JMC - A New Tradition?
/Christmas is a great time of year, but for jewish folk like me, its just another night. Either way, i can't work as everything is closed, so i took this opportunity to get a little camping trip in. It's early winter, not too cold out yet. I enrolled a few other local jewish buddies, and we had our first JMC. Jewish Motorcycle Christmas.
I tried to get my brothers to go, but they wimped out early. I was set to go alone, when a buddy (eddie) i met ONCE from ADV NYC forum said he would go with me. He also got one of his buddies, Donny to come with us. I found one of the only open places around that allowed for drive up camping. My Harriman is a great website, and they had a little article on winter camping in the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation. It ended up being a great place that i would for sure go back to again, next time with more people. Each spot has its own reservable Lean To, with a max of 8 people allowed per site. A fire place in each lean to, and wide open land with great hiking available. Can't wait to take the wife and some friends there when it gets nice out.
The first thing i realized when finding our lean to is that having higher ground clearance is a huge plus. Eddie and Donny had to really be careful getting their bikes up the rocky and muddy hills to our spot. They did it, and it was great to watch. I felt really sure footed on my bike. It had the right ground clearance and the right Tires. Eddie has a touring bike, and Donny has a cruiser.
We arrived on site around 430pm and quickly built our tents as it got dark. Perfect timing. We then started building a fire by looking around for scattered wood. Around 6pm i decided i would just goto a local gas station and pick up a few bundles. Took me less then 15 minutes round trip, the station was closer then i thought.
We made some dinner, hung out, drank, talked, and kept the fire going. Being in the lean to was key. It started out around 50 degrees but by 10pm is was under 40F. The lean to was warm because of the fire, and kept the wind out. We didn't know eacht other, which was actually great. We had plenty to talk about. Donny is only 26, and never heard of most of the things eddie and I were talking about. That was interesting for me. I'm not going to say I'm old, but I'm obviously not young anymore.
Sleeping in the cold wasn't terrible. I had my Kelty Cosmic Down 21 bag, expedition weight thermals, and a sleeping bag liner. I was nice and toasty all night. The next morning, Donny was out by 630am to get back to his job while eddie and i slept in. I woke up around 830am and felt a little weird. I woke eddie up, which he was not happy about. He didn't sleep much all night. I didn't feel like making breakfast or coffee, my stomach felt really weird. I thought getting to a diner would make it all better. I got eddie ready to go, and all of a sudden my stomach was exploding. I ran to a local port o potty and.. well.. ill spare you the details but it came out of the bottom end. We then left to find something local, and came upon a dunkin donuts. Not even a minute in there, and i ran outside and started puking. Then i basically had my head on a table for the next 2 hours while eddie just hung around patiently like a champ, eating away at his marlboro packs. 2 hours later, i puked a little more, bright yellow bile. We finally headed back to camp, where i slept for another hour or two. I don't know what happened to me, but it wasn't good.
Eddie was really patient, and helped me pack of 80% of my camp. We packed up and headed back to brooklyn. I couldn't believe i made the ride home. So while it was anawesomely fun night, the next day was a nightmare. I don't regret a thing. I just wish i knew wtf happened to me the next day.
O well, new experiences, new places, new friends, id call that an adventure. Im looking forward to next years JMC.
