People riding ATVs on Post Hill Road in the Sullivan County hamlet of Mountaindale discovered the remains of a human body on Friday, July 17, according to the Times Herald-Record: 

The remains of the body ... were so badly decomposed, all that was left was bones, according to Town of Fallsburg Supervisor Steve Vegliante. The sex of the remains was unknown, he said he was also told.

Authorities are refusing to say much about the discovery while they investigate, the paper reports.  

Above: Brisket, pulled pork, chicken and ribs at Catskill Mtn. BBQ in Grand Gorge. Photo by Julia Reischel.

Barbecue fans will drive long distances for their fix of smoked pork belly and brisket. Here’s where to get barbecue in the Catskills. 

The Tannersville version of AMERICAN GLORY BBQ (6033 Main St., Tannersville. 518-822-1234. americanglory.com) opened in August 2014, serving North Carolina-style pulled pork, brisket (chopped or sliced Texas style) and St. Louis-style ribs, all smoked over maple wood for hours.

Above: Ribs at American Glory BBQ in Tannersville. Photo courtesy of American Glory BBQ. 

Above: The Cannonsville Dam, looking upstream toward the Cannonsville Reservoir. The dam’s release chamber is a rock structure surrounded by a road on the righthand side of the image. Muddy water began flowing into the West Branch of the Delaware River downstream of the release chamber on July 8. Photo via the NYC DEP. 

After drilling caused a worrisome gush of muddy water downstream of the Cannonsville dam in Deposit on Wednesday, July 8, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is draining the Cannonsville Reservoir as a precaution while it makes repairs.

On July 8, contractors working for the DEP drilled several test borings into a rocky embankment about 50 yards south of the downstream base of the dam where a hydroelectric plant is slated to be built, according to DEP spokesman Adam Bosch and a series of press releases.

A black bear cub that got its head stuck in a plastic jar was freed by Greene County DEC conservation officers after a four-hour stakeout in the Catskills hamlet of Palenville on June 30.

The cub, stumbling blindly with its head stuck in a large opaque plastic jar, was spotted by residents and an electrician around 3 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30.

And the cub wasn’t alone.

“The mother came galloping through our yard,” said Gail Richards Dedrick, who lives on Palenville’s Maple Avenue. “I had seen the bear before, but I had never seen it move that quickly and determinedly.”

Above: The bear cub with a jar on its head. Photo by Gail Richards Dedrick. 

Just as the mother bear disappeared, a bear cub blundered into the yard from the other direction, Dedrick said.

“It was stumbling around, and you could hear it,” she said. “The bear was bumping into trees.”

Dedrick’s husband tried to free the bear himself, but the jar was stuck tight.

Above: Belleayre Beach at Pine Hill Lake in July 2014. Photo by Jonathan Garin.

In the Catskills, there’s a secret swimming hole in almost every town. (If you ask nicely, a local may point you in the right direction.) Here are a few of the best known publicly accessible swimming spots, from lifeguarded beaches to swimming pools to blue holes in the wilderness.

SWIMMING HOLES

BIG DEEP is a beloved woodsy swimming hole with a rope swing on the Saw Kill. East of town on Route 212 in Woodstock.

Above: Peekamoose Blue Hole. Photo by Tim Cox. 

PEEKAMOOSE BLUE HOLE, an icy cold, deep blue basin, is tucked into the woods near the border of Ulster and Sullivan counties. From Route 28A in West Shokan, go 10 miles southwest on County Road 42.