Aesop74
New member
Hiked Burnt Knob and Windham High Peak on Saturday carrying my 22 month old son on my back in a Kelty Kids pack which was pretty comfortable overall. We started from the end of Big Hollow Road (CR 56) near Maplecrest, NY. We used the Black Dome Range Trail crossing the Batavia Kill on a new footbridge that seemed well constructed. After signing in we crossed the stream a second time using stones that have been placed to make your crossing in regular water depth easier. From here the trail begins a moderate and steady ascent up the ridge crossing the Batavia Kill a 3rd time. The water levels were fairly low and we had no issues keeping our feet dry. We met up with the blue marked Escarpment trail in a little less than 1 hour and began our ascent up the eastern slop of Burnt Knob.
Burnt Knob has some fairly steep sections up through exposed rocks, cliffs and bands of ledges that were wet with running water which made them more difficult to negotiate in some spots especially with my precious cargo. Shortly before an awesome ledge that looks across the Blackhead Range on your left, the trail uses some switchbacks bringing you close to the top of the knob. The trail skirts the knob to the left from this direction instead of taking you to the true summit. There are several good views with the leaves down of the Blackhead Range, Acra Point, Camels Hump, the Black Dome valley and further towards Westkill, Hunter, etc. The trail meanders around the knob bringing you to some additional views to the left of the Black Dome valley and finally to a really nice ledge on the right that looks north towards Windham High Peak which is about 1.5 miles from this spot. I flushed a grouse nearby this ledge. Someone had made a dangerous fire on the ledge here with no stones to keep the large burn pile in place. With the dead trees on top of Burnt Knob it would not have taken much to burn down the entire mountain. Some folks are just ignorant. Enough said.
We proceeded down the escarpment trail after lunch in a nice meadow on the western side of Burnt Knob and started our final push up Windham High Peak. The sign at the intersection of the BDR Trail and Escarpment claimed that Burnt Knob was 1.0 mile and Windham High Peak 2.0 miles. I think Windham High Peak is closer to 1.5 miles. Anyway, after a series of false summits, rock piles a handful of garter snakes and some bear scat we came to the 3500 foot marker. Within 3 minutes we were on top of the eastern viewpoint of WHP which looks back towards Burnt Knob and Acra point and east across the Hudson valley. Continuing about 50' I came across the USGS Survey marked on a large rock on the summit ridge trail followed by a second marker on the ground. My wife surprised me by handing a card and a gift to my son to give me on the WHP summit. For my 40th birthday I received a watch and compass to clip to my back engraved with the following:
40th - My birthday
28th - For my 28th hike for the 3500 Club
1st - For my hikes with my son
Continuing over the summit we checked out another ledge on our left that looked across to the Blackhead Range once more and a second view to the right which looked north and east.
The wife did not feel as if she could climb back over Burnt Knob with the time we had left and quite frankly I was feeling a bit beat up from carrying the boy so we continued down Windham High Peak towards the Elm Ridge Shelter which we reached at 2.20 miles from the summit. From here we followed the yellow blazed foot trail 1.6 miles out to the trailhead on Peck Road and began out long walk along Big Hollow Road to complete our loop. Using the odometer in the car and some known mileage using sign posts and web data it looks like the total mileage for our hike came in right around 10.2 miles.
Weather was pretty good in the 50's with very few showers. Overall a great day and an awesome way to spend my 40th.
See you out there.
Burnt Knob has some fairly steep sections up through exposed rocks, cliffs and bands of ledges that were wet with running water which made them more difficult to negotiate in some spots especially with my precious cargo. Shortly before an awesome ledge that looks across the Blackhead Range on your left, the trail uses some switchbacks bringing you close to the top of the knob. The trail skirts the knob to the left from this direction instead of taking you to the true summit. There are several good views with the leaves down of the Blackhead Range, Acra Point, Camels Hump, the Black Dome valley and further towards Westkill, Hunter, etc. The trail meanders around the knob bringing you to some additional views to the left of the Black Dome valley and finally to a really nice ledge on the right that looks north towards Windham High Peak which is about 1.5 miles from this spot. I flushed a grouse nearby this ledge. Someone had made a dangerous fire on the ledge here with no stones to keep the large burn pile in place. With the dead trees on top of Burnt Knob it would not have taken much to burn down the entire mountain. Some folks are just ignorant. Enough said.
We proceeded down the escarpment trail after lunch in a nice meadow on the western side of Burnt Knob and started our final push up Windham High Peak. The sign at the intersection of the BDR Trail and Escarpment claimed that Burnt Knob was 1.0 mile and Windham High Peak 2.0 miles. I think Windham High Peak is closer to 1.5 miles. Anyway, after a series of false summits, rock piles a handful of garter snakes and some bear scat we came to the 3500 foot marker. Within 3 minutes we were on top of the eastern viewpoint of WHP which looks back towards Burnt Knob and Acra point and east across the Hudson valley. Continuing about 50' I came across the USGS Survey marked on a large rock on the summit ridge trail followed by a second marker on the ground. My wife surprised me by handing a card and a gift to my son to give me on the WHP summit. For my 40th birthday I received a watch and compass to clip to my back engraved with the following:
40th - My birthday
28th - For my 28th hike for the 3500 Club
1st - For my hikes with my son
Continuing over the summit we checked out another ledge on our left that looked across to the Blackhead Range once more and a second view to the right which looked north and east.
The wife did not feel as if she could climb back over Burnt Knob with the time we had left and quite frankly I was feeling a bit beat up from carrying the boy so we continued down Windham High Peak towards the Elm Ridge Shelter which we reached at 2.20 miles from the summit. From here we followed the yellow blazed foot trail 1.6 miles out to the trailhead on Peck Road and began out long walk along Big Hollow Road to complete our loop. Using the odometer in the car and some known mileage using sign posts and web data it looks like the total mileage for our hike came in right around 10.2 miles.
Weather was pretty good in the 50's with very few showers. Overall a great day and an awesome way to spend my 40th.
See you out there.
