Catskills - 23 July 2012

True to Catskills reputation we were awoken in the wee small hours by the same thunderous noises that enticed Rip van Winkle up into the mountains. Being aware of the dangers posed by investigating such noises we remained in our tent and awoke a few hours later rather than a few years like poor old van Winkle.   We decided to push on regardless and purchased some plastic rubbish sacks from the camp store to put the wet tent and groundsheet into so we could  put them all in the rental car with a clear conscience.

We set off for Woodstock to purchase milk for breakfast and to get a coffee. There are a number of towns called Woodstock in the US but this Woodstock is "The Woodstock" and although the famous 1969 Festival is long gone the township is still pretty alternative and full of "peace" and "love" stuff.  So much so that the fiirst cafe we tried was so vegan we could not even have milk in our coffee.  Fortunately the waitress warned us before we ordered. (Perhaps we did not look like the typical vegan clientel.)

Then we discovered that we could not even buy milk in the town, the nearest groceries were a few miles outf of town, fortunately on our intended route.  As the rain returned at this point we cut short our look around Woodstock and set off for the grocery store.

Shortly we came across a reservoir lake so stopped for breakfast and then headed off through the Catskills with intermittent sun, showers and heavy rain heading for Ithaca, home of Cornell University.  We found the waterfall obove the town, had a look around the shops and visitied the lake front before heading across to the next finger lake, past Watkins Glen to our campsite for the night.

207 miles today. 352 total trip  States: New York