Camping Trip: Taconic State Park, NY
Camping was a lot of fun.
We arrived around 2:00 PM on Friday to Taconic State Forrest in Copake Falls, NY. Copake Falls is a small town in Columbia County that borders the slightly larger town of Copkae, and is a few miles south of Hillsdale. It is a town that sits right near the MA and CT borders. We set up our campsite and had some trouble setting up our tent (the instructions were written in technical terms - no, really). A British guy came over and helped us.
We set up everything and then went to Hillsdale to buy food. After we came back with a cooler full of butter, burgers, corn, beer, etc these Brazilians came and set up an epic campsite. They reserved at least 4 campsites and used all of them, setting up a massive tent. They partied very hard throughout the night. There is an old mining pit where they used to mine ore in the Industrial Revolution that was flooded for use as a swimming hole. It is not a typical gradual-depth pond. It starts out being 8 ft deep then drops immediately to 40 by the time you reach the dock. It was good to swim there once again. It is fun to pencil drop from the 40 foot raft then go down almost half way, and quickly rise back up. After the raft, it drops to 80. Better not lose any jewelry in there, because you aren’t getting it back.
We then set up the campfire and ate dinner. After, we didn’t have much to do and just kind of sat there. I didn’t get much sleep because I think I’m not used to the outdoors. I fell in and out of sleep, but felt refreshed for most of yesterday. The next morning, we had some killer fucking eggs and toast. Overnight, the Brazilians (who came up from Yonkers) kept going really hard (one of them even was wearing a shit-kicker hat) past quiet time. I woke up at 1 am they were dead quiet. They got a stern talking-to by the NY state police. We then went Sheffield, MA to get lottery tickets and back down to Sharon, CT to get lottery tickets and a keyboard I found for Anthony. We headed back to Copake and stopped at diner for lunch and I had Chicken quesadillas that were pretty damn good.
Then things got even better. We hiked over the MA line to Bash Bish falls and the place was fucking humming. People were there from all over: England, Germany, more Brazillians, French Canadian, Russians and others. It was very crowded, and some people even brought their kids down by the river, and we saw some kids with towels and bathing suits (swimming is a not allowed down there). As you can see in the pictures, it was a great day and the fact they couldn’t swim didn’t stop them from having fun.
After picking up some ice and beer at Depot Deli, a really rad deli/convience store across the street from Taconic, I then went to go get my swim on in the ore pit. That was also humming with mostly old ladies. My dad chickened out and didn’t want to swim after diving in and went and flirted with the lifeguard (side note: the place was swarming with tail - there was this girl staring at me at Irving Coffee in Millerton, every time I looked over she looked away, kind of like I do when I’m checking out girls… and then her boyfriend came and gave her coffee. Hahahaha). I kept on swimming, and then those Russkies came and swam, too!
My dad left swimming earlier than I did, and I come back and he’s talking to this OTHER girl. Oh, before we went swimming we met this awesome young couple from Long Island, later we would find out they only brought a blanket (damn city slickers) and didn’t sleep all night because it got so cold! Anyway, this I join this conversation, and 4 other girls come down and we all start talking and then I had to sit down cause I was overwhelmed. Luckily I had beer.
Turns out they were from Stamford. Two of them were from White Plains, NY, but worked to Stamford (as you can guess - Stamford/Greenwich is close to White Plains). I talked to this Indian guy who works as a sysadmin. I talked to him, his buddy Chris, their respective girlfriends about our jobs, music, records (a lot of it was clarifying the cryptic Halese my dad speaks in), and the future of music.
We left around 9 this morning and worked our way back, avoiding the chaotic Goshen fair. I had an epic breakfast in the Millerton, NY diner consisting of pancakes, sausage, and home fries.
I had an excellent time! I cannot emphasize how perfect the weather was. I needed it more than I think, it was great to relax and have fun with some cool New Yorkers (not the cold, uncaring ones from the city). It was great to hike, swim, and just relax! I feel the need to be more organized and efficient when I’m around my dad to make up for his lack of everything related to those words… so I spent a lot of time tiding up, taking care of garbage, and keeping track of my dad’s stuff. My dad kept the fire, cooked, and cleaned the pans. My dad described it to my family like I was a policeman; he described my cleaning as “doing sweeps”. I think my assertiveness was a bit uneasy at times for my dad, but I think we both had a really good time.
Picture Time!
Packing the Car
Packing the Car 2
Making eggs on Saturday morning
Epic Brazillian campsite - they set all of this up in about an hour.
The tent
Chopping wood on Friday afternoon
Starting the fire on Friday night
Making eggs - Saturday mroning 2
better shot of the Brazillians
They had a couple of picnic tables underneath the center canopy and a huge fire. They built up the tents around it.
I was supposed to remember where each of these were. This is probably outside of Sheffield, MA
Outside of Lime Rock, CT... I think
On the Bash Bish trail, you cross the state border from NY to MA about 3/4 of the way there.
Entering the trail to Bash Bish on the New York side.
Outside of Copake Auction Galleries. This sign always confused me, especially since it was never enforced.
Going into Copake after a long drive (aprox. 74 miles)
Outside of Lime Rock.... again, I think... the best picture taken on this trip.
Stoking the fire, trying to make it hotter so the water will boil.
The picnic table last night. Pretty much sums it up.
More stoking
Entrance to the Park. Why I am I reminded of 'Fawlty Towers'?
Main entrance to the park.
yes, the water really is that clear. Bottom of Bash Bish falls.
Close up of the falls
Another shot of the water. Amazingly clear
Bash Bish falls supposedly got its name from an Indian woman who was discovered to be an adulterer. In her shame she offed herself by jumping from the top. From the pool, there's another 100 plus foot drop to the brook. You don't want to lose your footing. 25 people have died in modern times, mostly from being rock climbing accidents, but a few because of stupidity.
View from the top. There's a very long stairway that leads down to the falls. They seemed to have improved the facility a little bit. Nothing is scarier than being on those rocks in the thick of winter in a storm, which I was several years ago. I actually almost fell then, too. Not today, though :-)