The view of Kaaterskill High Peak from Palenville Overlook.

The wind blew hard enough to change your mind. This was trailhead wind, and I wondered what it would be like on top.

I’d passed the Harding Road trail on the way to my mom’s house many times but never explored it. My dog Cooper and I would change that as we followed the Long Path toward Palenville Overlook and then made a loop by North Lake.

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Grand hotels once stood at North Lake and Laurel House Falls. The trail Cooper and I followed was a carriage road, which took New York City visitors to those hotels after they’d arrived by boat via the Hudson River. Humanity builds great cities and then requires ways for people to escape them and breathe fresh air.

The trees were just budding and we had views across the clove to Kaaterskill High Peak. The carriage road we walked was built by George Harding in the late 1800s. Harding hired an engineer and surveyor to design and build the........

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