Slide Mountain Wilderness – Mt. Wittenberg

Trail Map – official, I used map 143 of the NY NJ Trail Conference

Hike Distance – 7.61 miles

Trails – Wittenberg-Cornell-Slide Trail (red), also known as the Burroughs Range Trail.

Montain – Mt. Wittenberg

My Map:

I started this hike from the Woodland Valley Campground and Day Use area. It cost $6 to park in the lot for the day. The bigger bonus is, I found a place to camp so I can climb some of the other mountains and not have to drive back the same day. That was brutal.

I got to the parking lot a little before 9, paid my fee, and headed up. Right away, this trail heads up. Here’s a shot of the trail leading up to the trail register.

The trail is like that most of the way up. There are some “flatter” sections, but they are only long enough for you to catch your breath and get ready for the next climb.

Here’s a shot of an obscured viewpoint, it’s probably much nicer in the late fall, winter, and early spring.

There are a couple of smaller scrambles before the fun really begins.

The trail junctions with the yellow blazed Terrace Mountain trail, which heads to Terrace Mountain and the lean-to. The next junction is with the blue-blazed Phonecia East Branch trail.

After this the fun begins. I probably should have stowed my poles, as there are numerous spots where you need both hands. And don’t look down.

One of my favorite signs in the Catskills.

Reaching the top gives you a huge view looking mostly southeast. The large body of water is the Ashokan Reservoir. Here are three pictures looking left to right.

It was gorgeous up top, around 75 degrees. And it was fairly crowded.

There were two sections coming up that were kind of tricky, and I had been thinking of them the entire time at the top. So, I headed back down. And blew right through those two sections. Here’s a look at one of them. Once you get behind the tree, the trail goes right, and it’s a pretty steep drop off the trail.