The Towns...

Unlike my long trip on the Appalachian Trail years ago, I wanted to make sure that I had daily access to food, supplies, cold beer and of course, my computer this time. The ability to climb one or multiple mountains during the day and still come back to civilization (such as it may be) in the evening made for a more comfortable and interesting trip. The towns in the area played an important part because no one town had all the necessities that I required to sustain me and since I had to cover a lot of ground each day just getting to the trail heads, I had the opportunity to visit (and make use of) many of them.

During the early part of the 20th century and continuing on into the mid 1960's, the Catskills were known for being one of the entertainment capital's of the world. People would escape the heat of metropolitan New York City and make the two hour drive to the fresh air and peacefulness of the Catskills for rest and distraction. Many notable comedians, such as Rodney Dangerfield, Lenny Bruce and Don Rickles to name only a few, got their start as well as many other nationally known performers at the large resorts in Sullivan, Orange and Ulster Counties. Although it was mainly recognized as the "Borscht Belt" or the "Jewish Alps" during this time, there are many other areas of the Catskills where other ethnic groups such as the Irish and Germans settled and also created their own vacation destinations. Unfortunately, modern conveniences such as air conditioning and the availability of cheaper airfare lead the next generation to travel to more exotic vacation destinations and the Catskills began a slow descent into obscurity. Most of the large resorts either have been demolished, burned to the ground, sit in ruins or have been re-purposed into retreats for Orthodox Jewish families. The towns that once thrived on the resort crowd have been left to survive on summer hikers and campers, Fall leaf peepers and the ski season. The recent decline in the economy has added to the problem and many restaurants, businesses, and motels sit closed and empty.

The town's for me were somewhat of a life-line. A few had coveted cell-phone service, others had actual grocery stores, Phoenicia had an outfitters, Tannersville and Arkville had Laundromats and most had at least one interesting bar to sit, relax and listen.

The Catskill Park consists of 700,000 acres. Each of the many towns, villages and hamlets that lie within the "Blue Line" (Boundary of the Catskill Park) have their own quaint little post office, but there are too many to mention. I'll try to touch on just a few that had the provisions that I needed to keep this trip going:

Phoenicia - This was home base. If you look at a map of the Catskills or if you match up the four main Catskill Trail maps you find that Phoenicia is pretty much the geographical center of the park. It has an energetic village (especially on the weekends) with diverse shops, a dependable outfitters store and several good places to eat. I happened upon Phoenicia about ten years ago when I was planning an 18 mile hike on the Escarpment Trail with my son Dave. I researched the history of the town and found out that the Hotel Phoenicia had served the likes of "Babe Ruth" and the famous gangster "Dutch Schultz." www.castkill.net/purple/schultz.htm It seemed like a great place to stay and it didn't disappoint. The bar was great, (they actually let me bring Sarge in) the rooms were clean but small since you could probably sit on the toilet and take a shower at the same time. There were likely some ghosts, but it was such a great place that we came back the next year with Kaiyln and my younger son Dan for another go at the Escarpment and a good conversation with some of the hotel regulars. Unfortunately, like so many other historic places in New York, it burned to the ground in 2007.

Phoenicia is also known as the setting for the "B" movie Wendigo [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wendigo_(film)] Decent story, poor special effects, but some of the filming occurred in downtown, especially at the Phoenicia Pharmacy. The historical part of the town's legacy is the fact that it was the first mountain town to receive rail service but today it is mostly known for "tubing the Esopus River." Large tire tubes with wooden boards tied to the bottom side to keep your "ass" from bouncing off the rocks as you negotiate the rapids. It's fun and Sandy survived it last year, so it's safe too.

For my purposes, there was a good bar... the "Sportsmans." This is attached to Brios Restaurant which had the best NY pizza and very good mexican food. There is a higher level Italian restaurant, Ricciardellas, down the street which I tried to eat at but was closed and Al's, a sea food restaurant that was quiet and good place to take Sandy for dinner while she was there.

Although I have made fun of this town in the past, calling it the "place where hippies not cool enough for Woodstock go to retire", I hope that the old guy with the long grey beard pulling the oxygen tank around downtown yelling at everyone will forgive me. If Phoenicia just had a Laundromat, I might not ever have had to leave. Unfortunately, I was here for a month and didn't have a month's worth of quality hiking clothing so laundry had to be done at least once a week. So that takes me to Tannersville...

Tannersville - I really don't mean to make this a history lesson, but Tannersville was founded in the 1800's around lumber mills and the tanning industry. This town comes alive during the ski season, but if you come here in September in-between the summer and fall leaf seasons, the place closes down. But... it does have a Laundromat. I brought my dirty, sweaty and sometimes blood stained clothes here on several occasions. At times, I was there by myself and at other times this was laundry central for all the locals. In the land that time forgot, only about 75% of the washing machines worked and maybe 50% of the dryers. All in all, it was the least expensive of the Laundromats that I would use and had the best (and fastest)dryers.

Tannersville also had a Grand Union grocery store for fresh meats, vegetables and fruit and a gas station that I happened to have a card for. The one open bar in town during this season gave me a place to have that one perfect beer at the end of the day while my clothes where drying.

Hunter - Hunter Mountain is the second highest moutain in the range and is also the location of one of the most popular ski slopes. It is a quiet town with most of the tourist activity at the resort area at the base of the slope. This used to be the site of Hunter Village Inn which also burned to the ground several year ago but there is one nice Irish Pub in town and there are great off-season views of the ski area.

Arkville - A small old railroad town as you continue west on NY Route 28. It get busy during the fall season as weekenders board the train to view the fall colors. There isn't much else here other than a pizza place and another laundramat. It is cleaner and better maintained than the one in Tannersville, but is also more expensive. It does actually have a bathroom which saves you having to run around to the back side of the building.