The smell of sticky asphalt wafted into my car from the newly paved road as I rolled past a steady stream of pedestrians walking towards the 2017 Rosendale Street Fest. The town, a cluster of vibrantly painted shops on the Rondout Creek between New Paltz and Kingston, has a population of 6,000 on non-festival days,…
Tivoli Bays is currently inaccessible by boat, as the launch site within the state-owned land is closed until further notice. Unless, of course, you have some moxie. My plan for accessing the 1700-acre preserve near Bard College in Dutchess County was to simply park in one of the small lots at a trailhead and roll…
New York Zipline Adventure Tours at Hunter Mountain is billed as the longest, highest, (but not necessarily fastest) zipline in North America. The fastest zipline in North America is located somewhere in Canada, according to the tour’s instructors, but two out of three superlatives is extreme enough for a good adventure. I walked into the…
The seedy riff of the Rolling Stones “Satisfaction” wailed through the Stair Galleries in Hudson Saturday as antique wonks peered at rugs from the South Caucus and Persia and aimed their iPhone flashlights at imperfections on sets of Venetian rococo gilt chairs. Drug-fueled 1960s rock might not be the most natural choice for an auction…
After entering my normal coffee joint to purchase a sugary caffeinated drink the day before Pride, I asked one of the baristas whether they would be attending “the parade” in Hudson. She didn’t know what I meant, so I specified I was talking about the annual Gay Pride Parade. “Aerg,” the other barista chimed in,…
As I entered the vast interior of the Hudson Area Library, I could already see the altitudinous Ella Ghent rising above the other figures in the children’s area. She was conservatively dressed for the occasion, wearing an apron, thick stockings and flats. Besides her was her ukulele. Ella spends most of her time as Michael…
If you walk past the boutiques and antique stores of Hudson’s Warren Street until the boulevard terminates, then hang a right, you will eventually come upon a scene ripped from time: two rows of dusty shacks leaning over the water around a bay. The shacks are on stilts and are constructed with scrounged materials: roofing…
The East Durham Irish Festival takes place in the most ridiculously Irish town this side of Galway. As we drove down Route 145 in Greene County on Memorial Day weekend, we passed a sign declaring we were entering “The Emerald Isle of the Catskills.” I had traveled with my girlfriend Jody down to Kingston to…
My theory for adventures (yes, I do have a theory) is they should not be planned too precisely. This way, the adventurers will have to deal with curveballs along the way, with hilarious and unpredictable results. They make for great reading, and can be reflected on positively by the adventurers once the panic has subsided…
For anyone who wants to live in dilapidated ruins — ruins where famous novelist Edith Warton spent part of her childhood, to boot — the abandoned Wyndcliff Mansion in Rhinecliff is up for sale. The property, which has its roof aesthetically caved in, is on sale through Northern Dutchess Realty for $180,000, according to a…
The Wallkill River enters the Hudson Valley from New Jersey through a National Wildlife Refuge, then winds North through the Black Dirt region of Warwick to spread out into the verdant, farm-dappled Wallkill River Valley in Ulster County before meeting with the Rondout Creek and terminating at the Hudson River in Kingston. The river is…
I first came upon Dibble’s Quarry with no foreknowledge of the place, stumbling upon the slate monoliths more than a decade ago while hiking with my friend Sam. I remember the scene opening up around a bend in the trail, a giant, dusty throne room with spiders and toads skittering about its floors like warped handmaidens. Sam doesn’t remember the scene…
