por-cu-pine

porcupine: (n) any of several rodents covered with stiff, sharp, erectile spines or quills.

Though only a few hours north of New York City, Woodbourne, New York, is about as rural as it gets. Brandon, a friend from Camp Henry, works at a campground nearby. So I suppose the rural setting was appropriate, just a huge contrast from the urban scene I was living in the previous week. Almost immediately upon my arrival the two of us set off to hike Mohonk, a nature preserve in the mountains of New York. Part way up the mountain, at 1,245 feet above sea level, sits Lake Mohonk, a small, natural body of water. We rounded the lake past the Mohonk Mountain House, which is really more of a large castle of a hotel, and continued on toward the trails. My host, who claimed to have such an excellent sense of direction, made a turn which led to just about everywhere BUT the peak of the mountain we were attempting to summit. It did make for a pretty excellent adventure though. The path was quite narrow, windy, jagged, and often times involved actual climbing under, over and between large rocks. Often times it was not clear where we were meant to go. Soon I realized that our path was marked with red arrows painted on the rocks. Brandon had no idea, so I took the lead. At one point the arrows led us down a narrow corridor cut between the trees, it was here that our trail was blocked. A porcupine, adorable, large, and full of sharp quills, stood directly in front of us in the middle our path. The last thing I wanted was for this creature to "bite me with its butt," so we stood there... watching. That was the first and only time I had ever seen a porcupine in person. Once the shock of what was standing in front of me wore off, I took out my camera to document the moment. Slowly our new friend made its way out of our path and we continued. Our red-arrowed rocks led us back to the main trail from which we found the correct trail to the top of the mountain. From the summit there is an excellent vista of the entire nature preserve, including the lake and the Mountain House. There is also a castle-like tower which stands alone. From the top there was a much better view, but we could see the rain coming in across the horizon as the sun began dipping low into the sky. That was our cue to leave. Our evening ended at microbrewery for dinner, a perfect conclusion to the day.

Wednesday was a rain out. Not just a light shower, I'm talking flood warnings for all of the surrounding rivers in the area. For the 5th day in a row my morning run was canceled, and so were our hiking plans. Regrettably, Brandon and I spent the day on the couch watching movies until one of us was hungry enough for a meal. A friend of his met us at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, trivia, and karaoke. Karaoke night in Woodbourne, or whatever town we had driven to that was large enough to have a Buffalo Wild Wings, was painful in comparison to Boston. It mostly consisted of kids, who still had a curfew, singing songs not at all meant for Karaoke. There was nothing to do but laugh at it.