daxs
Active member
After a successfull day on Lone and Rocky, I was more than ready for Friday and Balsam Cap. Hermit could not join us but Tmax could and she met JayH and I at the trailhead. We started this hike from the Friedal property. This nice gentleman has a small parking area on his property for hikers. He also has a trail marked with green blazes. The trail goes all the way to the property border and state land. The day was gorgeous as we started the hike; clear blue skies, warm sun and a slight breeze. The begnning of the trail is an old logging road that climbs steadily to property border. Its an easy hike. Luckily, Jay had his turbo chargers turned off and it was easy for Terri and I to keep pace. Soon enough, we were off the trail and into the woods. Once again, you need a compass bearing as you cannot depend on a herdpath. You continue to climb steadily in the woods. The forest here is much more open that what had been experienced the day before on Lone and Rocky. The fun begins, however, once you reach the infamous rocky cliffs on Friday. You need to choose wisely, some of them are more gnarly to climb than other. We had no problems, however, in the route we had chosen. Tmax related prior experiences climbing Friday; some of which were successful and others not. Sometimes your dog just can't make it up the cliffs! We had good views of the Burroughs range from many of the cliffs. About 2 1/2 hours after leaving the trailhead, we arrived at the summit of Friday. I did my celebratory WOOHOO, celebrating another successful canister climb. At this point, Friday is my favorite Catskill hike . I think its just my favorite hike. I cannot remember when I had soooo much fun hiking. I think I made some inane statement like "I never want to hike on a trail again. Its just buskwack hiking for me". We were joined on the summit by a couple of other hikers. Friday was peak #38 for them and they were on their way to BC to complete their Catskill 3500. After a lunch break, we headed over to BC. The herpath to BC is fairly well defined and there were only a few places were we lost track. The growth is quite a bit thicker than the hike to Friday. Before the summit, there is a small look out with nice views of the Devils Path and the Ashokan resevoir. Soon enough, we were on the top on BC. We gave congratulations to 2 hikers who had just finished their Catskill 3500. On the hike down, we decided to try and find the plane crash site that Hermit had told us about. We had a vague idea of the site location. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate the site and also had to bushwack through some pretty nasty growth in our attempts to find the site. Also, Jay's turbochargers kicked in the way down and he was often out of sight. He now has a new nickname "Marco Polo" as Terri and I reverted to this childhood game to voice track him in the woods. We lost all site of the herdpath in out attempts to find the crash site. I can't say we were "lost" in the woods but we were a bit off track on the hike down. We kept to the compass bearing, however. We only needed a small side track back up into the woods at the end of the hike to keep out of sight of the property owners house. Overall, it was a fantastic day. Even as i nurse my bumps, bruises and scratches, I am thinking about my next bushwack.....
