Mohonk trail and the Lemon Squeeze

 October 20 2021

Another weekday hike to the south at Mohonk Preserve. It is so hard to let a gorgeous fall day pass without heading to the woods to soak it in. Ann Marie drove us to the preserve where we paid an exhorbitant $15 each just to hike. We later ran into some women who parked nearer the Mountain House lands and paid $30 each - yikes!

We hiked a rather flat 3 woodland miles just to arrive at the Mountain House - we looked it up and the cheapest rooms start at $1200/night. We tried to get to the gazebo for lunch, but it was clear they don't want the hiking commoners to mix with their paying clients so we had to perch on a rustic bench looking across at the lovely beach area.

After we found the trail to the Labyrinth and Lemon Squeeze, I nearly turned back as the signage freaked me out. I'm clearly not in excellent physical condition.

I gathered all my courage and decided to go for it, so we did. Poor AmyJean was crouched in a crevice while I debated with myself - thank you for being so patient!! We started crawling, climbing, and scootching through the trail which took a bit longer than the 45 minutes the sign suggested. I'm pretty sure we were the most mature hikers that day! We did have fun and lost a water bottle in the process.


                                  AmyJean, our fearless one,


Just having fun.






AmyJean led us most of the way through the Labyrinth, pointing out hand and footholds as well as tricky spots and we managed despite my phobia of snakes in dens, earthquakes, and other fears which I did not vocalize. Then we hit the Lemon Squeeze, aka The Crevice, - a hundred or so foot high crack that we had to negotiate. I knew I would not last long in this situation, so I took the lead and just. kept. going. The pictures do not convey the terror I felt as I double checked each hand and foot hold before giving it my trust.

At the top of the first vertical ladder:

Me heading up!

AJ right behind me.


Coaching Ann Marie out the top.

You would think this was enough to tire us out, but we had to hike another 4 miles back to the car -we went the long way around because, why not! Dinner at the New Paltz brew pub was delightful but we missed the chocolate shop due to the late hour.



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