who ventured to Overlook, either on Saturday night or Sunday morning, here's a bit of history of the hotel that now stands in ruins...

http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/overlook/overlook.html

If we do the Escarpment hike next year, we'll go right by the foundation of the old Catskill Mountain House which is, in most opinions, the more famous and grandiose of all the houses up there.

Jay

 

[hikethe115]

The gathering was indeed a wonderful time! It was great to put faces with all of the names. Even the mud was fun...reminded me of Woodstock '94.

I was very happy to be able to open the fire tower for those who joined us on the night hike. It's nice to be able to show off the "home territory". I can't wait to see the pictures of the horns...it was funny watching the horns bounce up the road.

Sunday morning Nat, Jean, Harryk and I went to Pecoy Notch to visit the thrones. It was a great day for it.

I look forward to seeing many of you again this weekend at the Woodstock Inn for gathering 7.1 and at the next gathering! Yeah, I'm hooked.

Happy Birthday Darren!!