{"id":6896,"date":"2020-05-30T13:25:22","date_gmt":"2020-05-30T13:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/?p=6896"},"modified":"2020-05-30T13:27:33","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T13:27:33","slug":"may-30-2020-bonticou-crag-mohonk-preserve-high-falls-new-york-saturday-august-13-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/may-30-2020-bonticou-crag-mohonk-preserve-high-falls-new-york-saturday-august-13-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"May 30, 2020. Bonticou Crag, Mohonk Preserve. High Falls, New York.Saturday August 13, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Waiting for the crisis to pass, our thoughts go out to friends and loved-ones who also shelter in place. Old friends pass away, people we loved and admired. Immobilized for the time being, we can revisit destinations, near and far. join me in celebrating the joys of Quaranteam travel, the hope that these diversions might inspire us to value things we had taken for granted, to draw strength, wisdom and compassion from deeper engagements with nature.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nBonticou Crag<\/em>. Saturday August 13, 2011<\/p>\n

Bonticou Crag<\/a> is a massive outcropping of sedimentary Silurian limestone near the northern end of the Shawangunk Ridge<\/a>, which from this point extends in a southwesterly direction into the Kittatinny Mountains of northern New Jersey. A popular destination for hikers, rock-climbers and mountaineers. Spring Farm Trailhead is found along Upper 27 Knolls Road, off a hairpin turn on the stretch of Mohonk Road between Mountain House<\/a> and the village of High Falls. Another magnet for outdoor adventurers is Table Rocks, a deeply fissured limestone formation slightly north of Bonticou Crag. Geologically the site resembles Sunset Rock above the Kaaterskill (North-South) Lakes<\/a>. All feature perilous drops and abundant opportunities for personal injury. Hikers are discouraged from bringing their dogs long for the trek.
\nBonticou Crag is approached via a twenty-minute rock-scramble not for faint of heart nor weak of limb. In 2011 Kathie and I rented a weekend getaway in the village of High Falls<\/a>, in Ulster County New York. The hamlet had grown up around a cluster of locks on the Delaware and Hudson Canal<\/a>. It appealed to me in part because the historic setting awakened memories of my childhood in the Delaware Valley. Like Bucks County back in the day, Stone Ridge, High Falls and Rosendale<\/a> has its share of resident artists and movie-stars. Painter Marc Chagall<\/a> lived along Mohonk Road during the mid 1940s. Jake Berthot<\/a> lived upstream in the town of Accord. We began a friendship with noted Polish artist Jan Sawka<\/a> just before his unexpected death in 2012. The last time we saw him was a chance meeting on a hiking-trail near Lake Minnewaska. In precolonial times the bluffs above Rondout Creek<\/a> had been a portage-site for getting above a high limestone shelf, over which the creek crashes into a gorge. Intermittent stretches of white water and languid pools descend from the great falls to a run of flat water beside Rosendale. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On Saturday, August 13, 2011 we drove to the Spring Farm Trailhead, to explore some of the woodland trails and carriage-roads leading to Bonticou Crag and Table Rocks. The temperature was already warm. By three in the afternoon the heat would be unpleasant. Neither of us being prepared to risk life and limb on the Bonticou rock-scramble. After parking we walked uphill beside grassy meadows on a mowed path. Passing into the woods we found an unimproved trail. Stepping over rocks and tree-roots we climbed the slope to what appeared to be a carriage-road, preserved by gentle maintenance. Wooden signs affixed to trees directed hikers to the Crag, Table Rocks and Farm Road. Having consulted a map prior to our departure I was mindful that Guyot Hill<\/a> stood to the south. Beyond that was Mohonk Golf Course<\/a>. A network of roads loops through the Preserve. Had one time and the inclination, one could pick up the trail at Spring Farm and follow it all the way through Minnewaska<\/a>, past Lake Awosting to Sam\u2019s Point<\/a>, more than twenty miles as the crow flies. Having lingered over breakfast, anticipating crushing heat later in the day, we were not so ambitious. Following the carriage-road we made one circuit that brought us back to the turnoff for the crag trail. The road followed another great loop, debouching from the woods into a clearing below the towering limestone formation. Unpacking sandwiches and water-bottles, we sat on a fallen tree to eat our lunch.<\/p>\n

I made two sketches of the crag, each showing the trail leading to opposite ends of the clearing.
\nHaving neglected to bring a folding stool I was obliged to stand, balancing my watercolors and book in one hand while I painted with the other. On the way down the hill Kathie jumped to the side, as a green and yellow garter-snake<\/a> darted across the trail. <\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPainting along the Bonticou loop trail in Mohonk Preserve. Saturday August 13, 2011<\/p>\n

\"\"April Dispatches<\/a> are all now online. Thirty-one episodes, present in a user-friendly calendar view interface. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

(A preview of SKETCHBOOK TRAVELER<\/a><\/em> by James L. McElhinney (c) 2020. Schiffer Publishing).
\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright James Lancel McElhinney (c) 2020 Texts and images may be reproduced (with proper citation) by permission of the author. To enquire, send a request to
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Waiting for the crisis to pass, our thoughts go out to friends and loved-ones who also shelter in place. Old friends pass away, people we loved and admired. Immobilized for the time being, we can revisit destinations, near and far. join me in celebrating the joys of Quaranteam travel, the hope that these diversions might … Continue reading May 30, 2020. Bonticou Crag, Mohonk Preserve. High Falls, New York.Saturday August 13, 2011<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\nMay 30, 2020. Bonticou Crag, Mohonk Preserve. 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