kmorgan
Active member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2006
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A group of us Long Islander's headed up for a hike with Marguerite ("Itty Bitty") from the 3500 Club.
I was up at 3 a.m. checking the weather forecasts and it looked iffy. Weather in the Catskills was showing heavy rain and thunderstorms but it was supposed to lighten up and then only about a 60% chance of passing showers so I decided that since it wasn't raining here on the Island I'd take a chance.
The weather was still cooperating when our group met up to car pool from LIE exit 32, though we did start getting some rain on the way up. Nothing too heavy and by the time we reached exit 19 on Rte. 87 the rain had stopped and there were brief views of blue skies.
The rest of the day was more than we could have asked for. It didn't rain once on us even though the sun was in and out of the clouds all day long.
The trail up to Balsam Lake was very river like in spots, with water several inches deep in spots. We quickly reached the summit and soon were chatting with Tom and Laurie Rankin. It was great meeting Tom and Laurie who told us of the history of the fire tower and cabin(s).
After about an hour of lunch and conversation we said our goodbye's and headed off for Graham.
The "trail" up to Graham (technically a bushwhack, but there's a trail of sorts from the days of logging and maintenance of the transmitter tower, now unused, at the summit) was quite overgrown with considerable blow down, though nothing too hard to get around. Nettles were only a problem for those of us hiking in shorts, but they were only in a few spots and really not too bad.
Much of the "trail" was soggy from all the rain, and the various streamlets running along the forest floor. Our biggest hazard were all the slippery rocks.
I was most impressed by the density of the brush. I couldn't imagine how hard it would be trying to do this bushwhack as a "real" bushwhack.
We took a break on the summit to dry out our boots and socks and have snack of all the raspberries growing up there.
The hike out was uneventful and we reached our car in what seemed like no time at all and were soon back in the town of Phoenicia for a quick pizza dinner and then back on the road for Long Island.
Kevin
I was up at 3 a.m. checking the weather forecasts and it looked iffy. Weather in the Catskills was showing heavy rain and thunderstorms but it was supposed to lighten up and then only about a 60% chance of passing showers so I decided that since it wasn't raining here on the Island I'd take a chance.
The weather was still cooperating when our group met up to car pool from LIE exit 32, though we did start getting some rain on the way up. Nothing too heavy and by the time we reached exit 19 on Rte. 87 the rain had stopped and there were brief views of blue skies.
The rest of the day was more than we could have asked for. It didn't rain once on us even though the sun was in and out of the clouds all day long.
The trail up to Balsam Lake was very river like in spots, with water several inches deep in spots. We quickly reached the summit and soon were chatting with Tom and Laurie Rankin. It was great meeting Tom and Laurie who told us of the history of the fire tower and cabin(s).
After about an hour of lunch and conversation we said our goodbye's and headed off for Graham.
The "trail" up to Graham (technically a bushwhack, but there's a trail of sorts from the days of logging and maintenance of the transmitter tower, now unused, at the summit) was quite overgrown with considerable blow down, though nothing too hard to get around. Nettles were only a problem for those of us hiking in shorts, but they were only in a few spots and really not too bad.
Much of the "trail" was soggy from all the rain, and the various streamlets running along the forest floor. Our biggest hazard were all the slippery rocks.
I was most impressed by the density of the brush. I couldn't imagine how hard it would be trying to do this bushwhack as a "real" bushwhack.
We took a break on the summit to dry out our boots and socks and have snack of all the raspberries growing up there.
The hike out was uneventful and we reached our car in what seemed like no time at all and were soon back in the town of Phoenicia for a quick pizza dinner and then back on the road for Long Island.
Kevin
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