Mount Tremper Hike

I am going to ease you into my mind gradually. This blog will start off with the usual fluff pieces about my adventures and travels. How much I learn from the people I meet and the places I see. How each adventure increases my love for humanity and the world it inhabits. How I crave to share my transformative experiences with you. Sure, you'll think, "How does he have the energy? His mind is so nimble. What a renaissance man." But then slowly, not by next week's postings, maybe not by next month's postings, but maybe in a couple of months, a little worm of unease will begin to wriggle around inside your skull. Your life's moorings will begin to weaken. The principles which have formed your core beliefs may not seem so principled or even self-evident. You may find yourself wondering how could your whole life up until now have been lived in such ignoble insouciance?

But I digress. This weekend Tammy and I went on a winter hike up to the fire tower on Mt Tremper near our beloved cabin in the Catskills. It was awesome.

We did not see another outdoor enthusiast until we had almost attained our goal. Did I mention our newly confronted fellow hiker was wearing nothing but cotton? Cotton sweat pants, cotton sweatshirt, I assume cotton under garments, and to top it all off a cotton baseball hat with requisite official holographic logo sticker of Major League Baseball. It was all I could do to wheeze out a jovial "good afternoon". In his defense, if a pick up game of softball were to break out at the summit of Mt Tremper in the 25 degree weather he most assuredly would have been better prepared than I. At least the sun, I am sure, would not be in his eyes, as he lay hypothermic and comatose awaiting the rescue helicopter from Kingston General. " It was just a short hike", he will say while contesting the $10,000 bill for the emergency response team assembled in his behalf. "I could practically hear the traffic on Route 28 the whole time", he will protest.

Of course that didn't happen because it was just an insignificant hike up a minor hill in perfect weather conditions. But what if......

Sorry. Did I say I was going to ease you in slowly? My bad.