Day 9: Night Hike up Overlook

I have been rather remiss with this the last couple of night, but there's a pretty good reason. Saturday night I went for a night hike up Overlook Mt. just outside of Woodstock, the same hill I hiked a week or so ago during the day. This hike is a lot different during the night, just as fun, but different. I got to the trail head at about 10:30pm and found out that I only had the smallest of headlamps with me, one that clipped onto my hat consisting of one LED. Since this light didn't put out too much light I figured I would try and do the hike in the dark, and let me tell you it was pretty dark, no clouds to diffuse city lights to the east and no moon either. The trail up the hill is as wide as a single-lane road so the going was relatively easy and I could see the sky over the trail and there was very little chance of tree limbs poking me in the eyes.

It was a BEAUTIFUL night for a hike and I'd tried to invite some friends along but no one was up for it. This was a bit of a downer at first, but in the end it was quite nice to take a walk like this on my own for a number of reasons...quiet contemplation, self-awareness, no need to talk, time to do what I wanted, etc. I set off at a pretty good clip for an entirely uphill walk and made

only two real rest-stops, each of about 2-5 minutes. Today I read that these are the perfect length of stops to take on a hike as you loose about 70% of the lactic acid built up in your muscles in the first 5 minutes of your rest. The first big stop I made was when I reached the abandoned hotel near the top of the mountain, about 2 miles from the trail head. I took several pictures of the outside of the hotel here, but I didn't go inside. Going inside the hotel can be a bit dicey at night and since I didn't have anyone with me I decided against it.

From the hotel I made my way around the side and continued on up the trail to the Fire Tower, about 0.5 miles farther on. This part of the hike is fun as you can see the lights of the Hudson Valley off to the east. I made it up to the Fire Tower, which is 60' tall and in quite nice shape, at about 11:50 pm. I have never been here during the day when the top of the tower is open, but you can still climb up the stairs to just below the observation platform. I went up the tower and the view was excellent as it was a totally clear night. I could see all the way from Albany to the north down to Newburg in the south with Catskill, Saugerties, and Kingston right out in front. It was a bit windy but I managed to take a number of pictures of the city lights in the valley below.

Eventually I climbed down and decided to take some pictures of the stars that were absolutely beautiful. I had brought my tripod for my camera and set the exposure to 15 seconds, the limit

of my camera. I got some nice pictures of the Big Dipper as well as several other stars. At this point I had been up here for about a half an hour and decided it was time to start my trek down the mountain. I decided that I would not make any stops on the way down and I am happy to say I did just that. I always think this is a longer walk down than it is up the hill on this hike, which is normally not the case. I believe this is because the trail is quite twisty and at nearly every turn after about halfway down I think I'm going to get to the car. In any event I did make it down and got to the car at about 1:10 am or so. All in all this was a great hike and I highly suggest it to anyone, be it during the day or night...in best case, do both.

Finally, the reasons I haven't written in the last day or two are the following: Saturday night I was just too shot to write when I got back around 2 am. Additionally, I have since then developed a rather nasty case of poison ivy from crawling around by the creek in shorts and I haven't gone out in the last two nights. I just didn't feel up to writing since I hadn't been out and I decided not to write until I finished this post about the Overlook hike.