Go visit Alder Lake in the Catskills because it simply took my breath away. That is if you can find it. Abby girl and I had no intention of visiting this lake and in fact, almost missed it thanks to no GPS signal whatsoever. My GPS literally dumped us on top of a mountain in the middle of the Catskills! But, we like to have those impromptu, throw the dart type of moments. It’s a lot of what makes Adventures with Abby Girl.
We were just leaving forest festival in Margaretville, NY, when Abby announced that she wanted to go on a hike. Well, we weren’t truly prepared for a hike in the middle of the Catskills, so I quickly (while I had signal) looked at AllTrails. After, going back and forth between a few trails labelled “easy” and also “shorter” … My dart was thrown at a place called, Alder Lake.
A few miles up Route 28, turn right and stay right. There is a sign for a road closure. However, you split off up the dirt road. It is like a playing chicken type of road. Abby reviews the road as bumpy. I explained that the Nissan was car hiking. Car hike we did and up we went. Well, until the GPS blurts out, “You are here”. “Here,” was on top of a mountain in the middle of the Catskill, Mountains. So I decided to keep going. Most normal people, turn around here and try something else. Not us.
I eventually got to the bottom. Here is the crucial part. There is sharp turn to your left. Take that. Go through the yellow gate. I ended up down the road and had to ask locals before taking out their very large road barrel. Just turn left and save the headache. Also don’t tell my husband that I hit a very large, non-mobile road barrel with his car. I thank you.
At the gate, keep going down the road and don’t feel temptation to veer off. You will clearly see the trail head and a nice parking lot. Once out of the car, don’t forget to sign and then out of the log book. It is for safety as well for tracking traffic to destinations such as Alder Lake.
To your left, you will be greeted by old ruins. In fact, history side note, ruins are called Coykendale lodge . You can read all about the general history here.
We decided to do a loop around the lake, which, is just under two miles. We went to the right. DON’T DO WHAT WE DID. We ended up on a very rugged, almost non-existent trail close to the lake.
Abby kept yelling poison ivy and there was bear poop. I’m serious, like steamy, fresh, I hope it’s the Charmin Bear family or yogi and not some big scary beer because they had been there very recently.
We eventually found our way to an opening at a campsite and ran into a family and a forest ranger. He told us we had taken the animal run or fisherman’s trail. He pointed behind himself, at a lovely trail. The ranger tried to make me feel better and tell me it happens to everyone including him. I asked him about camping and he told me that there are 14, first come first serve sites that you have to hike everything in. Not for the weekend warrior. My husband flat-out refused because he didn’t think he could carry in a giant tent and all his beer, meat products and inflatable air mattress.
The ranger also told us where to find a spring coming out of the mountain where it was safe to get water from the pipe. Please, take from the pipe and not the pools below. You could end up with the screaming poops. Also remember, this is my only approved way of drinking unfiltered water.
He pointed us in the right direction and off we went. We took a side trail for a bit and decided to turn around. However, I read that there is a summit just over six miles and a lean-to about 1.5 miles up if you are looking for more hiking.
We got back on the main trail and found the glorious mountain stream. We drank a lot of water. Abby described it as “tasty.”
After our break, we hiked on. From here it was just over a half a mile to our car. We passed the same group of people again and they told us next time, there is an awesome tree on the trail that we missed that has roots that literally wrap around a rock. I guess it is a wicked, cool, photo-op.
Back at the car, we signed out of the log book. We took the fellow hikers advice and went back the way we came-up the dirt road. My car literally, an inch of red dust on it by the time we arrived home. There is no car-wash nearby. So, your car must remain dirty for a bit. So, if you hate having a dirty car, this hike is not for you. Otherwise, you can try drawing smiling faces in the dirt. It’s thick enough.
Alder Lake is great for just relaxing, fishing, hiking and camping. A true little piece of Heaven on Earth. That is if you can find it and you can handle it.
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