Upstate 101: Outings on the Cheap

  |  April 17, 2013

Another installment from local realtor and writer Susan Barnett, who brings you ideas to keep your wallet fat.

via Wikipedia/Ruins of Overlook Mountain House

via Wikipedia/Ruins of Overlook Mountain House

Spring is arriving and the Catskills are beckoning. While many of us are familiar with some of the areas finerattractions—tasting events at wineries and distilleries, dinners at locavore restaurant stocked with Hudson Valley meats and veggies—there are some lesser known attractions that don’t cost a dime. Here are three suggestions.

1. Walk a rail trail. Rail trails are a big deal in Ulster County. They crisscross the area and there’s a plan to connect them all. But until then, you can find trails throughout the area and see the country the way visitors did a century ago. Rosendale, Stone Ridge, Hurley, New Paltz, bring your bike or just go for a walk. More on Ulster outings here.

2. Hike to a fire tower. There are fire towers in the Catskills. And one of them is well known to visitors, too. The hike to the Overlook Fire Tower above Woodstock isn’t easy. But it isn’t like Everest, and the surprises along the way make it well worth the effort. Just before the peak are the ruins of the old Overlook Mountain House – a stone hotel that never opened, one of the last remnants of the once-thriving Catskill mountain houses. They’re where our great-grandparents used to go for their country getaways. At the peak is the fire tower, from which you can enjoy a panoramic view of the Hudson Valley. Bring a backpack and some water and you can hike all the way to North South Lake in Palenville – and see where the old Catskill Mountain House once stood.

3. Go junking.  Is your idea of a good day spent rummaging through musty antiques, architectural salvage and industrial leftovers?  Say no more. Begin at P&T Surplus in Kingston, where you will find everything from an eerie but wonderful pair of mannequins right out of Downton Abbey to a now-obsolete computer chip machine from IBM. Don’t ask questions, just go. Up Broadway is Zaborski Emporium, which is a warehouse chock full of not-inexpensive but still very cool odds and ends, from old bathtubs and light fixtures to lamps, bar stools and fireplace mantels.  Over on Ulster Avenue is another junk shop, run by a relative and a bit less pricey – Stan’z.  And let me share one more – it’s across the river in Red Hook, but I found it on a cold winter day and spent a couple of happy hours in a big old building warmed by a woodstove – Hoffman’s Barn Sale.

Next time? My favorite Catskills thrift stores. You know you love them.

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