As I mentioned, this weekend I went camping up in Westchester for my friend's birthday. Despite some early rain, it turned out to be really great and the weather was nice and warm on Sunday for some hiking around the park! We were at the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, near the Katonah stop on the Metro-North - which is how I got myself up there.
The prospect of "cold" fall camping + the rain made us all very glad that we had these 3-walled stone shelters in which to set up camp. There was a great little fireplace inside of the shelter, which kept us warm through most of the night. We had been so toasty with the fire that inside of our sleeping bags, most of our warm layers had been discarded, leaving us vulnerable to the chilly air once the fire died out. Brr!
Our little home: shelter #14!
Our savior...mostly
I'd say we did pretty well for ourselves. Most of our food was pre-cooked, so it just had to be heated up, which we managed to do in the outdoor (read: wet) firepit. Hot cider with Goldschlager, drumsticks, mac & cheese, and roasted veggies...and of course, s'mores. Camping perfection!
The next day, three of us went on a fun hike around the park. It was suddenly clear that Fall is coming to an end, though, as we wound up walking/slipping on all of the fallen leaves, and there was not much foliage to be seen on the trees. Not to worry, however, because that meant we could actually see all of the trail markers - phew!
View from the top of an Overlook
A little light enters into "Leatherman's Cave"
It had been ages since I last went camping, and I definitely won't let there be such a long gap again! Well...it will at least have to wait until after winter ;)
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