What happened over the winter + new bld

[gunx]

What the heck happened on the ridge over the winter? There are more downed trees around lake Minnewaska than I've ever seen in my ten years of hiking here. It isn't nearly as bad at either Castle or Hamilton point. I haven't been out to Gertrudes yet this year. I had business in another state and missed most of January and February, so I assume something happened then.

Lastly, what is the new structure being built near the port a potties near the swimming area?

Thanks...

[Ridge70]

Just went up to Minnewaska 2 weeks ago and couldn't believe the amount of downed trees. Haven't seen that many in the 6 or 7 years I've been going. I also notice a lot over at Sams Point in the wooded areas of the Verkeerderkill trail.

I guess we had a lot of ice and mix this year although I thought last year was worse. Such a shame to see all those old trees down.

[Joe DeFalco]

The new structure you saw will be bathrooms.

[HIKER]

I was up there a few times this winter just after some of the storms we had. There was a significant amount of ice built up on the trees and combined with the wind made for a bad situation in the vicinity of Lake Minnewaska and Awosting Falls. I remember one day walking around the lake and everything was one sheet of ice - what usually takes me only 30 minutes took me about two and a half hours that day. As others have posted, the new building by the lake is going to be bathrooms, probably similiar to those on Lake Awosting. Also, there's a new building going up in the lower parking lot as well - more bathrooms. I have some winter pics I tried to post but there seems to be a problem uploading pics to this site.

[Guest]

My wife and I were up at the lake yesterday. The new bathroom building is really cool! We spoke to the guy in charge of building it and he told us it had a photo voltaic array on the roof and was making its own electricity for lights and fans and had state of the art new clivus systems inside. He also told us it has 2 changing rooms as well! Its a really cool looking building..