A six-to-eight week, carless, cabin-ish retreat in the US?
April 7, 2015 8:26 AM Subscribe
I have a chunk of work to do this summer that doesn't require me to stay where I live (in NYC). I'd like to sublet my apartment and find a place to stay for about a month and a half or more that's close to nature but has electricity and Internet access. Unfortunately, I don't own a car, which complicates things, and I'm floundering with options. I'd love any recommendations, experience, or advice about thinking through how to do this.
I really like mountains and forests (though I also like deserts and the sea!). I'm happy to travel (plane/bus/train) to get to a good spot. My fantasy is being able to AirBnB a place for a month or more, where it's a bit drier and cooler than NYC summer (the humidity melts my brain, which is part of why I'd like to get away and finish this project), where I can go on hikes and be wilderness-y while being close enough that I can tote groceries in by backpack and have Internet access (or at least reception for a mobile hotspot -- I'll mostly be shipping text and PDFs back and forth).
Does anyone have any thoughts as to where this might be? Thanks very much!
I really like mountains and forests (though I also like deserts and the sea!). I'm happy to travel (plane/bus/train) to get to a good spot. My fantasy is being able to AirBnB a place for a month or more, where it's a bit drier and cooler than NYC summer (the humidity melts my brain, which is part of why I'd like to get away and finish this project), where I can go on hikes and be wilderness-y while being close enough that I can tote groceries in by backpack and have Internet access (or at least reception for a mobile hotspot -- I'll mostly be shipping text and PDFs back and forth).
Does anyone have any thoughts as to where this might be? Thanks very much!
You say you don't have a car, but can you rent a car and drive? Or are you only considering entirely carless expeditions?
posted by charmedimsure at 8:43 AM on April 7, 2015
posted by charmedimsure at 8:43 AM on April 7, 2015
You can get to North Creek NY by train; if you get an airbnb right in town you can walk to groceries, restaurants, etc. as well as woods and mountains. A bike would give you much better access to different hikes, but there are a number within walking distance of "downtown," and the Hudson River is right there. (You can swim in it there!)
posted by metasarah at 8:58 AM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by metasarah at 8:58 AM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
You could take the Amtrak Adirondack line (gorgeous view along Lake Champlain if it's a nice day) up to the Adirondacks and find an airBnB somewhere up there. For $25 you can add a shuttle bus from Westport to Lake Placid to your Amtrak ticket, though you might have to call Amtrak rather than doing it over the web, I forget. Lake Placid has bike rental, lots of hiking, kayaking, etc.
posted by Wretch729 at 9:02 AM on April 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Wretch729 at 9:02 AM on April 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
Get on a bus and go to Ithaca, just 5 hours away. Summers there are lovely, and peaceful because all the undergrads leave town. There's lots of nature accessible by foot, bike, or public transit. You can swim in waterfalls, ponds or the lake. Lots of woods and hills.
posted by mareli at 10:12 AM on April 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by mareli at 10:12 AM on April 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
I spent a summer WWOOFing at Channel Rock on Cortes Island, BC. It's like a retreat and garden, surrounding by Pacific Northwest forest, delicious food. I worked five hours a day, five days a week (which I usually tried to knock out between 7 AM and noon) doing gardening and spent the rest of my time hiking around and writing. It was an incredible experience - a beautiful island with thick, fat temperate rainforest trees, gorgeous BC summer weather (no rain, sunny), sea otters and sometimes even the howls of wolves at night. There's a small but strong community of weirdos and beardos on the island who are super friendly. The place has internet and electricity, and though I slept in a tent that summer, I think there were also some buildings where guests stayed. It's on the ocean and they have a small five(?)-person motor boat.
