Our campsite at Woodland Valley Campground, six miles above the cute little town of Phoenicia.
This was our primary goal for the weekend: sit around the campsite and relax.
Woodland Valley Stream, which runs alongside the campground.
The green canopy above our campsite. Gorgeous!
The Town Tinker Tube Rental: our passport to adventure on Esopus Creek!
No shortage of inner tubes here!
We planned our trip to coincide with a water release from an upstream reservoir, but the water release was canceled at the last minute.
Even without the water release, the creek offered some fun rapids.
A lazy section of Esopus Creek.
The best tubes in town.
After packing up our campsite on Sunday, we decided to hike up Mt. Wittenberg.
We called this the "Fern Sea."
Would you follow a trail guide like this?
Fortunately, the trail was well marked.
We got rained on, but the thick forest canopy protected us from most of it.
As much as I dislike rain, you can't have stunning greenery like this without it!
A grueling hike... 2,400-foot elevation gain in a 3.9-mile one-way route.
Despite the rain and the pain, we made it to the summit!
After abusing our bodies to get to the summit, we were rewarded with this spectacular view of the inside of a cloud.
For literally seconds at a time, the clouds briefly parted to show a glimpse of the view we were missing out on.
As tough as the uphill portion was, going back down hurt the knees far more.
Checking out at the end of the hike. Victory!
