We're asking everyone to help cover costs for the weekend, including food, music, ice, clean up, and other miscellaneous stuff. Suggested amounts:
Here’s all the information you should need for the weekend.
For those choosing to camp, we think you made the right choice.
Come as early as Thursday evening, and plan to be headed out Sunday morning.
While we’ve got a fully equipped house here that we’ve spent way too much time renovating and operate as a full-time Airbnb, we’ll be asking everyone to camp and enjoy yourselves outside.
There will be at least one, maybe two tent cities on site. We’ll run electricity and some lights out to the areas. They’ll be big, open, mostly flat areas where tent location is first-come-first-serve. We highly encourage a comfy setup - air mattresses, string lights, a welcoming front porch… Some suggestions on what to bring to get set up right in tent city:
For those who want some privacy, really want to get into nature, or just love roughing it a bit more, there are no official sites set up in the woods, but there are several places I’ve looked at and thought “that could be a cool spot to set up 1-4 tents and have a good time!” If you go this route, a few things to note:
After our first date in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, I did one better than walking Emily home to her apartment on the edge of Red Hook, I showed her to my 1983 Chevy G20 Van, Vandalf, and brought her home in style. 10 years later she drove the first of many many hours out to Yellowstone for one of the greatest trips of our life in a rented RV. Big, chunky camping vehicles are one of life’s greatest treats.
There are some relatively affordable options to rent vans or RVs, especially if you find some folks to join you. Outdoorsy is like the airbnb of RVs, and there are several nearby that will, for a small fee, drop the RV off at our place and set it up before you get here, then pick it up after you leave. Or you can pick one up and drive it here yourself from Outdoorsy or your closest Cruise America.
Whether you own or are renting, just let us know and we can help coordinate a good place to park, potentially run electric to it, and live the dream.
Our house operates on a septic system and leach field. This means, unfortunately, that with the amount of people coming for the weekend, we’ll need to make use of outdoor toilets and limit use of the house bathrooms. Absolutely no showering inside, but we will have an outdoor shower up and running!
Dogs are welcome but have to be on leash or tethered and watched at all times! Our dog Finley would like to know in the RSVP if she'll be meeting any doggos so let us know.
For lunches and dinners we’ll have hot meals. Unless we end up with a huge guest list we won’t have professional catering, so let me know if you want to help out by owning a lunch or dinner or contributing in any other way.
We’ll have the drip coffee maker and bagel station going in the mornings.
We have a large propane grill and a charcoal weber kettle. While we’re ok with people using them, keep in mind we’ll have a lot of people eating and will be using them for group meals. Feel free to bring your own and set it up.
We have a kitchen but only plan to use it if you’ve cleared it with me, you’re prepping for a large group, and you’ve got a plan to clean it all up when you’re done.
Outside of mountain pies and smores, we’d like to discourage any cooking on the bonfires.
BYO drinks. We’ll have a limited number of panic Bud Lights / Coors Lights and seltzers in my panic fridge in the garage for when people totally panic, but BYO drinks.
There’s a Walmart Supercenter, Shoprite, Stewart’s and nice little farmer’s market called Barthel’s all within 15 minutes of the house. Stewart’s is the best bet for late night, it’s open until midnight.
There’s a few gems in town for dinner - recommend Gaby’s for Mexican, Marbella for Tapas, Tony & Nick’s for a sit down pizza, Dominick’s to take some pies to go.
There’s two options for lunch and breakfast sandwiches: Wilson’s is a fan favorite for anyone that’s ever come up here, especially their Reuben and Italian Hero. Note that it closes at 3pm Friday, 2pm Saturday, and is completely closed on Sunday. Really really good stuff.
Cohen’s is also fantastic, with all the classics plus great specials every day. Open til 5pm every day, including Sunday.
We don’t have an ice machine or a big party fridge, so every day we’ll make a run either to Walmart or Stewart’s and get enough ice to fill everyone’s coolers.
Please try to keep your trash to an absolute minimum, plastics are ruining our world. We will have trash and recycling bins available. Absolutely leave no trace on the property!
For those ready to enjoy a long weekend, come on up as early as Thursday afternoon to get yourself situated for camping, set up a hammock and relax, read a book, take a hike, hang with friends. We’ll still be prepping for the weekend and you could help us split wood, build the stage and put up signs.
If you’re coming up Friday, we recommend stopping at Market on Market in the Village of Ellenville on your way! It’s a classic upstate crafts and food market open from 3-7pm Fridays.
Sip and paint in the afternoon.
Live music in the evening.
Bonfire and outdoor movie at night.
Activities throughout the day, where champions will be crowned in various lawn games.
Pond swimming for the hot and bold.
Live music all day.
Bonfires and JBay’s EDM hour at night.
Please LEAVE NO TRACE! This property is our paradise, please keep it that way. Clean up after yourselves and plan to be on your way by noon.
393 Dowe
Rd.
Ellenville, NY
12428
The best way to get here is to drive. Try to car pool. That said, there are options if someone is willing to go grab you at a bus or train.
Metro-North and Amtrak go between NYC and Poughkeepsie. The train station is about an hour from the house. If you’re coming from the north, you could get off at Rhinecliff and it’s about the same distance.
There are buses running between Port Authority and Monticello relatively frequently (30+ minutes from the house) and one bus to Ellenville (15 minutes from the house) on Friday at 5:30. There’s no return bus from Ellenville over the weekend.
Cell service is not great at the property, but we do have great wifi that you can get when you’re near the house:
Network: MillHouse-guest
Password: mountain