I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to explore the Spring Farm Road areaon my tele setup. Cover was REALLY thin (read: semi-nonexistent), but thats what January in the Northeast can throw you.

It was more fun then I expected. I think that if your expectations are low, you can have as much fun as you want. Thats the lesson I learned today.

Anyway here are some pictures, for what there worth...





Can't wait to get up there with some snow!!

Where else is good to making turns on the ridge?

Wow, look at those amazing low-altitude sun cups

I don't know where else, but if you ever try out one of the old ski areas (like Ski Minne upslope from Peters Kill, and rumor has it there is one out behind Bonticou? Maybe that's the one you did?) let us know.

I did some hiking up near Ski Minne used to be this summer and it did look a bit brushy. Might take a lot of cover to make it skiable.

Ski Minne is the slope that still has remnants of cable from the tows laying around when you get down towards the creek?

Hmmm just found these... looks interesting. As soon as theres snow I'll check it out.

http://www.lakeminnewaska.org/albums/scenicminnewaska/skiminne.jpg


http://www.skiinghistoryinnewyork.com/Ski%20Minne.jpg

If you click on the gallery page for that website, they do have some pics of the old ski area which is just south of the Bonticou crag.

Bonticou Bonticou

yeah, come to think of it, the old preserve visitor center was in the former bonticou ski lodge. one of the ski runs was pointed out to me once, back when the old visitor center was still active, but I'm not sure how the ski trail could have ended up back at the lodge... seemed to run down the other side. these days, if you're hiking to bonticou, you'll start from a completely different trailhead than you would have in the days of the old visitor center.

Wow, what a horrendous website, I haven't seen a website that bad in a long time. Interesting info if you can just ignore the miserable design.

I know... It took a while to try to figure it out; the site that is... Some interesting pics once you can get to them.