Catskills Peak Bagging part 2

[Doodles]

Day 2 of our weekend. 2/5/06. Vly and Bearpen.

Jean, Annie, Ronnie, and I met at the Rt 42 parking lot at 7:00 for an early start. We all left for the Vly, Bearpen access off county road 2. Parking area was wet and muddy from the heavy rain, but the morning weather was shaping up nicely, about 30 deg, partly cloudy.

We had started up the dirt road at about 8:00. About 10 min. up the trail Annie was feeling feverish and ill and Jean and Annie decided it was best to not attempt the hike. ( hope you get better soon ).

Ronnie and I continued up the road to the col. At the hunting cabin we decided to go up Vly first. The snow cover started at this point and got deeper as we went up. Snow cover was 6-8 in even after the heavy rains.
At about 3300 ft we encountered quite a bit of ice. Ronnie decided to put on crampons at this point. The wind was howling continuously at the peak. Temp at the peak was 25 deg. We found the canister, signed in, had a brief snack, then down we went.

Back at the cabin we took a five min. break and started up the trail to Bearpen. The trail was for the most part a babbling brook until we broke off into the brush where the trail leveled off and we saw a small cairn. We made it to the old ski slopes, found the old lift then proceeded out to the point. Great views from all sides of the peak.

After gazing over the country side, it was time to start down. We returned back to the cars at 12 noon. We had made very good time on these two peaks, for I had a previous engagement I had to attend and Ronnie had planned on triing to fit in one more peak. (Balsom Lake).

This turned out to be a very nice and productive weekend even with the rain the previous day.

I personally was very glad to have met all the awsome hikers this weekend and look forward to seeing all of you on the peaks in the future.

George

 

[MattC]

Glad to see you guys had success and reasonably good weather all weekend. Too bad about the sick member of the party, but it's better to get well and come back when you can enjoy the hike. At least they got the other peaks on Saturday.

Bearpen does indeed have a nice view, as does Vly if you go a little north of the canister. It is surprising how quick you can climb those two. You get back and realize it only took 4 hours when it seemed longer. Sounds like Ronnie is really linin' 'em up and knockin' 'em down. I imagine he probably did get Balsam Lake as well-that's also a fairly short one if you come from the north side.

Matt

 

[Zer0-G]

Indeed, I did get Balsam Lake. The conditions were similar to the rest of the peaks we did. Balsam lake was a little icier near the summit. The ice was mostly on the long flat summit. Not too much on the trail above 3200 feet. However, I came in via the south side from Beaver Kill. I had a bit of time on my hands and a desire to see the approach from the south. So I took a Loooonnnggg drive around.
3.97 miles round trip. Left the car at 2:30 was back by 3:50.
It was mostly cloudy (high clouds) and fine crystallized snowfall beginning and accumulating, the view from the top was still great.

 

[Jay H]

I think it's actually a shorter hike from the south, but it is more of a steeper climb. You do go by the leanto though.

My first time I did Balsam Lake was from the south. To get there, I had to take Rt 17 west for a pretty long time, then take some weird convoluted directions from mapquest to get to the road to Balsam Lake. It's also the same way to get to Alder Lake for the Mill Brook Ridge trailhead. I remember the parking lot down there as being fairly large and also utilized by the hunters to camp there during hunting season, like the one on 42.

Jay

 

[Zer0-G]

You are quite right.
I nearly drove into a few ditches trying to follow and read the roads on my Catskills Road Map.

I took 42 to 28 to 47 to 119 to 55 to 17 to 172(?) to 171(?) to 54(?), blah, blah, blah to the parking area (from memory, forgive, I'm probably wrong again...). CHECK THE MAP...

If I went to the northern trailhead, I could have crawled to the summit and back by the time I had finished driving to the southern trail head.

I remember saying to myself numerous times "This is really stupid!!"

I really did want to see the southern approach. I had to keep telling myself that.

The southern route to the summit is shorter and steeper, but very enjoyable.
For me, I found it easier.
The last half mile before the summit is very beautiful.

I couldn't see the Lean-to from the trail.

 

[Motabobo]

Yep it was nice meeting you all !
It was my fault because I was terribly ill on friday but decided to come anyway since I had given my word. I felt "a bit" better on Saturday but that day was hell on earth for me. And what should have happened, happened and Anny caught the same sh*t than me. Oh well, we'll be back !

 

[coldfeet]

Sorry Annie got sick, I to was not feeling so well on Saturday, when I checked my left over water in the camelback, I only drank 1 litter that day. I did down a litter before we started but I should have drank more during the day....oh well, learned a lot this weekend, drink more, hike more frequent for conditioning and become a better map reader.....have a nice week..

 

[Doodles]

Zero-G. Glad to hear you managed to get in Balsom Lake.
Wish I could of webt also, but I was glad that we got the two in the morning.

