Agile Trekker: Tanbark Loop, Catskills

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
1/9/2016	2.5 miles	1 hours 38 minutes	731'	1.86 mph	22.7

Trail Map
Online Trail Map
Parking: Bridge Street, next to P.O.
Catskill All Trails Challenge: Map 141

Directions: Tanbark Loop
Notes:
We weren't sure where to park, so we parked just to the left of the post office. There is short dead end road (more of a driveway) on the same side of the road with a sign for a park. The sign says "No Pets". Hmph. We continued to the end of the dead end road where another sign said "Pets must be on leash." Okay. The park was a playground. We ended up heading towards the woods, and then saw a sign for the trail and the blue blazes. The hike is a lollypop hike, where the recommended direction is clockwise.

We had brought Moxie along and had planned a longer easy hike on a woods road. Then it started raining on our way to the Catskills. It wasn't supposed to rain. And its raining all day tomorrow. Ugh. We decided to change plans and do the Tanbark Loop. It's a short hike, so if it started raining harder, at least we wouldn't be out hiking long. I often don't mind rain, but with temps in the 30's, rain isn't great. It ended up being fine. It was a light drizzle and we stayed dry. The hike was short but does have some steep sections. 90% of the trail was snow free, but we ended up putting on microspikes for a small portion, only to end up hiking on dirt with them for too long. We took them off. The trail was slippery even in the non-snowy areas. The ground was wet, and the trail was steep, so we ended up going pretty slowly. Wet rocks, wet dirt, wet leaves. The trail apparently has views, but we were socked in by fog, so we didn't see any. There are a number of unmarked trails that cross the trail, so you do have to keep your eye out for them - sometimes the more obvious way is not the way the trail goes. Overall, not an exciting hike, but maybe we'd have liked it more if there were clear skies & it was dry.

We decided to explore a couple shops on the way home. We normally don't have time to stop in many places, because we're always rushing to have enough daylight for whatever hike we're doing. Not so today. We stopped at the Migliorelli Farm Stand on Route 28. Nice people inside with a golden retriever who did nice sits for me for dog treats. Then we headed over to Mother Earth in Kingston. Glen fell in love with the store when we had just gone down the 2nd aisle. Ha! It's bigger than our Mrs. Greens, but smaller than a Whole Foods. We had eaten soup in our car after hiking, but ended up picking up an early dinner at Mother Earth.

This was a birthday hike for Trek. He turned 8 years old today. He is still healthy and strong and good looking :)