How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?

If I’m being completely honest, I try to be unplugged as much as possible. I don’t like Instagram or other social media, and I hardly ever even answer a text message. I like being in the company of others, spending time with them in person, out in the community. But I find the modern expectation of constant communication to be overwhelming, exhausting, and limiting. Thankfully much of the work I do is quiet, manual labor, kinkeeping, and my creative work: art, writing, gardening. I do my best to focus on less commitments so that I won’t burn out.

Camping in Montour Falls, NY

Speaking of unplugging, we spent last week camping in Montour Falls, NY and visited Watkins Glen State Park.

Hipcamp

The friends we camped with live in Brooklyn, and true to character they’re on top of the latest cool stuff. For example: hipcamp.com.

I hadn’t heard of it before, but it’s basically the Airbnb of campsites. Private property owners rent out their land for people to camp on. Each site is different. As someone who has done a lot of camping, this was so novel to me! Campsites often are overrun with a lot of large groups, and you’re lucky if it’s family friendly. (Or minority friendly, as we were unsure of at a campsite a few years ago—a story for another day.) This way, even if there were a few campsites on the property you didn’t risk a cacophonous evening listening to other party’s parties, loud radios cutting in and out, and drunken chatter by the campfire.

The campsite our friends chose was top notch—-it had its own private waterfall!!

The campsite was more primitive than we’re used to. For example, this was the shower:

It also had an outhouse rather than a flushing toilet. Our friends brought their own fancy little pop-up outhouse system, with a foldable toilet and plastic bags with congealing gel stuff, because they were concerned with the possible bugs involved in an outhouse. I later took a short walk and found that I preferred the outhouse. There were bugs down below, yes, but it was newly built and I found it more comfortable than all the plastic involved with the alternative.

It was fun relaxing and exploring the waterfall and creek, snacking, reading, and hanging out with our friends.

Watkins Glen State Park

It was a good thing we had our own personal waterfall back at the campsite, because Watkins Glen State Park was overwhelmed with visitors for the holiday weekend. It was Memorial Day, after all.

The crowds were dense at the beginning, but less so as we hiked on.

Painter James Hope was so inspired by the scenes of Watkins Glen that he moved there in 1872 to open a Gallery.

When I saw this painting, I thought of how it reminded me of the Hudson River School artists I learned about in Kaaterskill Falls. It turns out, he was likely motivated by a Hudson River School artist, Frederick Church!

Long before it brought in hoards of tourists, inspired 19th century artists, or was a flour mill in the 1700’s, Watkins Glen was home to the Seneca tribe.

More Fun in the Area

After the hike, we had a big lunch by the lake nearby and finished up with some locally made ice cream.

The following day, we kayaked and our friends went to a local winery.

I loved it out that way, I’ve been wanting to visit the area for years. One of these days I’ll head over to nearby Ithaca and check out the art museums!