Matabobo. Hope you had a safe drive home and both of you are feeling better.

Coldfeet. It has nothing to do with mapreading ability. It was the backwards footprints in the snow. Where's the picture of those heartless hikers?

You all be good.

Doodles

 

[Motabobo]

My first 2006 hike !!! Thanks

 

[MattC]

Nice pics. You all look like you're having a great time in spite of the sickness. Especially the shots around the canisters! Those hikes feature classic Catskill hardwood forest 'whacking, especially Halcott. Sherrill and North Dome at least have some boreal forest up top to break up the monotony of scrub beech smacking you in the earlobe.

Matt

 

[Zer0-G]

Jean,
Bon Jour!
Nice Pics!

I'm looking forward to seeing you and Annie again on the trail when you are feeling better.

Same goes for Doodles and Coldfeet.

 

[Rick]

All,
My trail guide and maps are home today, but I was wondering what is the general route for Bearpen and Vly as I am thinking of heading up there Saturday - Is it best from the North or the South. (3500 Home page lists both options)

Also if I come from the north, Is the trail head realtively easy to find - I see an intersection off CR-2 with several roads on Google Earth and I am not sure which one leads to the northern trailhead.
Thanks in advance
Rick

 

[Mark Schaefer]

North approach to Bearpen and Vly

Rick, I tend to think more hikers approach from the south, mainly because they are coming to the Catskills from the south. However, to reach the north approach is probably not much farther. This topozone map shows the north approach from Route 23A.

From the east on Route 23A, and between 2 and 3 miles west of Lexington, take a left at Mosquito Point (County Route 2). Cross the bridge after which the road takes a sharp right. Avoid the steep Beech Ridge Rd on the left, and a later dead end road to the right. CR 2 starts to gently climb at this point. When you come to the intersection where CR 2 turns sharply right. You want to go left. After a very short distance go past Truesdell Rd (on the right at the old Little West Kill School, now a house). Next you next pass dead end Jaeger Rd on the left. Further up the road there is a dirt woods road on your right, shown as a dotted line on the topozone map. That is the road you want. You should be able to find a place to park near the base of the woods road. There has been a fair amount of recent logging further up this woods road - so it should be easy to spot, but also could be muddy as a result.

 

[Rick]

Mark,
Perfect Directions. Exactly what I was looking for. I pulled up Google Earth and followed it exactly (along with my NG Topo). My error was that I mentally/visually followed CR-2 further up to the 2nd hard right turn and got confused.

Since I will be coming from PA, I will also check the guide book this evening for Halcott Road from the South. Mapquest also showed that if going to the North Trailhead, I would need to take Platte Clove Road, which I heard might be closed in the winter.
Thank you for the North Directions
Rick

 

[Jay H]

Rick, if you're going north on the thruway and Platteclove road is closed, you still want to take exit 20 just north of exit 19 (Kingston) but instead of following 212 west towards Platte Clove Road, you need to get onto SR32 North and then at a blinking yellow light, bear left to SR32A to go towards Palenville. Then in Palenville at a red traffic light, make the left onto Rt 23A through Kaaterskill Clove and the falls. that will bring you around the closed part and only Rt 23A.

Jay

 

[Rick]

Thanks Jay. I appreciate the tip.
I have only done a couple of the Catskills so far so I really need to start learning the area.

 

[mudhook51]

From the south if you are using rt 30, go to Margaretville pick up Rt 28 east to Flieschmanns, turn left into the village,across from the fire dept is the Halcott rd, follow this almost to the end until you see a farm with one of those half round quonset buildings. Here the main road turns left,over a bridge ,you go straight on Johnson rd to the end where it says snowplow turnaround, no parking, park here out of the way.Walk up the road(this is public) about a mile to the tarpaper shack, no other way to describe it. The road to the left goes on to bearpen,the state land starts just past the shack, off to the right side ,along the blazes is the trail to Vly. Watch out for snowmobles.

 

[coldfeet]

Jean, excuse me for asking but....you mentioned on your ADK thread about seeing bear tracks LAST WEEKEND...was I there when you saw those? Would it have been around the time I was "somewhat confused" about where to go? was that why you guys were in warp speed?...

hope all is well, look forward to reading everyone's trip reports..

 

[Doodles]

Thats why we all ran up the mountain, we were triing to outrun the bear.

If I remember correctly, it was the first steep pitch going up North Dome after meeting up with Connie, Judy, and Al. The tracks were rather large, about the size of a large mans hand. The tracks were heading down the mountain. Looked about a day old. I believe Al was saying he has spotted bears in that vicinity before.

 

[coldfeet]

Did you get a picture?...never saw tracks before. What else did I miss? (think i'm opening myself up for this one but it's ok to laugh now....you should see my video...pretty pathetic)