Trout Pond
From April 21 through 23, 2011, my friend Dave and I participated in the 26th Annual Frostbite Overnight in the Catskill State Park. This was the fewest number of individuals to attend this annual backpacking event for many years. The last time there were this few participants the two of us hiked along the Escarpment Trail near North Lake.
The Frostbite Overnight (FBON) is an annual backpacking trip taken the three days before Easter. The trip typically takes place in the Catskill State Park in southeastern New York State. The tradition started back in 1986 when Dave and a couple co-workers journeyed down to the Catskills for a night partying in a motel room followed up by a single night of camping. As the years passed there was a great turnover in the roster of participants and the emphasis changed to less partying to more backpacking adventure.
My participation in the FBON started way back in 1996. I was absent the following year due to illness but since then I have been a loyal and enthusiastic participant. I treat this early season trip as a test run for the bushwhacking season later in the spring and summer.
This trip has many loosely held traditions. Most of these traditions have been adopted haphazardly over the years although a few are totally out of our control (e.g. the weather conditions).
Typically, the first day of the trip is mired in poor weather conditions and the last day starts out badly but improves as the day progresses so we end up with a beautiful ride home. This year was no exception to either of these unwelcome traditions.
Some of out adopted traditions include Happy Hour (with the appropriate foods and beverages) on Friday after our hike, breakfast at a diner on the day out, getting lost around Binghamton searching for the Eureka store, stopping at some nature center on the ride home and sharing a beer or two at Clark’s Ale House (now closed but soon to reopen) upon our return to Syracuse. Due to the low turn-out this year we skipped many of these traditions except for Happy Hour and breakfast at the diner.
This year the planned itinerary was not very arduous. Typically, the full day of the trip would contain a hike to a mountain-top or two with views but this year Dave came up with something out of the ordinary. Whether this was an acknowledgment of our advancing years (I am the youngest of the usual participants) or sympathy for the numerous physical issues I suffered through over the past winter was never explained.
Trail between Trout and Mud Ponds
This year we hiked into one of the lean-tos on Trout Pond in the Cherry Ridge/Campbell Mountain Wild Forest on Thursday, followed by a loop up and over Cherry Ridge to Mud Pond on Friday and concluding with a short hike out on Saturday morning. This was the first time to my knowledge where the FBON took place in the southwestern part of the Catskills.
Over the next week or so I will chronicle the three days of the 26th annual FBON. This included being surrounded by a gun-totting clan, cooking strip steaks on an open fire, exploring the ruins of Mud Pond, bushwhacking to a beaver meadow and hiking out in a cold downpour soon after frozen precipitation fell from the sky.
Stay tuned….
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