New York & Connecticut

We are grateful to be able to continue to travel during the Covid-19 pandemic, however, it is definitely a different experience. The good news is most of things we like to do are outdoors and don’t cost much. The bad news is that there are even more people are outdoors this summer, and we have to plan more carefully to avoid crowds. We definitely try to stay in more remote areas when possible, and when we arrive at our destination look for the trails and sites that will not be heavily populated. In New York and Connecticut, they were in the early stages of opening and the people follow the guidelines closely. It was great to see so many thank you signs and hearts all over showing their gratitude for all the healthcare and essential workers.

In New York, we stayed at Slyvan Lake Beach Park in a tiny town called Hopewell Junction. Only the RV section of park was open, so it was quiet. It was nice to have the beach to ourselves and be able to swim in the beautiful clean water. It was also very close to the Duchess Rail Trail, which which spent a lot of time biking and running on. This trail connects with the Walkway over the Hudson, and then to the Hudson Rail Trail which were the highlights of our trip. All three of these trails are part of the NY Empire State Trail which plans to have 750 miles throughout the state. We also had a nice hike in Hudson Highlands State Park, which had tons of great overlooks, with views of New York City and the Catskill mountains.

In Connecticut, we stayed at the Grandview Camp Resort in Moodus, CT, a village in the town of East Haddam. It was a very peaceful park with very few campers and a lovely swimming pool. I definitely enjoyed having the pool to myself. There are a ton of things to in the area, however most of them were closed. Fortunately, there are almost dozen state parks nearby, so there was plenty to keep us busy. We definitely had an adventure on the Airline State Park Trail. I talked Mike into a morning ride, as it looked like storms in the afternoon. Unfortunately, only after only twenty minutes or so, it started pouring. The trail had a lot of tree canopies, so we tried to ride a while and then take a rest under the trees, but eventually we gave up and rode back. We were muddy and soaked! We did ride again a couple of days later and really enjoyed this beautiful trail. We also checked out the Johnsonville and Comstock covered bridges, which were pretty cool. Gillette Castle State Park was amazing, even though we could not tour the inside due to Covid-19. The castle itself and the grounds were amazing.

Next stop Cape Cod!