A special place:  Native Americans, namely the Esopus Tribe of Lenape Indians, first roamed the Big Indian-Oliverea Valley, headwaters of a famous trout stream.  In fact the word “Shandaken” is a Native American derivative that means “rapid waters”.  Also local legend--- as recalled in Richard Lionel De Lisser's Picturesque Ulster--- has it that a young Indian girl “of rare beauty named Tawasenta”, meaning Blossoms of Spring, fell to her death from a falls that still bears her name--- Blossom Falls, not far from this place.

In his 1918 classic, The Catskills, T. Morris Longstreth wrote the following about this valley, “Big Injin is the birth-dale of the Esopus, which conjures to my mind pictures equal in charm to those brought back by the mention of the Rondout, the Neversink, and the Schoharie.  Always there was some glimpse of the creek hurrying around the corner.  Instead of the Mountains of the Sky, the Indians might have called the country the Land of Little Rivers, for down each glen sprang some brook to join the bright Esopus. … I could not help exclaiming about their beauty, so intangible, so unpicturable.”

The setting on the upper reaches of the Esopus Creek remains home to wild brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis.  This place is still special, and someday my ashes will be spread here to be among the wild brook trout and spirit of Tawasenta.

A Special Place, 11x14 (NFS):

The fiftieth state:  Sunrise on a Hawaiian beach.

Lanikai Beach, Hawaii 12x16 (SOLD):

Turning back time on the Neversink:  There’s at least one Catskill stream where time stands still, if not goes backwards as you wander it, perhaps in pursuit of wild brook trout.  It’s the upper Neversink, actually both branches of this legendary trout water.

One still might be able to find footprints of John Burroughs along the West Branch.  In his essay A Bed of Boughs Burroughs wrote, “It was nearly noon when we struck the West Branch, and the sun was scalding hot.  … The scene was primitive, and carried one back to the days of his grandfather…”

Burroughs Neversink, depicted below can be found somewhere upstream of Frost Valley but downstream of the shadows of Slide Mountain.

Burroughs, West Branch Neversink 11x14 (Sold):

Burroughs was no stranger to the East Branch either.  He wrote this about the twin sister, “The prospect for trout was so good in the stream hereabouts, and the scene so peaceful and inviting, shone upon by the dreamy August sun, that we concluded to tarry here until the next day.  It was a page of pioneer history opened to quite unexpectedly.”  From personal experience, not much has changed here all these decades later.

Tison waters, East Branch Neversink, 11x14: 

The dock: Is there anything so inviting as a wooden dock in a summer sun?  Our grandchildren have caught many fish here.

Wittenberg dock, Kenneth Wilson SP, 8X6:

Budapest Hotel:  Portrayed elsewhere in this blog are two landscapes of the former Budapest Hotel Public Fishing Waters (PFR) along the Esopus Creek.  For some background information, the viewer needs to do a little scrolling, but for now below is:

Budapest Hotel III PFR, 11x14:

Catskill barns:  Is there anything more Catskill than old dairy barns, especially those found in and around the fringes of Delaware County?

Roxbury barn, 14x11:

Rider Hollow barn, 11x14 (SOLD):

Esopus Creek:  Big Bend pool is one of the last pools on the Esopus Creek before this legendary trout stream enters New York City’s mighty Ashokan Reservoir.  Big Bend has long been a favorite fishing spot of many anglers including the late Arnold Gingrich who, in the Well-Tempered Angler, wrote, “…favored stretches, such as the Esopus, from Five Arch Bridge down to the Chimney Hole….”

Big Bend is located on New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) property just downstream of Five Arch Bridge.  Access can also be gained via Gate W-10 diagonally across NY 28 from the Boiceville Inn.  Approaching this way one is treated to an iconic view overlooking the Esopus Creek valley, an image that has graced the cover of various publications including the “2013 Annual Report” of Open Space Institute and a March 2015 NYSERDA Report Number 15-08 titled “Effects of an Extreme Flood on Aquatic Biota in a Catskill Mountain River" pictured just below.

Perhaps someday soon, a proposed Rail Trail will traverse this high bank providing its users the views only a limited number of anglers now enjoy.

Big Bend Pool, 11x14: