nietzschescat
New member
We followed the trail along the Dry Brook past the waterfall to the bridge and started up a little herd path that petered out fairly soon. It was a nice walk through some fairly open woods. The nettles are still alive and there are some prickers, but nothing extreme. We saw a big rock leaning up against a tree with the tree growing around the rock.
Following our compass bearing took us a little close to the Big Indian side of the mountain and we decided to head for what looked like the highest point. That actually worked pretty well and we found ourselves close to the summit in a little clump of blackberry bushes and then a nice view point through the trees. We kept heading up until we hit some evergreens and a maze of herd paths. The summit is pretty flat and we wandered around a bit until we noticed an area of taller trees and headed over there and found the can.
We had a little snack and some birds (looked like sparrows) visited us.
We reversed our compass bearing and headed down, but we really didn't account for the fact that we overshot our target on the way up. This time we were much closer to Graham with views towards it the whole way down. It was a lot steeper and rockier than the way we came up.
I do love these rocks we have here in the Catskills. These mountains are basically piles of rocks and there really is nothing like them. There are fern gardens on top of rocks and little caves and trees growing on rocks. We found a big overhanging shelter type cave similar to the one on the trail up Westkill. Then we found a really weird rock that was narrow and tapered at the base like something you would find in the ocean. The woods were full of white asters and ferns and it was like a crazy rock garden.
We started getting a little concerned because nothing looked familiar, but we were obviously heading down the mountain in the correct direction. We hit a wet area and then the dry stream bed in the col between Doubletop and Graham and decided to follow the stream down. We were able to hop onto this nice woods road along the stream which unfortunately led right past someone's camp. We had permission to be on the private land to climb the mountain, but weren't too sure who owned the camp. It didn't look like anyone was home and it was a pretty steep walk down to the stream bed at this point, so we stayed on the road and ended up basically right where we started near the bridge and the waterfall.
It was a pretty quick walk down the trail to the parking area. I think we'll try it this winter from the other side. #37.
Following our compass bearing took us a little close to the Big Indian side of the mountain and we decided to head for what looked like the highest point. That actually worked pretty well and we found ourselves close to the summit in a little clump of blackberry bushes and then a nice view point through the trees. We kept heading up until we hit some evergreens and a maze of herd paths. The summit is pretty flat and we wandered around a bit until we noticed an area of taller trees and headed over there and found the can.
We had a little snack and some birds (looked like sparrows) visited us. We reversed our compass bearing and headed down, but we really didn't account for the fact that we overshot our target on the way up. This time we were much closer to Graham with views towards it the whole way down. It was a lot steeper and rockier than the way we came up.
I do love these rocks we have here in the Catskills. These mountains are basically piles of rocks and there really is nothing like them. There are fern gardens on top of rocks and little caves and trees growing on rocks. We found a big overhanging shelter type cave similar to the one on the trail up Westkill. Then we found a really weird rock that was narrow and tapered at the base like something you would find in the ocean. The woods were full of white asters and ferns and it was like a crazy rock garden.
We started getting a little concerned because nothing looked familiar, but we were obviously heading down the mountain in the correct direction. We hit a wet area and then the dry stream bed in the col between Doubletop and Graham and decided to follow the stream down. We were able to hop onto this nice woods road along the stream which unfortunately led right past someone's camp. We had permission to be on the private land to climb the mountain, but weren't too sure who owned the camp. It didn't look like anyone was home and it was a pretty steep walk down to the stream bed at this point, so we stayed on the road and ended up basically right where we started near the bridge and the waterfall.
It was a pretty quick walk down the trail to the parking area. I think we'll try it this winter from the other side. #37.
