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You haven’t done it, have you? You haven’t put Catskill, New York, on your bucket list. Or even on your someday-if-I’m-cruising-in-the-neighborhood list. I get it. Catskill is just a little-bitty town, not on the coast and far from fashionable, unless you are a devotee of the Hudson River School of American Art. And it’s off the main maritime routes, unless you are doing the Great Loop or Lake Champlain. But give me 800 words, and I’ll change your mind.
I’m going to start with mountains. I am essentially a flat-land Atlantic Coast boater. For my whole boating life, with some glorious exceptions like Swiss lakes and notable parts of the Med, you could have plopped me and my boat down anywhere, and I’d have had a hard time figuring out where I was. The low-slung shore of most of the East Coast looks devilishly the same, so to me, mountains are a major selling point. They are a perfect treat to watch as you sail or motor along below. Go ahead, laugh at me, but the experience fills me with joy. That makes a trip up the Hudson River all by itself a delight, from the Catskills to the Adirondacks. And it means that a detour up Catskill Creek, 120 miles north of New York City and 30 miles south of Albany, allows you to easily immerse yourself in this world.
Catskill itself is practically an ideal Hudson River village, sufficiently self-assured to have a modest selection of tasty restaurants (the New York Restaurant’s pierogis come to mind), a couple of breweries (Crossroads and Rip Van Winkle, to be specific) and a cider house (Left Bank), without being presumptuous enough to have attracted big housing developments and blocks of apartments. Catskill’s charming main street has a nice variety of small shops and the best no-bad-stuff used bookstore, Magpie Books, you’ll find anywhere. The town is neat, tidy, and conveniently packaged. Big enough to give you some good exercise, but not so big that you can’t carry home all your packages.
In addition to eating, drinking, and buying books, you’ll find plenty of other things to do. For example, at the north end of town, up on Spring Street, you’ll find the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, home of the founder of the Hudson River School, whose big and gorgeously romantic paintings of the Catskills created the country’s first significant art movement.
If you’ve brought along your bicycles or your stout walking shoes, you can strike off from there to follow the Hudson River Skywalk across the Rip Van Winkle Bridge (very scenic, of course) to Olana Castle, the home of Cole’s most famous student, Frederic Edwin Church. The round trip is about 6 miles. Remember those breweries or the cider house when you return.
The area, not surprisingly, offers miles of trails into the mountains and to sites near town, including beautiful Kaaterskill Falls. On the west side of the creek, not far from Bliss Marina, you can make use of your binoculars to spot birds at RamsHorn-Livingston Audubon Sanctuary.
Finally, since we’re all “cat” people here, I know you’ll want to take some time to admire the many and varied examples of feline statuary that you’ll find scattered about town. Yes, just as New Bern, North Carolina, has statuary bears because of its Swiss namesake Bern, and Norfolk, Virginia, has mermaids for no apparent reason, so too Catskill has its cats.
This leaves us with the all-important question of where to stay. Here Catskill really shines. If you want easy access to the main part of town, as well as good facilities in a park-like setting, I suggest Catskill Marina, which you’ll find to starboard just as the creek begins a short S-bend. If you are on your way to do the Great Loop and want to have your mast dropped ahead of the Erie Canal, you won’t find a better place than Hop-O-Nose Marina on the port side of the creek, at the end of the S-bend. Here too you can buy fuel, have repairs done, and enjoy its popular Creekside Restaurant. Just beyond Hop-O-Nose, you’ll find Catskill Yacht Club, another good option. Finally, closer to the entrance, also on the port side, you’ll find the long floating docks of Bliss Marina. All have good water. If you prefer to anchor, your best bet is the short stretch between Bliss Marina and the bend.
Hop-O-Nose, by the way, is the name of the rock formation that sort of looks like a nose at, yes, the S-bend.
If you are headed up the Hudson, I highly recommend that you use any means necessary to get a copy of Alan and Susan McKibben’s 2014 Cruising Guide to the Hudson River, Lake Champlain & the St. Lawrence River. Yes, it is a little out of date, but it easily makes up for that with descriptions that are well written, well researched, and succinct yet comprehensive.
Though the name Catskill probably evokes visions of bobcats more than cruising cats, this idyllic spot is the epitome of small-town Americana with the art, culture, and history to match, all set against a breathtaking backdrop of the Catskill Mountains.
While you are on the Hudson
Here’s one more thing before I go: For an excellent and delicious side trip, I recommend a special dinner at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, about 30 miles downriver. Reservations are a must! The closest marina is Hyde Park Marina. A second good marina option for the CIA dinner is Shadows Marina, about 5 miles farther south. For an extra treat, you can put your walking shoes back on for the 4 1/2-mile Walkway Over the Hudson loop. Then you can order a great breakfast sandwich from the Shadows Restaurant delivered to your boat the next morning.
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MHP&S Winter 2024