Getting there is actually not that hard. It'll take time and it'll involve a lot of hitchhiking, but it won't be too bad. Cortes Island has it's own website and you'll commonly see posts for rides. I'd recommend flying into Vancouver and posting something like, "Looking for ride from Vancouver to Cortes" - someone will likely reply. Otherwise, I'd just try to get rides to the various ferries and find rides there (you have to ferry from BC to Vancouver Island, drive up the island, go from Vancouver Island to Quadra Island, and then Quadra to Cortes).
posted by mrmanvir at 12:31 PM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Getting there is actually not that hard. It'll take time and it'll involve a lot of hitchhiking, but it won't be too bad. Cortes Island has it's own website and you'll commonly see posts for rides. I'd recommend flying into Vancouver and posting something like, "Looking for ride from Vancouver to Cortes" - someone will likely reply. Otherwise, I'd just try to get rides to the various ferries and find rides there (you have to ferry from BC to Vancouver Island, drive up the island, go from Vancouver Island to Quadra Island, and then Quadra to Cortes).
posted by mrmanvir at 12:31 PM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Port Aransas, Texas is a very small town and quite walkable. IIRC, it is the windiest area in the continental U.S. That really takes a lot of the bite out of the coastal humidity. It is in that zone where it doesn't get super hot in summer nor super cold in winter. Port A Weather Linky.
It is possible to camp on the beach, though I don't think you can do it for six weeks. (Camped on the beach, we had free wifi.) They do have a lot of rentals because it is very much a tourist destination. The permanent population is below 4000 residents. With a town that small, you typically do not have a grocery store, but they have a very good grocery store because they have several thousand snow birds that plump up the population for part of the year and they also get weekend visitors that can cause the population to temporarily explode to estimates of as much as 60k people there.
So, when I was there, the grocery store was open from 6am to midnight and, although small, it had a decent selection of food. There are also restaurants and eateries. They seem to split between high end food and little dives. There doesn't seem to be much middle class fare there. It being an island in the Gulf of Mexico, the eateries skew strongly towards sea food. If, like me, you can't do much in the way of sea food, that can rapidly become a problem.
There is also a local bus if you don't want to have to walk everywhere. I never took it, but their site says it is only a quarter and can be flagged down anywhere along the route. Linky.
You can find wilderness hiking opportunities nearby: Trails
posted by Michele in California at 12:48 PM on April 7, 2015
It is possible to camp on the beach, though I don't think you can do it for six weeks. (Camped on the beach, we had free wifi.) They do have a lot of rentals because it is very much a tourist destination. The permanent population is below 4000 residents. With a town that small, you typically do not have a grocery store, but they have a very good grocery store because they have several thousand snow birds that plump up the population for part of the year and they also get weekend visitors that can cause the population to temporarily explode to estimates of as much as 60k people there.
So, when I was there, the grocery store was open from 6am to midnight and, although small, it had a decent selection of food. There are also restaurants and eateries. They seem to split between high end food and little dives. There doesn't seem to be much middle class fare there. It being an island in the Gulf of Mexico, the eateries skew strongly towards sea food. If, like me, you can't do much in the way of sea food, that can rapidly become a problem.
There is also a local bus if you don't want to have to walk everywhere. I never took it, but their site says it is only a quarter and can be flagged down anywhere along the route. Linky.
You can find wilderness hiking opportunities nearby: Trails
posted by Michele in California at 12:48 PM on April 7, 2015
If you have an interest in Southeast Alaska, check your MeMail for some thoughts on this region.
You could do worse than a summer of 60-65 degree average temps and fantastic hiking and boating opportunities in a small, friendly, walkable community.
posted by Nerd of the North at 4:50 PM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
You could do worse than a summer of 60-65 degree average temps and fantastic hiking and boating opportunities in a small, friendly, walkable community.
posted by Nerd of the North at 4:50 PM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks so much for the fantastic and thoughtful suggestions, everyone! Weighing options and budget now, complicated by the fact that I kind of want to spend time in every place mentioned here. Perhaps I can do so over multiple years ...
posted by deathmarch to epistemic closure at 5:37 PM on April 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by deathmarch to epistemic closure at 5:37 PM on April 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
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Otherwise, I'd suggest that you might also enjoy a coastal town in California like Santa Cruz (near the beach, mountains, redwoods, etc., and possible to navigate with a bike or on foot).
posted by three_red_balloons at 8:32 AM on April 7, 2015 [3 favorites]