Fires on the Ridge

Now that I have my new wheels, I wanted to take them for a spin on some of the Minnewaska State Park carriage roads (also, because I got my season's pass and wanted to start using it). However, when I got to the gatehouse, they turned me around to go home. Apparently there was a fire on the southern end of the Ridge and in Minnewaska State Park. By the time I got back home, I could see how large this fire was getting. I think officials were saying more than 2,000 - 3,000 acres of Minnewaska State Park and Sam's Point Preserve had been burned over the course of several days. Feel free to check out some information here. Even though this area is used to natural fires coming through and over the Ridge, this particular fire was large because there was a lot of available downed fuel. Unfortunately, officials are believing this fire was no natural fire or prescribed burn, it was a wildfire from a cigarette butt. How sad is that?!? But with the fires getting out of hand, the parks were calling all firemen and our Preserve Rangers to help fight this fire. Below are some images our Chief Ranger, Andrew Bajardi took of the fire.

TheChristyBel

Day 2 of the Fire While I was Biking on the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail

 

All photos except for the first one were taken by Andrew Bajardi.

Kitty Convict

Since the weather is getting warm, Ted has been whining to go outside. Yes, we know he really should not be an outside cat due to his previous medical history, but you know-you might as well give a dying cat some time to enjoy life!
...Every once and a while! But in the case he escapes....
Thanks to the Oatmeal, Tedders is now a Kitty Convict!

New Wheels for theChristyBel

With all the carriage roads that the Mohonk Preserve has and not to mention the additional amount of carriage roads that Minnewaska State Park has (which connects to and from the Preserve carriage roads), my outdoor experiences and recreational drive was begging my insides to purchase a bike! Sure I have a bike at home in Delaware, but it is a beach cruiser; it is not equipped to withstand some uneven terrain and rocks. So, I did some digging around and research, and a few folks from the Preserve guided us to a place in town to get my questions answered and my need for a bike fixed. The Bike Depot in New Paltz took great care of me. Really found a bike that meets my needs and the type of biking I was looking into doing, allowed me to test drive a whole bunch around town, and gave me a great deal on a bike! And now, I am a proud owner of a Specialized Jynx Mountain Bike...and it's purple!

TheChristyBel

Couch Potato Cat

Ted, You're a Couch Potato Cat!

Cuddles from Tedders

The Best Part After Coming Home From a Challenging Workday...
...Is This.

After Work Duck Pond Walk

I needed a brain break after work today. Decided to go hike on the Duck Pond Trail. What I anticipated being an hour hike ended up being more than two hours of nerding out over things I discovered along the hike. Check out some really cool highlights from my hike.

TheChristyBel

Trout Lily
(an East Coast favorite of mine)

Large Stonefly Larvae

Red Trillium Flower Buds

Red Trilliums in Open Bloom

An Adult Luna Moth that just emerged from its pupa

Gorgeous!!!
(a first alive find for me - I have always found them dead)

Bloodroot

The foundation of a house that Daniel Smiley built with his schoolmates...at the age of 13!

I mean, what types of things did you accomplish at 13 years old? Build a house?

I think I survived 7th grade...that was it!

Pond Keepers: Spring 2016

Just going to stop by the blog and show you some of the Creature Creations that Edson Elementary created. Edson Elementary was my last school with the last three ponds of the 2016 Spring Pond Keeper season. Any school that participates in the Pond Keeper program has 10 days to complete a series of activities that help the class understand what makes a pond a pond and what types of creatures are able to be found and live in and near a pond. Students learn about different types of insects and amphibians that consider a pond their home. They also learn about the types of adaptations that each type of "macro invertebrate" has in order to survive. When the students have completed most of the projects, they are able to make a "Creature Creation." This assignment is asking students to create a creature that would be found in the pond (of their imagination) and it must highlight some of the adaptations they have learned about. For instance, a Giant Water Bug and a Water Scorpion are able to breathe with a "snorkel" or breathing tube. Below, this pond creature creation has a straw-like breathing tube to help it breathe under water. Most grades that participate in this program are K-5th grade, so this activity is really my favorite. Of course, because there is a little bit of art incorporated into this program, but when I come in after the 10 days, the students are always really excited to show off and present what they have made. To find out more about Pond Keepers, check out our website.

