+In coordination with some dealer maintenance followup, Saturday provided another gain.

I needed a festival sign, so enroute to Dutchess Recreational Vehicles, I headed to the 20th Annual Beltane Festival at Stone Mountain Farm in Tillson. At symbolicstudies.org we're told, "The Center for Symbolic Studies is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) healing and performing arts center exploring the psyche through the window of myth. Our mission is to provide a theater of opportunities for conscious myth-making, leading to personal growth and communal awareness. We see this as essential to a creative participation in the richness and variety of human cultures and in our extended ecological family."

There was a cool dome home near the entrance, and the proximity to the rail trail was likely an added attraction to some, but it lacked signage satisfactory to my needs. (No banner; not even any signs for the festival.)

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Onward to the dealer then, but first, I took some random images of a swamp off VERY ziggedy-zaggedy Old Post Road in Esopus. It could be any bayou by you, but this one's not by you, it's by me. (Did I say that right? 8^D) This road is 6-1/2 miles of enjoyment I'll likely add to future rides.

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After installation of some exhaust packing at Dutchess Rec, I aimed north to Hudson, providing me an enjoyable 40-minute ride up the Taconic State Parkway, before heading back west toward the Hudson River and city of Hudson, NY, where the Hudson Children's Book Festival is...

(#64 +25) Banner of a festival welcome sign that mentions the festival Banner for the Hudson Children's Book Festival ("spouting literacy") http://www.hudsonchildrensbookfestival.com/
Montgomery C. Smith Intermediate School sign with festival reference (top) and Hudson Children's Book Festival banner (bottom).
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I had a large circuit drawn on my map already, and a westerly route back across the Hudson over the Rip Van Winkle Bridge toward the Catskills, in hopes of snagging Hunter Mountain's metric elevation somewhere.

Route 23 is one of the most traversed pathways into the Catskill region, and easily accessible to major metropolitan areas both north and south. Climbing Route 23, the Siuslaw Model Forest is the newest addition to the Model Forest system. Located in the Town of Cairo, directly off of Rt. 23, the model forest is managed by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Greene County as part of the Agroforestry Center. The ARC features a 5,000 sqft educational facility with a classroom and exhibit area. Across the street from the educational facility is the 142 acre Siuslaw Model Forest, featuring a "Perch Tree" and a nice view from a hand-hewn bench. (Perfect coffee break.)

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At the top of the climb up Route 23, one can find the Catskill Mountain Thunder Motorcycle Festival sign. (Not a banner...)

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No go on the elevation sign, too but, as is my nature, I couldn't pass up a 7-mile deadend road up a mountain in my attempt. Trailheads are a great place to rest your bones for a few minutes. (Another perfect coffee break.) At this point, "just around the corner" about an hour from here at the Full Moon Resort in Oliverea near Big Indian was the Truck Festival, in its inaugural year across the pond, and hereabouts I captured images at an old rock quarry on Rt. 42, and a Ukrainian Church on Rt. 28.

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At the Truck Festival, I could only capture this rock sign, though, as there were no banners. (Or trucks, if that's what you were thinking...)

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At this point, I'm well into the heart of the Catskills again, and along the Neversink River north of Claryville, I captured a waterfall and a bald eagle. This aged old coot (the bird, not me) didn't seem too concerned when I turned around and stopped nearby, but he adjusted his stance as he watched my every move. About six miles south of here, I tried to snag an image of another bald eagle on a nearby log protruding upwards out of the river, but he wouldn't have any part of me and RAKNID and off he took downstream.

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Almost home, but first...

Hang gliding is an air sport in which a pilot flies a light, unmotorized foot-launchable aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite-framed fabric wing. The pilot is ensconced in a harness suspended from the airframe, and exercises control by shifting body weight in opposition to a control frame. Modern technology gives pilots the ability to soar for hours, gain thousands of feet of altitude in thermal updrafts, perform aerobatics, and glide cross-country for hundreds of miles.

(#95 +50) A person wearing sports paraphernalia
I live just east of Sam's Point, the highest elevation on the Shawangunk Range. On the western slope of the ridge, legendary thermal updrafts permit hours of gliding to the expert. In Ellenville, I snagged a hang-glider doffing her gear, and mated it to my images from last week or so. On many sunny summer days, you can count tens of pilots compiling hours of air time.
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Ride on.
Roadkill