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Link to recent photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/catskillmountainfibers/sets/72157622645509728/

Blace and I got out for a drive last week and ended up in upper Sullivan/lower Ulster counties – these two counties are where the Catskill Mountains begin. . . Blace & I actually live in the foothills and are 800 feet above sea level… so, we ended up on the Sullivan/Ulster line looking for a huge covered bridge that a friend of Blaces’ had shown him at one time. I was driving, he was navigating.  Now we all know letting a guy (sorry guys!) do so may not be a good idea. (see guys, I said “may not!”) but I let him go for it. I was into driving, and love the fall colors so I took rights & lefts when told to do so.  hehehe

We ended up going up a road that was a constant incline – up and up, around a bit and then up some more. Some of the road was shrouded by trees, some of the dense pines in areas made it feel like we were driving through tunnels. Beautiful – I was loving it. Red fox crossed the road and then stopped in a field a few feet from the road to give us a look for disturbing his day.  Lots of deer – male & female – I believe its very close to rutting season, so there were lots of them. (Shame that hunting season opens next month. Hate it.)  Lots of turkeys and you can no longer tell which are the ones that were hatched earlier in the year. They’ve all grown so much! A couple of HUGE tom turkeys that were strutting themselves around very proudly.

At one point Blace says, ‘umm, better turn around. I was wrong, the bridge isn’t up here.’  Hah! Too bad, told him so and kept driving. Up more … ears popped. Up even more, ears popped three different times before we got to the top. We came to a left turn and he suggested I continue driving straight. Fine with me!

My silly assed man is taking photos. . . through dirty car windows. Yep, Okay Blace! LOL  I was stopping the car now and then and getting out to stand to take photos – him complaining, ‘get back in the car, someone may be coming along!’  So what? Who cares? I just shushed him and did whatever.

When we’re very near the top a red truck is coming at us and headed down.  Wow! There is life up here; cool!  Mind you, beautiful road, well maintained, occasional speed sign, not a damn thing that said DEAD END.

OMG, about 4 – 5 miles later we get to the end and it’s a mess of old trailers, all occupied, smoke pouring out of stacks from wood stoves, a sign on one of the trailers that said “The Last Resort”, old cars…. we had driven into a time warp, I swear. It was obviously one of the tiny clutches of hillbillies that we’ve all heard live in the Catskills. This is the local legend, anyway…. so the formerly doubtful myth is true!  They did have a kind of cul-de-sac that we were able to turn around in, it was best to get out of there quickly. Probably a good thing that it was quite a cold day so there was no one outside.

So, we went back to that left (now a right) turn and it was obvious we were finally heading down this particular mountain. . .

We ended up driving for quite a while – found a lovely little village called Sun Down, a few small covered bridges, not the one we had been searching for, a beautiful stone arch bridge, log cabins that weren’t built from kits, and not a gas station in sight!  Not to worry though – even though it’s a pain in the ass, the Kia gets great gas mileage – 35+ per gallon is usual for us.

Blace & I love driving around – we call it our ‘ ABEN-tures’ , just something silly we have always, always done when we decide to drive roads and areas we’ve never been through before. Caesar was very comfy in the back seat, all sprawled out and just hangin’ wif mom & dad. He’s such a good dog – unbelievable how much he’s calmed and become a great addition to our tribe.

Most of this area, including the mountains are part of the National Park Service domain – our property is part of it also, and there are areas that are designated for stopping, fishing, hunting, etc. We stopped at one point so Caesar could have a drink – poured from a bottle from home. He laps it right from the bottle; good dog!

We ended up coming into Liberty NY, where Andrea’s boyfriend lives and decided to head home since it would be dark soon.  Instead, we ended up in Forestburgh at the Cliff Lake site which is part of the reservoir that shut the entrie area down after Ike and the other hurricane kicked our asses in 2005. It was finally reopened to the public this year.  Lots of the photos with the bare river bed, stones, is Cliff Lake. Caesar and Blace walked all over the place there while I took photos – still wishing that there had been sun so that the photos would be pretty!  Even so I guess they came out OK.

When we got back to the house I wish you could have all seen Caesar strut himself back into the house. The girls ganged up on him immediately and had to sniff him all over to see where he’d been. We had a great outing and  hope to have another soon. Probably will once Blace’s work schedule slows a bit. He’s working eight days straight this week, 12 hour shifts, will have two days off and then go back to do another eight in a row.

I’m saying goodnight now! :zzz: