Catskill Pro's

[Steve-o]

Hey there,

I'm trying to plan a mid-week day-hike to hunter/SW Hunter & Rusk.

I'm looking at a 6hr. RT drive.

Is this out of the question?
I usually hike book time or a little better.

If so, can anyone reccomend a cool place to car camp.

Any info would be highly appriciated.

Thanks, Stev-o

 

[MattC]

Hey Steve-O,

It should be doable with these long summer days. Obviously bring a headlamp or two to be sure. To do all three it would be best to make a loop starting from Diamond Notch @ the end of Spruceton Rd. (County Route 6) which is off of RT 42. SWH is the toughest of the three, so you may want to get it out of the way. Take the Diamond Notch Trail to the Devil's Path and go east towards Devil's Acre lean-to. There's a herd path (not far from the lean-to)along an old railroad bed which leads to the summit of SWH, but be prepared to use map and compass regardless. That area is also notorious for some pretty thick spruce. Long pants/sleeves may be in order.

After this, just take the DP the rest of the way to the yellow Hunter Mt. Trail, head on up and enjoy the view from the tower. Then go back down the Spruceton Trail (jeep road/horse trail) about a half-mile, 'whack up on the ridge and travel west to Rusk. From Rusk, you can 'whack back to where you started.

Alternatives: Do the loop in reverse, w/ Rusk first.There's a sharp switchback near Hunter Brook. This is a good place to take a bearing for the ridge that holds up Rusk. After finding the canister and signing in, then you could walk that ridge east back towards Hunter.

Or... if you do SWH Hunter first, you could also 'whack up from Diamond Notch near the bridge that crosses the West Kill. It's more hardwoods on that side, so you'd avoid the thickest spruce. It is pretty steep terrain though and you'd still have to come out the other side to continue to the main summit.

As for car camping, Devil's Tombstone is on the other side of Hunter in Stony Clove, and there's others that aren't too far. Here's a link:
http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/do/camping/catskills.html

How this helps. Enjoy and be safe.

Matt

PS- Oh, and I almost forgot-don't forget to check out the viewpoint below the main summit of Hunter. It's not a panorama, but many folks like it even better than the view from the tower. There's a little spur to the west where the Becker Hollow Trail meets the yellow Hunter Mt. Trail.

 

[Jay H]

If you stay at DT campground, I would rather start Hunter first thing in the morning, get the elevation done as early as possible to avoid afternoon heat and thunderstorms. Driving to Spruceton road is longer than if you simply start the loop on SR214 which is where the DT campground is on.

Two options to do Hunter, from Becker Hollow or simply from the campground on the DP.

My suggestion would be to get a nice early start, do Hunter first, view the fire tower, etc. Take the Spruceton Trail up and around to do Rusk (noting Matt's traditional switchback start). then do down to walk Spruceton road to the end to head towards DN Falls. Oogle the falls and then east on the DP. Then you can gauge how much time/energy you have for SW Hunter. If you know where to go, SW Hunter is a 6 minute easy bushwack. If you don't or mess up, it can be a slog through near-hell.

Yes, you can do this trip in reverse, starting with SW Hunter though if you follow Matt's suggestion about going east off Rusk (to hit the NE Rusk peak along the ridge), you'll run into some thick spruce. No real worry though as you can take your bearing back towards the trail. But unless you like to 'whack through spruce, it might just be faster to simply get off the ridge and eat the lost elevation that you'll have to make up by heading back towards Spruceton trail. A friend and I wandered around the entire rusk ridge a few winter's ago til we hit the spruce and went down.

Jay

 

[Warren]

I face a simliar drive, I would say it's doable. The trail that reaches to the Hunter/Rusk col is a fire road, you're likely to make good time, in fact most of the trail walking will be on the easy side of things.

For me I would be cautious on timing if the weather was hot and humid I slow down in such condtions.

Note, Rusk had a reputation for stinging nettles last season I don't know what it's like now but after all the rain....

 

[Puma concolor]

Also, be advised that the cannister on SW Hunter is a bear to find. It actually took me three attempts to find the cannister. After having spent a couple hours on top of SW Hunter in my first two trips, I became convinced it was gone. Finally on my third try, I decided I wasn't coming down until I found it. FYI - it is on a small knob in a thick stand of pine trees a good .25 to .5 miles from the false summit.

 

[hermit]

I submitted a trail condition report on the above mentioned hike on 5-7. I enjoyed it very much,and I am looking forward to doing it again in the fall.

 

[Steve-o]

Thanks for all your input.

A couple more things;

I've only been to the Catskills once before.
Are the herd paths in general similar to those in the adk's?
( usually well marked and easy to follow)

Is Colonel's chair worth the extra effort?

and finally, If I decided to do this on a weekend, would I be able to secure a site at DT campground? or would it be like grand central station.I would imagine there would be lots of city folk comming up.

Thanks again, Steve

 

[Puma concolor]

Bring your map and compass Steve-O. There are no reliable herd paths in the Catskills. It is true off-trail hiking.

 

[tonycc]

I've only been to the Catskills once before.
Are the herd paths in general similar to those in the adk's?
( usually well marked and easy to follow)
and finally, If I decided to do this on a weekend, would I be able to secure a site at DT campground? or would it be like grand central station.I would imagine there would be lots of city folk comming up.

What's a DT campground? I'm not familiar with this term so don't know if you mean car camping or backcountry.

The biggest difference between the Cats and the Daks is how few people use the Cats compared to the Daks. I was very hesitant going to the Cats, after experiencing the crowds up north I figured someplace this close to NYC would be a zoo. Boy, was I wrong.

I've only done one trailess peak in the Cats (and that was in the winter thus no visible herdpath), so I'll let others give an opinion on these. However, I'll give a guess based on trail reports I've read; herdpaths are virtually non-existent compared to the Daks since there is less trail use in general.

Tony

 

[Rob S]

I tend to agree with Jay's suggestion of getting an early start from Devil's Tombstone and climbing Hunter to avoid the midday heat/humidity. Then down the fire road (Spruceton Trail) to the switchback to start up Rusk. Then over to SW Hunter. Tho I haven't climbed Rusk with Hunter and SW Hunter, you shouldn't have a problem doing so. (Rusk and Evergreen make a good hike, too)

The Rusk bushwhack is mostly open woods. For Sw Hunter, there is a cairn marking the start of the herd path. IIRC, after 15 or 20 minutes of walking there is another cairn at which point the canister is straight up and to the left a short distance away.

My drive to the Catskills is also about 2.5 - 3 hours each way.

 

[Jay H]

DT is a NY DEC campground that you can actually check the availability through www.reserveamerica.com. However, if you reserve a campsite, you have to reserve 2 nights and there's a $9 reservation fee. But you can at least check the availability.

There are no showers at DT campground which does make it a little less popular. Woodland Valley is not far away and is a nicer campground and the showers at N/S lake make them more popular.

I have never taken the colonial's chair over to Hunter, though I'm sure they probably has some good views being a ski center. Not sure if they would be any better than the firetower though. You may run into some walkers who have taken the gondola ride up Hunter and wander over to the firetower via the Colonial's Chair.

As far as the bushwack to Rusk, You should be able to find hints and tracks going to Rusk from the switchback but it isn't as well defined or marked as some routes in the ADKs.

The famous herdpath to SW Hunter is not hard to find if you know what to look for. I'll leave that up to you whether you want to know these or want to find them for yourself. Lots of herdpaths that wander too and fro on SW Hunter. Probably from the hundreds of bushwackers completely lost and wandering around in circles...

Two false summits on SW Hunter, one closer to DN leanto and one kind of closer to Devil's Acre leanto. The canister is closer to DA than DN, a USGS quad with 25ft intervals will show this better than the NYNJTC maps with the 100ft intervals.

Jay

 

[Steve-o]

Sorry Tony,

That would be Devil's Tombstone campground.

I'm leaning towards car-camping but, i'm not ruling out backpacking either.
This as a day trip for me might be a little overwelming.

My goal is to do Hunter but,if I'm going to make the haul I'd like to check out some other peaks as well.This is more or less a scouting trip for me.
I have the feeling I will be spending a lot time in the cats in the not to distant future.

Steve

 

[Mark Schaefer]

SW Hunter is one of the easiest of the Catskill 3500 bushwhacks if you find and follow the herd path, otherwise it is can be the hardest canister to find. Ralph's 5-7-05 trail condition report does a good job describing it. The small cairn at the height of land on the Devil's Path (start of the herd path) is sometimes missing. So another aid: the Devil's Path has red DEC markers. Immediately west of the herd path junction there is a tree on which the red markers on both sides have faded to near yellow. The herd path follows a narrow, overgrown, level, railroad grade. After about 0.5 mile on the grade another small cairn on the left/south marks the start of the short 200' climb south up a small drainage. The herd path meanders a bit on the flat summit but leads to the canister.

Portions of the Devil's Path and the Hunter Mountain Trail were also railroad grades. The horse-drawn railroads were built by the Fenwick Lumber Company, 1903-1917.

One viewpoint you should not overlook: At the junction of the Hunter Mountain, Spruceton, and Becker Hollow trails (the former fire tower site) is an unmarked path (opposite direction from the Becker Hollow Trail). The path is very short and leads to perhaps the best wilderness view on Hunter. You can see the Spruceton Valley and Slide Mt rising over SW Hunter. It is a very wide open view, and a good place to listen to the song birds.

From the fire tower you can see the Colonel's Chair, top of the ski lifts and trails. On a clear day the side trip down to the Colonel's Chair for the view is worth the trip. The Chair can be crowded on weekends with mountain bikers and sightseers using the lifts. Midweek is relatively quiet. You will have a 500' climb back up to the Spruceton Trail. Round trip is 2.2 miles.

 

[Tom Rankin]

... There are no reliable herd paths in the Catskills. It is true off-trail hiking.

That might be a little over-stated.

While I agree that there is a lot of hiking off maintained trails, there are herd paths to a number of the summits, including Halcott, Eagle, Big Indian, Balsalm Cap, Friday, Bear Pen, Vly, etc.

Some of them are more trivial than others (like Vly), and some are not always easy to find and stay on, but they are there. In fact, almost every trailless mountain has at least some herd paths. The only peak I climbed in the Catskills where I could not find a herd path for was Fir. But that doesn't mean there isn't one.

 

[Tom Rankin]

SW Hunter is the easiest of the Catskill 3500 bushwhacks if you find and follow the herd path...

Personally, I'd pick Vly. You follow a clear path that is marked by 2 landowners' blazes straight to the summit.

Technically, Eagle and Big Indian are bushwhacks too, (at the very end), and their herd paths are trivially easy to find and follow as well.

 

[Jay H]

For some true off trail hiking, simply do the 3000fts. Many of them are wonderful walks in the woods with nary a path (nor the need for one) to follow

Jay

 

[Steve-o]

Thanks

Again ,
Thanks for all the great info.
I'm sure I won't have too much trouble finding these peaks.

Steve

 

[tonycc]

Stev-o, did you make this trip?

Just wondering, I'm considering the same thing myself this weekend.

Tony

 

[hermit]

I may make that trip tomorrow. I will be at the Devil's tombstone p.a.about 6:30 a.m.. If you see a gray Toyota 4 runner limited,that's me.

 

[MattC]

For some true off trail hiking, simply do the 3000fts. Many of them are wonderful walks in the woods with nary a path (nor the need for one) to follow Jay

I'll vouch for that!

Matt