Kaaterskill Waterfall, New York

After an intense week with the Honeywell connected homes team, working on documenting architecture, I had an almost free Saturday, my plane was at 19:00, and I didn't want to spend my day at the Long Island beaches. At about 2h from New York city, there is the Catskill Mountains, it's a typical place for the newyorkers to go and breath some fresh air. A friend recomended to visit the Kaaterskill Waterfall and so I did. It's an easy walk, provably in 15 mins from where you park the car.

It takes about 3h from from Melville to the start of the trail, and that if you drive early morning when there is no traffic. I got there by 10:00 am, and it was freezing cold, only 2 degrees celsius. I didn't came prepared to do any kind of hiking activity, so I put my trainers, and the everyday coat. For backpack I used my laptop backpack, with the laptop... I didn't want to left it alone in a convertible car.

The first surprise was to find the path with half an inch of fresh snow, everything it was quite slippery, and the tracktion of the trainers was not ideal. In about 15 minutes I've reached the base of the waterfall. The day was a bit covered, but the views impressive. There I decided to climb to the top of the waterfall. The problem it was that the stairs were covered in snow or ice. It's was a bit tricky.

After the stairs, it was much easier, it enters the forest and it was more manageble. Once on the top, there is a path that brings to a view point. After the photo and looking at the clock, I dicided to explore a bit more and I did some hike on the snow to the base of the lake.

Returning was more complex, going downhill with no tracktion, no walking sticks, no crampons... but I didn't want to lose my plane, so it was interesting, and I did it with out any accicent. Back at the car, temperature was still cold, provably 3 degrees... but 3 hours later at JFK airport, the temperature was already 20 degrees.. didn't help to heal my cold.