daxs
Active member
Earlier this summer, a few of us planned a weekend of Catskill bushwacking only to get de-railed by weather. So, we replanned the hike for Sept. Once again weather threatened to interfere but this time we forged ahead. JayH and I met up at Hermits on Friday night and set the plans into motion. On Saturday, we would "trail" hike to Peekamoose and Table and then go off trail to Lone and Rocky. Sunday we would hike Friday and Balsam Cap. Saturday, on the way to the trailhead, I was not feeling good. Slightly nauseous and jittery. I thought it was the excitement of my first Catskill bushwack. It turned out that Hermit made the coffee a might too strong that morning and the caffeine was making me nervous. It sooned turned out that I needed that caffeine infusion. We started off on the trail at a good pace. I was proud that I was actually able to keep up with Jay for the first hour. We hit the 3500 mark , about 2000 ft of elevation?, on the Peekamoose trail in about an hour. At the look out I was sweating, panting, wheezing and begging for mercy and a slower pace. Then off we went again, Jay and Hermit strolling along while I was trotting at a pretty good clip. We nailed Peekamoose and Table with no problem. The trail is well maintained and it was dry. Maybe a spot or two with some drying mud. Of course, that also meant there was no water on the trail You need to be prepared and bring all the water you need on this hike. On the top of Table, we consulted the map, took a compass bearing and were off. I think the herd path we started out on lasted all of a couple of yards and then we were dependent on our compass. There is a herd path that appears and disappears but you need a bearing to make it over to Lone, you cannot depend on the herdpath. We followed the Catskill divide as much as possible to keep elevation changes to a minimum. We hiked thru some pretty dense growth and prayed that the thunder we were hearing would not turn out to be torrential rain. In about an hour we were on the summit of Lone, my first "canister" peak. It was on the summit (ok I am quoting this from Mr. Crabs and a favorite TV cartoon) that we smelled the smell, the smelly smell that smells. We consulted the canister log and verified that Spongebob had preceeded us on the summit several months ago. We followed a herdpath down to a small look out and enjoyed our lunches. After taking another compass bearing, we pushed onward toward Rocky. The growth on Rocky was alot denser than on Lone. We evenutally came to a "clearing" and Hermit told me to go and find the canister. Which I did for my second "Catskill Canister" peak. Unfortunately, we had to go back the way we came. On the way back, we heard partridge "drumming" their wings in the woods. Somehow Jay got confused and thought Hermit was talking about flying porcupines. At that point I got concerned. How did I entrust myself to hike with people who thought porcupines could fly? On the return to Lone, I lost one of my Nalgene bottles to the bushwack gods. If anyone finds a Nalgene partially filled with fruit punch while hiking over to Rocky. Please carry it out for me and dispose of it as you wish. It took us about an hour to make it from Rocky to Lone and then another hour from Lone to the Table trail. Jay and Hermit took off and I followed at a "leisurely" pace. I figured, the tough part of the hike was over, I knew where the car was parked and the trail lead to the car. The weather held off, the trails were dry, we did not get lost and we had a great day of hiking. Afterwards a hot shower, a glass of wine (ok several glasses of wine), a great turkey burger and the full moon over Hermit's deck spelled the end to the day. I went to sleep dreaming about the next days buskwack adventure on Friday and BC.
