[TL;DR – It has been a couple of weeks since I have gotten out. I felt it on the steep sections. Walking by the brook is very picturesque. The view at the top isn’t the best, even on a sunny day; there are too many trees blocking the view. Because it rained the night before the trail was plenty wet in spots and there were mushrooms all over.]
I hadn’t been out in a while, and I probably should have done a warm-up hike somewhere to get back into hiking shape – I felt it on the steep section. I parked in the Kanape Brook parking lot and walked across the street to start the climb up. Right across from the trail register is a great place to see the brook.
The climb from this point is fairly gradual, but very rocky in some spots.
Cucumber Root
Part way up you will come to a coniferous section that is fairly close to the brook. I saw some trees down that had all the hallmarks of beaver activity. This section was also without many rocks.
Many of the stream crossings were simple rock hops. There is one section where you have to cross Kanape Brook. The “bridge” is fairly stable.
Due to the rain the night before, the mushrooms were out in all their glory.
Yellow Tipped Coral FungusViscid Violet Cort
After you cross the brook, you will start more seriously climbing. After a left turn, you can say goodbye to the flat sections. The trail climbs steeply to the summit. There are “stairs” in a couple of sections, but they are definitely not in the best of shape as they were put in many years ago. Here’s a shot of one section.
I had the summit to myself for a short time. The view (while hazy and somewhat blocked) was gorgeous. Unfortunately, from this location you cannot see the reservoir.
Summit marker
The way down was much quicker, though not without its challenges. Rocks and roots were still wet from the night before.
BlusherAmanita – I’m pretty sure this is Eastern Destroying Angel
Here’s another shot of the coniferous section on the way down.
Here are two Brittlegills (late in the day) in front of some Ghost Pipes. The Ghost Pipes were popping up everywhere.
One final note, some sites mention that there are many yellow jacket and wasp nests on Ashokan. I will say that for my entire climb and return I saw (and heard) no bees. At the top, there were a bunch of black flies, and some honeybees pollinating the wild flowers that were growing. Mosquitoes abounded in the wet areas.
Weather and multiple trips to Michigan have conspired to keep me from getting out as much as I would like. I’ve had a bunch of hikes planned for the weeks where I was not travelling, but weather has been crazy wet around here cancelling everything. It has been a wet and cold spring; which probably doesn’t bode well for the summer. So, WHERE have I been in the last three months?
I was thrilled to snowshoe in the Catskills, enough so that I got a pair. Of course, that just ensured we wouldn’t see snow for the rest of the winter. I used snowshoes on Red Hill Mountain as part of the County Park System’s / New York State’s Firetower challenge. It was definitely a blast, and has changed my perspective on winter hiking completely. Here are two shots from Red Hill:
A couple of weeks later I climbed Slide Mountain in the Catskills. While I was hoping to snowshoe, we only needed microspikes. What a great day, with great weather, and great views.
Including my favorite sign in the Catskills:
The week after Slide Mountain I traveled with the Park System (again) to Katterskill Falls. This was a great hike, but Katterskill Park just gets too crowded for my taste. The falls were awesome, as were parts of the Escarpment Trail that we hiked. But there were just too many people.
Almost a month later, I traveled to the Millbrook area in order to hike some trails, hike Van Campens Glen, and see Millbrook village. The village was neat. Van Campens Glen and the falls were neat. But stay away from both the Pioneer Trail and the Hamilton Ridge trail. Both trails are massively overgrown, and I stopped counting how many ticks I pulled off at 20. Further, the Watergate area is STILL closed, which means a long road walk back to your car if you parked at the village.
Yesterday, I saw another bear in Harriman, just before the rains came down (again.) No pictures because it happened so fast.
I’m hoping for better weather in the future so I can get out more.
Trail Map – from the site, I used the NY NJ Trail conference map
Hike Distance: 6.19 miles
Trails: Red (Phoenicia?)
Mountain: Mt. Tremper
My map:
This was hike 1 with the Monmouth County Park Systems on their Fire Tower Challenge. They are running trips to see the six fire towers in the lower Catskills. The challenge description can be found here. While there are five towers on top of mountains, a sixth is right next to the visitor’s center which we drove right by. I suppose, if you live in the area, this is not that bad. Coming from the Jersey shore, this is a bit of a drive, and makes the challenge more interesting. There are trips all throughout the year. Trip 1 was to Mt. Tremper and the visitor center.
