The Catskills

Margaretville, NY -- The first thing that comes to mind is the surprising number of road kill turtles I've seen. Also more dead birds than I expected. Otherwise, things are going well. I'm learning all sorts of things. While waiting out a rainstorm at Dickenson's Farm in Ludlow, MA, a man named Michael told me that Dickenson's recently stopped providing plants for Home Depot, because they would have to take back the ones that didn't sell. A series of historic markers along Route 20 in Western Massachusetts, explained how the road opened to the great delight of automotive clubs across New England in the early twentieth century, because it's path avoided a steep, muddy hill up which motorists had previously had to be towed. The signs seem to be there to add historic appeal to the area and lure today's motorists off of their new favorite east-west road, the Mass Turnpike.

With about three-hundred miles behind me, I'm taking the day off and staying here in Margaretville with a wonderful woman whose husband is in the Dakotas right now, heading east on a cross-country ride of his own. There's a tent caterpillar infestation in the Catskills this summer, so the mountains are sort of a mottled brown, but still scenic, and it's been nice to spend time on my feet rather than my wheels.

Margaretville is a few hours' drive north of New York, but riding here, I saw a lot of signs declaring land and buildings to be the property of New York City. Most of them also say, 'No Trespassing.' It turns out, this is where the City's water comes from, and at no small impact to the area, according to the Catskills residents I've talked to. As late as the 1950's, five towns up here were flooded to provide additional reservoir capacity, since the huge Ashokan Reservoir, built by flooding nine villages and finished in 1914, was no longer enough. And after the reservoirs are built, their watersheds must be protected, of course, which is why there are all these signs. New York City has bought a lot of watershed land up here (contributing to the growing problem of property values rising beyond the reach of locals, my host tells me) and restricts the use of it heavily. It's also built sewage treatment plants for the towns around here, which used to send their wastewater directly into the reservoirs' watersheds. Mostly it tears down buildings, though, on the watershed land it acquires. That improves the quality of the watershed, but also reduces the land's assessed taxable value in Delaware County. Interesting story.

Tomorrow I'm heading west across the rest of the state.