Catskills Grand Depart – June 16th, 2023 - June 18th, 2023

I left to Ellenville, NY on Friday after work. I parked at a dirt parking lot at the beginning of the route. I had a headache all day, which lingered until late at night and I couldn’t sleep because of it. I finally fell asleep sometime close to the morning. I woke up at 5:30am and drove to the closest Dunking Donuts for breakfast. I came back and called Chris (he was taking part in the event too). I didn’t see anyone yet and was suspicious as to the place where I parked. As it came out, I didn’t read all the details from the email. We were supposed to drive to the Berme Road Park. I loaded my bike on the bike rack and started driving there. Because of the front fork racks, I couldn’t lock the tire properly. Although I was going very slow, the bike still fell off the rack. No major damage was done to the bike, and I reloaded it and continued to a small dirt parking lot. I missed the entrance to the park. Chris arrived soon and we drove together to the right parking spot. I was quite frustrated with myself by that time but decided to just take a breath and relax. I was going to ride my bike on an adventure around the Catskills. I replaced the frustration with a feeling of gratitude. There were eight other riders preparing for the start and soon enough we embarked on our journey. The route started with a very steep and gnarly climb and soon I was left behind. But something else was wrong as well. I felt nauseous and was sweating profusely. I never felt like this while riding. I had to stop and sit on the ground to avoid fainting. It took me a few minutes to recompose myself. ‘Should I continue? Did I pick up some kind of a virus? Did I eat something that didn’t agree with me?’ My thoughts were racing. I decided to slowly walk up the hill and see how I felt. I felt better but still not great, therefore I continued walking.

After a while, I returned to my normal self, but still tried not to push it. The rocky, steep section was three miles long and it took me an hour and a half to finally reach the top.

I was glad that I didn’t quit because soon the trail smoothed and flattened down, and I finally started riding. I felt so much better too and hope filled me as I entered the Minnewaska State Park.

I rolled along the perfect views. I also saw a bunny, which stopped and stared at me. I stopped too and talked to it softly. It filled me with joy. I continued on the ups and downs of the park trail admiring the views and climbers hanging from the above cliffs. It was such an amazing experience to be there. My progress was slow though and at 12:30pm I had only ridden 8 miles.

Soon I found myself on the rail trail and decided to stop for pizza. I wasn’t necessarily hungry but didn’t plan to stop anywhere else later. I ate one slice and took another in Ziploc bag to go.

This section went by fast as it was flat. Chris texted me that he booked a campsite at mile 92. I resolved to make it there but had doubts that I actually would. I tried hard to make up for the miles. I even passed one of the guys. There were amazing views of the mountains from the trail.

Shortly, it started raining and I arrived at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Tibetan Buddhist Monastery and started climbing steep rocky road. It took me awhile again to reach the top of Overlook Mountain. I found myself in front of the very old ruins of Catskills Hotel.

The place seemed to have a certain unexplainable atmosphere to it. The rain certainly exaggerated the gloomy mood. Later I researched that the ruins were leftover of the third building on the site built in 1800s. The hotel was not as accessible, and it didn’t have a lot of traffic and tales of rattlesnakes scared travelers away. The business was closed after a few years. A new developer tried to reuse the buildings in 1871, adding to the structures but business never took off. The hotel was sold and then burned down in 1921. It was rebuilt from stone after the fire. The hotel still didn’t bring much profit and was sold to New York state in 1940.

It started to get dark and I had fifteen miles left to go to reach the campsite. It seemed not much, but soon I realized that getting there would take me longer than I expected. The rain was falling hard, and the single-track down was very slippery. I walked some of it. It serpentined through the woods with frogs shining their eyes at me in the middle of it. I didn’t want to run over any of them and tried to go around, which not always was easy. I reached mile 81 and a lean-to appeared in my sight.

It was already late and I didn’t want to set up camp in the rain. The lean-to seemed like a perfect place to stay at the moment. And so, I did stay. I changed into dry warm clothes, which felt amazing against my skin, and I set up space for sleeping. I was hungry but didn’t eat anything. I decided to leave the pizza for the morning. I was going in and out of the sleep as the mice were running around and even touched my face in the process. I made loud noises to scare them away and to show them that I mean business. They must have retreated because the only noise I heard was of the rain and the stream below.