The Catskills got snow on Wednesday and Thursday before our trip. The weather called for sun in the morning, with partial clouds in the afternoon. Fortunately, that didn’t happen; it was sunny all day. However, this would be a microspikes day – up and down in microspikes. And, we had snowshoes strapped to our packs. That wasn’t a problem for me, I was testing a new pack. It actually came last Saturday, but I was already out and it was too late to use. I’ll review it down the road after a few more trips. The bottom of the mountain was mostly snow and ice and microspikes definitely helped. As we got higher on the mountain there was more snow – we estimated about eight inches at the top. I never used the snowshoes – I should have, I don’t know when I’ll get the chance again.
Zoom in on the picture of the kiosk. At the lower left you’ll see a warning about timber rattlesnakes. Supposedly, around the 1450 mark there is a quarry to the left of the trail housing a den of almost 100 timber rattlesnakes. During warmer times, the snakes are out on the rocks and trail sunning themselves. Obviously, at this time of year, we didn’t see any. Maybe I’ll come back to check that out.
Mt. Tremper from the Catskills Visitor Center
This would be a relatively easy walk up. The trail follows an old Jeep road up the mountain. There were a couple of steep sections, but not for too long. At the top, with more snow; the snow covered all the rocks we would have had to deal with. Because of the snow we basically walked up a hill. On the way down, the temperatures warmed up to the high 40s and the snow became much softer. The bottom of the mountain became a mud puddle.
Heading up
The higher we ascended, the more snow we found and the less ice.
Before reaching the top, at around 1.8 miles, you will come to the Baldwin shelter (and privy.) Just above the shelter is a spring that had a lot of water running through. At the top of the mountain, you will find another shelter. From there it’s about 250 feet to the tower.
As I am not one to climb towers, here’s a view from the first landing.
Here’s what the tower looks like.
There wasn’t much of a view from the top of the mountain, even with the leaves down. I heard from our group that the view was much better all the way at the top of the tower; but the trees are almost as high as the tower.
We made quick work of the descent. I was able to grab a few more pictures. I took pictures through the trees while the leaves were down. I suspect that during the spring and summer, you can’t see much.
While I took a picture of these rocks due to the ice, I think the snake den would be a little above this (towards the right.) Our trip leader mentioned it on the way up.
Life: None, it was too snowy. Not even any tracks.
There will not be a lot of pictures for this one. This was another great hike with the Monmouth County Park System. There are not many pictures due to: the quick pace that we moved at, and the unrelenting uphill for the first part of the hike. In my map, we started at the upper left. The first 1.3 miles was uphill at a steep grade. You can see that in how many contour lines we crossed, and how close together those lines are.
I’ve listed two mileages for the hike distance. According to the hike leader (and the NY/NJ Trail conference map, the route we hiked was 7.4 miles. I added up all the distances listed and came up with 7.4 miles. However, my GPS track showed 6.6 miles, and lines up with other sites on the internet, including this one (see the Notch Lake description.) I get that different GPS apps can arrive at different totals. But how can GPS differ so significantly from the maps? Anyone with information, please leave an answer in the comments. All summer I have been baking off AllTrails and Gaia and have seen wildly different results.
The first picture comes from the first viewpoint, Orchard Point, atop the brutal climb from Notch Lake and Devil’s Tombstone Campground. That climb is STEEEEP and LOOOOONG. It is well worth the rest at the viewpoint. And for my money, this was the best view of the day. After scrambling up the rock, or climbing around it, the view you will see looks off towards Hunter Mountain. It’s my favorite as there is nothing but trees and mountains.
From here to the summit is a ridge walk. There might be 100 feet in elevation gain for the next two plus miles. A typical view looks like:
We stopped for lunch two tenths of a mile past the summit at an over look that looks at Sugarloaf Mountain.
After lunch, it was back on the ridge retracing our steps.
We got back to Orchard Point overlook and rested for a few minutes before we started that steep descent back down.
