#73 - Katrina Hikes! - Aug 14, 2012

We slept until we woke up, ate our cereal for breakfast, and sat down to watch “Australia”. We love that movie. It’s heartbreaking, partially true, lavish, and stunningly well-done in its production values. I love Hugh Jackman.


Then we went out to Lake Minnewaska. It’s a short drive to a beautiful place. We parked and walked around the lake, nearly alone. The paths are wide, leftovers from the days of carriages, just gentle switchbacks and calm turns. The lake is gorgeous, and has a very low Ph (4.5), but it’s safe to swim in. We did the 2 mile hike in about 2 hours. It’s the longest hike we’ve ever done together, and I had to get used to doing it her way. She likes to take it slowly and take a lot of pictures. It was a really nice hike, she felt tired and great afterward, and we both had a really nice time.

Some pics:

Start of our hike.  The lake is behind her.

Looking SE from the SE side of the Lake, over the Hudson Valley.

Katrina called this duck.  She loves ducks.  I don't get it.

The lake is surrounded by these white cliffs.   Great views around
the lake, and several nice places to stop and enjoy them.
This is from the picnic area on the East side of the lake.

We stopped by Awosting Falls on the way back. The geology here is still stunning – the mix of ancient mountains, worn down by millions of years of erosion, and the glacier-scraped landscape that leaves bedrock bare and boulders creeping out of the grass.

Upper Awosting falls.

Katrina hiked to the top of the falls!

I'd never seen such a flat natural rock formation before.

This is at an overlook on the way back to the chalet.
I had the best view ever!

Dinner was a stop at the BBQ shack. We got a platter of BBQ chicken, corn bread, potato salad, coleslaw, and baked beans. $12. We ate it leisurely, with nothing else to do. It’s hard for me to relax, to do and accomplish nothing more than breathing. It’s a skill I need to improve on, so I gave in to it. We watched another movie, “Stranger Than Fiction”. This is Will Farrell’s “Truman Show”. Great movie. Well written, acted, interesting premise, and he and Maggie Gyllenhall are an unlikely and cute couple; they seemed to belong together.



We slept poorly, on account of a very long and very loud rainstorm beating on the 4 skylights and the attic-less roof.  But it was a wonderful day - long, relaxing, picturesque.  Tomorrow we head home.