The next day looked clearer, and I hoped that the rain would not come back. I didn’t have a reception and couldn’t check the forecast. I packed and ate my slice of pizza. When I left the lean-to, the trail didn’t look inviting, or rather looked slippery and challenging. It lived up to its name of Devils’ Path.

I was thinking to myself that it can’t be the trail I was supposed to take. It was a hiking trail. I pushed my bike slowly up the slippery rocks. After some time, I saw hikers and asked if there was a road close by. They confirmed that indeed there was. I felt relief wash over me. If I saw people, it always meant that road was close by. The average person usually wanders about two miles out from the parking lot. There are not many people out there that wander farther than that. I shortly reached the end of the trail, which I rode down paying attention to the slippery roots and rocks. I almost fell down a few times. Almost. At the trailhead there was a bathroom. I happily stopped for a biological break. I moved towards a road which took me to the town. I stopped at the Diner for breakfast. I ordered a big meal from which I packed the leftovers in Ziploc bag again. I continued on roads till I arrived at fun and flowy single-track. I had a conversation with a mountain biker there for few minutes too.

After getting back on the road again, it started raining heavily.

I didn’t feel well again. My belly was burning, and I felt really sluggish. I stopped often and felt like I needed to stop and take a nap. I even stopped by someone’s mailbox and tried to close my eyes for few minutes, but I got chilled quickly and had to keep moving. That’s when I looked at the map and decided that I am going to skip the next section tracing through Rusk Mountain Wild Forest. On the profile of the ride, it looked like I would have to do another hike-a-bike. And the rain would cause it to take even longer than I wanted to spend on Saturday afternoon. The time was passing fast, and I still had so much ground to cover.

My decision turned out to be the right one, as the rain poured from the sky. I was completely soaked and freezing. I tried to move faster on uphills to warm up, but it didn’t help much. I stopped at a local grocery store to grab more snacks as I ate most of the breakfast leftovers already. It was freezing there too because of the air conditioner. I rode and felt very miserable. I looked at the map and decided to take route 30 in the direction of Roxbury and Margaritaville. I thought I would catch up to the route over there. This way, I missed another chunk of the original track up North. After I passed Roxbury, it was almost 6pm (81 miles ridden that day) and I decided to look for shelter from the rain. I couldn’t deal with the cold and wetness anymore. I passed some benches on the side of the road, but they were not secluded, and I didn’t want to stay in the open like this, till I saw a golf course with a long overhang that spread far away from the road and deep into the field. I rode on the soft grass to one side of it first, but I didn’t like how overgrown it was. I would have popped my sleeping pad for sure. In my shivering state, I decided to explore the overhang on the other side of the field. It was perfect. There was some loan machinery there and I attached my tarp to it and the other end I wrapped around my sleeping pad. This temporary home looked very, very cozy. I went under the tarp and changed my clothes into dry ones. I ate some snacks and snuggled in my sleeping bag. I fell asleep even before it got dark as warmth spread through my body making my mind blissfully peaceful.

The skies didn’t clear next morning. The heavy clouds hung over Margaretville and I decided to stop at the country store to grab something to eat.

I looked at the map and was sure where I was going, but somehow, I went away from the track. I looked down at my GPS unit, and expected to see the original track approaching but it wasn’t there. I looked at the map. There was a slight turn that I missed. I got frustrated with myself, but quickly changed my thinking process into gratitude mode. I felt grateful for being able to do this in my own power. Of course, I would make mistakes. But the important thing was that I could backtrack and continue on. And that’s what I did. I wasn’t sure how many miles I had left. When I met the original route, the GPS stated I had 60 miles. I already did 20 miles since I woke up. I was closer to finishing. It sprinkled little bit along the way, but soon sun came out and it lifted my spirits. I continued on roads and forest trails.

And finally Chris caught up to me to tell me about his journey. Besides the rain, he even had hail. He showed me the video. He got cold as well, never arrived at his campground, and slept at a park under a overhang. He also cut some of the original track. It was nice to ride the final stretch together and compare experiences. We resolved together that we will complete the whole route next year. Over the three days I rode 237 miles, even tough I omitted some parts of the original 260 mile route.

Below is the link to the event page: