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Hillside Wrestling Weekend VIII, July 2001

Click here to go directly to Hillside 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 or 2000 pages, or to the registration and general information page.

Click for Hillside Campground (Gibson), Pennsylvania Forecast

Click on one of the following links to jump to a particular section of this year’s page:

Riding There (NY & PA) | At Hillside: Wrestling and other photos from Hillside Campground |
End of Weekend and Ride Back.

This year’s route was from Mineola (Nassau County), NY, through Queens and Manhattan and the rest of the usual route through New Jersey and Pennsylvania. One-way mileage: 188.1 (298.76 km*), round trip 373.6 (595.4 km*) (*the km values are slightly less than the mileage/1.6093 because they were recorded on a separate unit [Cateye CC-5000] calibrated differently; the mileage was recorded on a Huret Multito).

Hillside 2001 -- the ride in

[Queensboro Bridge thumbnail]

  1. Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, soon after leaving for Hillside (c. mile 10).
  2. Gotta top up those waterbottles....
  3. New bikeway on Queensboro Bridge from Queens to Manhattan, NY (c. mile 20).
  4. For more pics of this area of Queens, check out the pics from 2000.
  5. U.S. 6 in the Poconos west of Hawley, PA (c. mile 125).
  6. U.S. 6 as above, tried unsuccessfully to get closeup of road sign.
  7. A peaceful park in Honesdale, PA, good place to fill up water bottles before next mountain pass at Waymart. Mile 142.4.
  8. Park in Honesdale, another view.
  9. Waymart, PA, just before final ascent to Moosic Mountain pass, near St. Tikhon’s monastery. Carbondale’s on the other side of the pass at the bottom, between this and the next mountain, and is shown in previous year’s photos (c. mile 149).
  10. Exit 219 (formerly exit 66) of I-81 at PA Rte. 848: stop to take a photo and Dave happens to arrive at the same time. We almost have a pavement match right there but decide to wait 3 more miles till Hillside. :-)
  11. That’s me at the same location (c. mile 185).

    At Hillside

    (Mile 188.1)

    [Sean match, thumbnail]

    Got to the camp office at 1:33 PM, Thursday July 19, 2001 (Bike’s 20 years old with a little over 136080.5 miles since buying it on July 19, 1981). After registering, I went to the wrestling Site 60 at 1:47 PM, had a bit to eat, set up my tent, and then hit the mats; there were about 47 wrestlers there already and plenty of opportunity for matches, so I spent the afternoon wrestling and didn’t even get to change out of the clothes I rode in on till evening -- I got razzed about my “190-mile socks” potentially constituting an unfair advantage if they smelled, but it was all in fun. Actually, this year I washed frequently with an acne soap and avoided the skin irritation which I had by the end of the weekend from all the sweaty friction on the mat. Also a certain dandruff shampoo is supposed to be good for this purpose. OK, enough with all that and on to the mat pics!

  12. Sean vs. Rich, on the freestyle mat.
  13. Rich gets a reversal on Sean.
  14. Bill and Dave.
  15. Mmmph -- where’s the ref?!
  16. Sean vs. Ed
  17. Ed vs. Sean
  18. When the going gets tough, throw in a little submission wrestling....
  19. Calvin vs. Scott.
  20. Another one from the same match.
  21. Scott vs. Ed.
  22. Keeping hydrated between matches.
  23. Another freestyle match,
  24. and another.

    Coaching session:

  25. Explaining the move;
  26. Gene showing how to do a crotch lift...
  27. ...done.

  28. Hanging out between matches at meal area.
  29. John and Sean.

    Pro Wrestling at Hillside 2001

    [pro thumbnail]

    Hillside draws wrestlers of diverse styles and backgrounds. Though most of the wrestlers at Hillside do freestyle/Olympic, collegiate or submission wrestling, there’s also a number of pro wrestlers who attend. In previous years there was either a pro mat or a shared pro and submission mat. This year for the first time, a pro wrestler came in from Minnesota and brought his pro ring with him. The sound effects from the ring reverberated through the mountains all weekend, and on Saturday night they put on a show. Click here to see the Dude vs. Bonecrusher match (courtesy of the Dude, who’d like the photographer to e-mail him.)

    Never tried it before? Well, step right up and he’ll show you the ropes.

  30. Stepping out onto the ring.
  31. Locking up.
  32. A little abuse on the ropes.
  33. Down on the canvas.

    More Hillside Pics

  34. By Friday, almost all the 145 wrestlers had arrived, and the campsite was filled with tents several rows deep.
  35. Another view of the tents.
  36. Time to eat. The freestyle tent is in the background.
  37. The front gate at Hillside.
  38. View from the front gate area.

End of the Weekend and the Ride Back

[Packing to leave, cropped thumbnail]

On Saturday night the Talent Show was held as in previous years. And once again, some of the wrestlers took a short break from wrestling to perform and cheer on the participants. Here, Freddy is displaying his operatic talent.

The guys at the pro ring also put on a show, which could be viewed at ringside or from above at site 60.

Packing up to go home -- the oil tent and a few other tents are still up, among a handful of other tents and the submission tent. The submission mats were available until Monday even though all the wrestling tents were removed. In the meantime, had another match with Ed on the main mats before we rolled them up, and then time for a photo with George.

This year there were a few other cyclists at camp; here’s Lew. We wrestled, hung out, rode up some of the hills at camp, and then down for the beginning of the ride back. Paused at Creek Road and Rte. 848 to take some photos; looking down Rte. 848 towards Gibson and looking up Rte. 848’s big hill towards I-81.

On Rte. 106 around Clifford, PA there’s a house with two mailboxes, one at a normal height and one much higher; it says AIR MAIL of course ;-). The weather was very hot, in the mid-to-high 90’s, but it “cooled off” by Honesdale, PA to “only” 93° F. Here's US 6 in the Delaware State Forest, near where I took the nighttime photos on the way in.

Stopped at a bike shop on Rte. 15 in Lake Hopatcong, NJ to buy a new rear tire; I knew it was worn before but now with the casing showing through, I figure it’s better to replace the tire now rather than wait 50 more miles till NYC. Here’s a picture of a (eponymous?) waterfall in Little Falls, NJ; there’s a similar one in nearby Paterson. The waterfalls mark the transition from the hilly and (farther to the west and northwest) mountainous areas to the coastal plain. From here to New York City, the terrain is mostly flat, sloping gradually down to sea level, until a steep hill up the Palisades just before NYC. There had been no rain on this trip except for some very light showers when leaving NY and now a brief thundershower in upper Manhattan. Went directly to the Center for Metro’s practice. The Center has been at a temporary location for three years during renovations, and it’s only returned to the original 13th Street location for a week. As you can see, the construction is far from finished, but we had a good practice there in Rm. 212 (we’ve since moved back to our original Rm. 412 which does not have any columns to get in the way). Afterwards a few of us had dinner at the Chelsea Gallery, then I went home.

Previous Hillside Wrestling Weekend pages: Hillside 1996 | 1997: Digest & Pictures | 1998 | 1999 | 2000
General Information about the next Hillside Wrestling Weekend | Home Page / Other Pictures

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Page created:   August   8, 2001
Last modified:  January 23, 2002