TheChristyBel

Adorable, Right?!?

Phenological Walk on the Foothills Connector Trail

Phenological Update: The spring teaching season has started. Right now, I have been teaching the bulk of the 1st grade programs: Mammals of the Shawangunks. As we look for signs of mammals out on their hike, I have been noticing a lot of flowers coming up among the brown and dead leaves. Check out some first blooms of the Shawangunks found along the Foothills Connector Trail on the Preserve.

TheChristyBel

Wood Anemone

Marsh Marigold

Phenology Project: Volunteer Orientation

Led a Phenology Volunteer Orientation Today
It was super cold, but the slightly warmer temperatures started to stir things up for phenology
Good Amount of Volunteers Showed Up - Yay, Citizen Science!

Male Red Maple Flowers in Open Bloom

Gertrude's Nose

Patterson's Pellet

Exploring Minnewaska State Park today. I heard of a really cool place to hike to from a co-worker called Gertrude's Nose. This hike is a 7.5-mile loop that takes you to 1,288 ft about a bunch of stunning cliff edges, rock formations, and some really amazing views. From the Minnewaska State Park - Lake parking lot, you head down past the bathing beach area and continue left along the Minnewaska Lake Loop (a red trail). As you continue up and around some s-curves, you'll pass the Castle Point Carriage Road, and then after a few more minutes, you'll reach the Millbrook Mountain Carriage Road on your right. This yellow-blazed carriage road will bring you to a great overlook with an awesome quartz conglomerate erratic called, Patterson's Pellet. It's a boulder that is remarkably balancing and staying put on the edge of the cliff face. As you continue on the yellow trail, you'll reach a junction for a red-blazed foot trail for Gertrude's Nose. You'll pass along some great scenic scapes and cliff edges. You'll eventually head down into the woods along some scrambly rocks and boulders. After the rocky descent you'll pop into a clearing with powelines overhead and continue under them. Back onto the cliff's edge, down again, and back into woods. Once you emerge from the woods, you'll get back to the cliff's edge and head toward Gertrude's Nose. It is definitely a long stroll along the cliff until the nose. Gertrude's Chin is a giant pile of rocks and talus below. The Nose is about 25 minutes from the Chin as you continue forward. The "Nose" means a rock formation that juts out of the cliff with nothing pretty much underneath it. After lots of photos and summit posing and hanging out at the nose area for lunch, we continued the loop going over more of the top of the ridge towards Millbrook Mountain that is the tallest in the Near Trapps (this is on the Mohonk Preserve side). After hanging there and getting some breeze-appreciation, we hiked back towards the middle of the ridge and back towards Minnewaska Lake. There are a lot of Lowbush Blueberry bushes and a great loop hike! I strongly suggest it! Enjoy the photos!

TheChristyBel

Couple Photo on the Nose

Kaaterskill Falls

A Castkill Attraction!

On a day off, we decided to trek about under two hours to the Catskills and check out Kaaterskill Falls. A few of my friends had posted pictures of these falls on Instagram and since we are so close to the Catskills, we should go check it out. We traveled north and got there relatively early (plus it was early spring, so the summer tourists' season was not quite upon us. Getting there is kinda tricky as you have to park on this pull off on the road going up the mountain, they hike along the windy mountain highway to the trailhead. The website stated that the trail was a STRENUOUS quick hike to the falls. Knowing Marc and I who have hiked STRENUOUS trails everywhere, we anticipated a hard hike. But to our hiking level, this hike was NOTHING TO US. We got there, unphased by the hike, and the sight was a beautiful site.

Side Profile of Bastion Falls

Bastion Falls

Kaaterskill Falls is the tallest two-tiered waterfall in New York. The strenuous, but not so strenuous trail for us was about 2.0 miles. There is a set of waterfalls that you see when you first get to the trailhead. Do not be fooled, this is NOT Kaaterskill Falls, this is Bastion Falls. Very great primary falls to see on this hike!

As you continue on the terrain, you hike up and down uneven rooted trails, a series of wooden stairs, and more rooted trails until you get to the double-decker falls!

The Kaaterskill Falls are 260-feet of water falling action. You can check out the lower falls and pool from the large boulders. There is a non-official social trail that can get you from the bottom tier to the second tier. However, it is eroded and really dangerous. So we just admired from the bottom.

Some old hash tags! Haha

After taking lots of photos and snacking on the large boulders at the base, we discovered you could travel up more up the mountain and park at this parking lot at the end of a backroad to get to a viewing platform of the upper falls. So we got into the car and decided to check it out too! It was really cool. The trail to the platform was definitely new and renovated and it was super cool to check out. There was also a trail that traveled to the mouth of the upper falls. This was really neat because there were many stone engavings of people from as early as the 1920s and 30s!

It was a pretty cool day trip up in the Catskills! I definitely recommend going to check out. I also heard that you can swim/wade in the pools, but I hear it is definitely a tourist attraction and gets pretty crowded come summer.

TheChristyBel

From the viewing platform!

Upper Falls

Kaaterskill Falls
1,946 ft above sea level

Awosting Falls

On a day off, I decided to explore and get to know this place I am living in. With that, I wanted to get to know the Preserve's neighbor, the Minnewaska State Park. We had heard of some of the waterfalls that the park was home to and we had to check them out. This afternoon, we walked to Awosting Falls. Awosting Falls is a 65-foot water fall in the state park. You can access it fairly easily. It's just a quick walk from the main gatehouse or a 3.5 mile hike down a carriage road from the main Minnewaska Lake parking lot. When you arrive, you are able to sit on the edge of the carriage road and take in the beauty of this natural, ancient waterfall.

Enjoy!

TheChristyBel

Spring Cleaning - The Garage

So Marc and I have been living in this house for about 7-months now. We have made the actual living area of the house pretty much ours. All of our stuff has been placed in their proper places, our artwork decorates our walls, we got a kitty! Included in our lease, we are allowed to use one bay in the garage. Since our landlord lives in the mother-in-law apartment above the garage, much of his extra stuff has been housed in the garage. However, the garage has not really ever seemed ours. There is a whole bunch of his stuff everywhere. So, Marc and I pretty much had enough of the clutter and took it upon ourselves to spruce up the garage. Our landlord stated (when we moved in) that he would clean up the garage. After 7-months of waiting, we decided to just do it all ourselves. We took EVERYTHING out. All of our stuff (pretty much still in our plastic bins), all of his garden equipment, the snowplow, all of the dead and dried firewood, and all his additional junk from the house. It took an hour to get everything out! When everything was cleared, we swept, and placed all of the once cluttered shelves back in the garage (how we wanted them, not to mention making the "sharing" component), and began to reorganize. Did I also mention that the cleared garage echoes when you yelled! crazy! Unfortunately, I did not have before, during, and after photos, but I do have a cleared out picture!

Oh, and also, while the whole cleaning was happening, Tedders caught a vole! A vole! It was definitely traumatized. And we thought this little creature would survive, but once we got it from Ted, we released it, and Ted eventually got it back and well, there is no more vole.

Tedders Caught a Vole

The Capture

Fishy's Prom

Gillian invited Marc and I to her pre-prom photoshoot. It was so adorable. To be young, in high school, and going to prom again....meh, I would not, but seeing Gillian and her friends all dressed up was precious. Here are some photos of their photo shoot.

TheChristyBel

Hallie & Gillian
(Prom Dates)

Candid Photos

The Whole Group

Close Up of My Fishy

Gillian, What Are You Doing?

Pretty!

Fishy with Her Parents, David and Wendy

Dad and Daughter

Formal Pose

Me, Fishy, & Marc

My Fishy - I cannot believe she's a Junior!
I remember when she was 9 years old!