Check out the interview with guide John Polemis in the online edition of Hudson Valley Magazine! Go on a Self-Care Retreat in a Hudson Valley Forest

While not a prime candidate for forest therapy walks (although I’d accept the challenge for a private session on it!) this may be good to know for the more strenuous hikers in our community. While construction plans for the area nestled between Beacon and Cold Spring are being finalized the trail will remain open for the remainder of the year, to officially begin in early 2019. Besides a new welcome center, planned improvements will include a new twelve-foot wide bike and pedestrian trail between the trailhead and the Metro-North pedestrian walkway, making the trek to the trails in the area much, MUCH safer. Also planned is parallel parking and designated…

I’ll be in the city Friday, July 20th scouting out spots for forest therapy walks so decided to open the event to our NYC meetup. The plan is to do a forest therapy run through in one of these spots. The Meetup event can be found here: Scouting and trial forest therapy run at Fort Tryon park Friday, Jul 20, 2018, 10:00 AM Entrance of Fort Tryon ParkFort Tryon Park New York, NY 3 Members Attending This is technically intended for me to scout out places to do forest therapy but I think it would be nice to open it up to the group since 1) it is a nice…

Alas the weather forecast has been increasingly getting worse and now shows thunderstorm risk all morning. There will be a walk at same location next weekend.  Check the Hudson Valley meetup group for details.

Technically I was only planning to scout out Black Creek Preserve in Esopus to plan a session here but since I am already bringing a member and doing a full run through of a hybrid hike with forest therapy I may as well open it up to a few others. Just keep in mind I am getting a feel for how to make this all flow so I will be winging this a bit more than usual. Still, it’s a nice walk that leads to the Hudson River, and lots of hemlocks – my favorite tree – so let’s enjoy it! ***There will be hiking – it is considered a relatively…

Time to get things started. Our first Forest Therapy walk in the Hudson Valley area is a 10 minute drive from Cold Spring NY. This is the first official public walk! I’m both nervous and excited since I normally host these events privately. As the first event I am keeping it to an optional donation of $10. What would be really appreciated is your feedback (what worked, what did not work) since I am always looking to improve. RSVP here

While it can use some formatting tweaks, the website is now live and we will begin opening walks to the public later in July after a few more trial runs to smooth out the flow. https://hudsonvalleyforesttherapy.com

I am so excited about the idea of making this service available to the public.  Over the years I have enjoyed offering private walks and hikes. There is so much to experience and it has brought me much joy! Meetup groups are done and gaining members. This site is almost ready to formally announce, and the new program I have been developing just needs a few run-throughs to ensure the flow is natural and inviting.