Here’s a picture of the rock at the overlook. On the way up, I went around it, since there was a nice trail there. Going down, I shimmied down the rock. It was much easier down than up; and I suppose if you are taller, it might be easier going up.
Back at the parking lot I took a couple of shots of Notch Lake.
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.
Artist Bracket
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.
Once past the two trail junctions from before, it was smooth sailing all the way down.
Fortunately, the trail went around this rock.
Leaves are definitely down early this year.
Crossing the bridge back to the campground.
It was only .8 miles to Cornell. Maybe I’ll try it from Slide.
Trails – Blue, Yellow (multiple – these appeared to be spurs to the falls,) Red
My Map –
A couple of notes:
This was another great trip with the Monmouth County Parks System. We did not do the full Red Trail loop, we did go to the falls though.
I’m in the process of baking off AllTrails vs. Gaia. I would have included the Gaia map, but we drove off before I stopped recording. And I didn’t figure out how to edit it until later. I’m on the fence with Gaia, because of ambiguity with its elevation gain statistic.
Finally, I don’t have as many pictures as I normally would. In fairness, this was a trip specifically geared to seeing the falls. I was surprised that there were not many other “views.” Most of the Blue trail is one big Rhododendron tunnel…which will really be nice in a month or so.
Our shuttle bus got one of the last (legal) spots in the parking lot. Also in the parking lot were a group that was performing trail maintenance in certain areas, notably they were fixing one water crossing. The Blue trail is mostly wide with some rocks, but not unbearable. There are A LOT of Rhododendrons.
Mixed in with the hardwood trees are numerous pine groves.
The area recently had much rain, and believe it or not, snow the week before. The trails were dry, for the most part, with only a couple of areas of either really soft mud, or outright flooding. The rain, though, provided extra water for streams and creeks; and meant that the falls would have a good amount of water flowing over them.
First stop would be Denton Falls, on the Neversink River, a short spur trail (Yellow) off the Blue Trail, which I’ve seen named on maps (only) as the Highland Falls trail.
We only stopped briefly to have a quick snack. Interesting for this hike, we had to hike DOWN to see two of the three falls, so most of our climbs were to come back to the Blue Trail.
To get to the second falls, we followed the Blue trail south and went over a large hill or small mountain. Another spur trail (Yellow) took us to High Falls. And to get to where we would eat lunch, we had to scramble over some rocks at water’s edge. It reminded me of Giant Stairs, though much much smaller. But, in scrambling, we were able to sit on rocks that jut out into the water and had a great view of the falls.
Here’s a shot of the cliff that was behind the rocks we sat on.
The Blue trail had a bunch of water crossings, some more fun than others. In one crossing, we found ourselves walking OVER the water, it was gurgling beneath us, and we could see it looking into sink holes that had evolved over time.
A pretty typical view of the Blue trail:
On our way to the third falls we passed a tree that I did not remember seeing before lunch, and I feel like I wouldn’t have missed it. Besides the mushrooms growing off it, a pileated woodpecker had really done a number on the tree. And curiously, he went AROUND all the mushrooms.
On our way back we made a right on the Red Trail (Mullet Loop Trail) and were on the trail for about one hundred yards before we turned left onto another spur trail (Yellow). This took us to Mullet Falls, fed by the Mullet Brook. Of the three, this was my favorite; probably because it was so much higher. We stayed here for a few minutes to eat and take some pictures.
After that, it was back to the Blue Trail, and back to the car.
This was a really nice area of the southern Catskills to hike. Interestingly, it was less than twenty miles from where I went to scout camp as a kid. This trip was specifically designed to see the falls, there were no other views to speak of. The trail is mostly flat except for going over the mountain and descending to see the falls. I highly recommend this hike to see the falls. Spring was great to see the water, I bet Fall is great with the colors out.
One final note: You’ll notice in my picture of the trail kiosk a sign alerting hikers that there is no cell signal and not to rely on phones for navigation. It is true, we all lost signal quickly. However, all of our GPS’s seemed to work fine.
Trails: Devil’s Path (red), Jimmy Dolan Notch Trail (blue)
Mountain: Indian Head Mountain (3564 feet)
My Map:
(A note on my map. My phone died last week, literally right after returning from Wawayanda – I blame the mosquitoes.) So, I had to get a new phone, and I couldn’t get AllTrails running properly for almost the first mile and a half. We started at the black dot up top – so, what’s missing is the portion of the Devil’s Path up to the green dot. To see the complete map, try here. The maps differ because we took a small spur trail into Jimmy Dolan Notch for the view.)
This is the trip I’ve been waiting for all Summer – at least since August when I signed up. This trip was run out of the Monmouth County Parks System, which meant that seven us rode with two trip guides up to the Catskills, in New York. For once, I would not have to drive back, and at this distance; I’m glad. Andrew and John did a fantastic job running this trip for the Parks System, both in choosing the site and route, and keeping us moving. You will not see as many pictures on this trip, mostly because we moved at a brisk pace. I did get to take pictures of some views, and some of the flora, but mostly on the way down.
From the get-go, I couldn’t get AllTrails to work on the new phone, which meant that John, the back guide, and I were separated from the group. A quarter of a mile in, we came to the first junction, and without the rest of the group waiting, we chose wrong and headed up the Jimmy Dolan Notch Trail. After rock hopping the stream, we came to a hiker coming down who said he did NOT pass a party of seven. Back we went to the junction, to find Andrew waiting for us. Reunited, our group headed up the Devil’s path – which was really quite quaint here. The path was wide, slowly ascending, but seriously muddy. For almost the whole trip, water ran down the trails; sometimes pretty quickly, and at one point, we literally walked through small waterfalls. Those with waterproof boots trudged on through. My boots are vented, and honestly, I only noticed the water once.
The Devil’s Path intersects with the Long Path for about 100 feet, and then turns right away from the Long Path. Say goodbye to gently ascending terrain, from here up to the ridge it’s scramble after scramble – both roots and rocks. I don’t mind scrambling, some is really fun. What made this difficult was the constant water running off the rocks. And the grade. The map says it’s a mile and quarter from the junction to the first viewpoint. And it’s pretty strenuous and near vertical at points.
After climbing around this rock, the trail reaches the first viewpoint, and in my opinion, offered the best views of the day. This viewpoint, labeled Sherman’s Viewpoint on the map, offered more than 180 degree views, and had some rocks to sit on.
Two pictures…one looking towards the left, and one towards the right.
There was some discussion on eating here, but we still had one more serious climb before reaching the summit – so we decided to put off lunch until later. A wise choice.
One particular fun puzzle is the rock chimney just before the second viewpoint. You’ll know it when you reach it, and the viewpoint is right at the top. This chimney was a large rock, with footholds in the face. You had to pull yourself up using the tree roots on the side. Yes, it was fun. If it had been much higher that might have been a different story. I couldn’t really get a picture as I was in the middle of the group and didn’t want to hold people up. So, I snaked this picture from www.hikethehudsonvalley.com.
The picture doesn’t really do it justice – it’s more vertical that it looks.
From the top of the viewpoint:
And that would be the end of the real serious climbing. There would be a couple more smaller scrambles, but nothing to really write home about. Once on the ridge it was absolutely gorgeous – with temperatures in the low 70s and abundant sun. Further, at over 3500 feet, we were in a hemlock and balsam forest, and it smelled great.
At one point we had to navigate cracks in a big rock in order to reach the summit. Here’s a picture of the rock face, we kind of dog legged it around back then up to the top.
We stopped for lunch on some rocks – very near to the actual summit. The rocks are a false summit, the actual summit is about 50 feet down the trail.
After eating I scouted around the top and found Bolettes in interesting locations.
After we finished eating, we continued west on the Devil’s Path into the col between Indian Head Mountain and Twin Mountain. There was one interesting chute to descend, and we were passed by a couple and their dog – who probably did the chute easier than I did.
We made a left at the junction of the Jimmy Dolan Notch Trail to see the view from Jimmy Dolan Notch. This is the last view before the descent.
And the descent was made tricky by the constantly flowing water down the trail. Rocks were not just slippery, but outright treacherous in some spots. Everyone made it back in good time and with no accidents. Certainly, it was a challenging trip, but well worth it. The Catskills looked awesome, and further trips are necessary in the future.
