nietzschescat
New member
I started out a little nervous about this hike. I knew there were cliffs and ledges. It looks relentlessly steep on the topographical map and someone had died up there in 2001. These were our last two mountains to complete the requirements for the 3500 club.
We started from the end of Moon Haw Road. There is posted property with stone pillars and a gate at the end of the road and an obvious parking area along the Wittenberg Brook. We had studied the USGS maps and the VO map and decided at home to head for the ridge and then the col between the mountains.
There are obvious old wood roads as soon as you cross the road and enter the woods. It's pretty steep right from the start and it quickly became apparent that following the roads was going to be a lot easier than following the compass bearing, so we headed up the roads. Eventually we decided to leave the road and came out of the woods just below the cabin and headed for the ridge above the cabin. We had great views of the Ashokan Reservoir and could see Balsam Cap to the West.
The woods on the ridge were nice and open, mostly beech trees with some pretty little pockets of hemlocks. We saw the scars of claw marks from bears in a few beech trees. We thought we were on a herd path for a little bit, but I think it was probably more of a path from hunters than hikers because someone had used a chainsaw to clear a big log from the path.
We had pretty much abandoned our compass and our plan to head for the col at this point and were following the ridge to Friday. We hit a pretty large rock wall and walked along the base until we found a way to climb up. The rest of the hike was pretty much short stretches through open woods with steep climbs up ledges. There were views back through the trees towards the reservoir and Cornell and Dink (poor choice of a nickname for such an imposing pile of rock) seemed close enough to touch. From the ledges, it seemed like we were looking straight down the mountain. Every time we thought we were almost to the summit, we could see another ledge through the trees. We had totally given up looking at the compass at this point and just kept heading for the highest point.
A few times we climbed up only to climb back down because we couldn't go any higher that way. We rested up there in the hemlocks. It felt like we were zigzagging up the mountain. We made one last climb up the rocks and Peter almost hit his head on the canister , it was that close.
This was my absolutely favorite mountain. Most of the Catskill Mountains have some ledges or ridges or rock scrambles, but nothing like this. We signed into the book, had a little snack and saw an obvious herd path heading towards Balsam Cap. We followed the herd path which led right down the chute through the massive cliff and then along the cliff towards Balsam Cap. These cliffs are amazing and more extensive and impressive than you can capture in a photograph. The herd path was obvious all the way to the view point and then the canister on Balsam Cap. It was an easy walk, really like walking on a trail, and kind of anticlimactic after our climb up Friday. We signed the book and headed back to the view point and followed the herd path past the cliffs again.
We started down near the chute. I noticed some old notches cut into the trees marking the spot. The woods were pretty through here.....the leaves were all yellow and it was a field of boulders for the longest time. We just kept Balsam Cap on our right shoulder and kept angling over towards the ridge we came up on. Eventually the woods started to look familiar, beech trees with little pockets of hemlocks. Peter even recognized a specific downed tree. It had been a little overcast all day and finally it started to rain. We stopped and put on our raincoats. The leaves were falling like snowflakes and eventually we were back at the cabin and following the woods roads down the the van. We went past the road we came up on and had to back track at one point, but we were close enough to the road at that point that we could hear the water in the brook.
We came out of the woods right where we went in, headed to Shokan for some coffee and back across the river.
It's taken us 7 years to climb all these mountains, but we've done most of them in the last few years and almost half of them in the winter. There are a lot of places I'll never go and things I'll never do, but I feel grateful to have the Catskill Mountains so close to home and glad to have accomplished this one small thing. Something like breaking trail up a mountain in 3 feet of snow gives me a sense of strength that I can carry with me all the time and the beauty of these mountains gives me a place in my mind that I can escape to. These mountains have become my sanity.
Glenda and Peter Brown (no numbers yet because I haven't mailed the stuff in. )
ps. Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this .
We started from the end of Moon Haw Road. There is posted property with stone pillars and a gate at the end of the road and an obvious parking area along the Wittenberg Brook. We had studied the USGS maps and the VO map and decided at home to head for the ridge and then the col between the mountains.
There are obvious old wood roads as soon as you cross the road and enter the woods. It's pretty steep right from the start and it quickly became apparent that following the roads was going to be a lot easier than following the compass bearing, so we headed up the roads. Eventually we decided to leave the road and came out of the woods just below the cabin and headed for the ridge above the cabin. We had great views of the Ashokan Reservoir and could see Balsam Cap to the West.
The woods on the ridge were nice and open, mostly beech trees with some pretty little pockets of hemlocks. We saw the scars of claw marks from bears in a few beech trees. We thought we were on a herd path for a little bit, but I think it was probably more of a path from hunters than hikers because someone had used a chainsaw to clear a big log from the path.
We had pretty much abandoned our compass and our plan to head for the col at this point and were following the ridge to Friday. We hit a pretty large rock wall and walked along the base until we found a way to climb up. The rest of the hike was pretty much short stretches through open woods with steep climbs up ledges. There were views back through the trees towards the reservoir and Cornell and Dink (poor choice of a nickname for such an imposing pile of rock) seemed close enough to touch. From the ledges, it seemed like we were looking straight down the mountain. Every time we thought we were almost to the summit, we could see another ledge through the trees. We had totally given up looking at the compass at this point and just kept heading for the highest point.
A few times we climbed up only to climb back down because we couldn't go any higher that way. We rested up there in the hemlocks. It felt like we were zigzagging up the mountain. We made one last climb up the rocks and Peter almost hit his head on the canister , it was that close.
This was my absolutely favorite mountain. Most of the Catskill Mountains have some ledges or ridges or rock scrambles, but nothing like this. We signed into the book, had a little snack and saw an obvious herd path heading towards Balsam Cap. We followed the herd path which led right down the chute through the massive cliff and then along the cliff towards Balsam Cap. These cliffs are amazing and more extensive and impressive than you can capture in a photograph. The herd path was obvious all the way to the view point and then the canister on Balsam Cap. It was an easy walk, really like walking on a trail, and kind of anticlimactic after our climb up Friday. We signed the book and headed back to the view point and followed the herd path past the cliffs again.
We started down near the chute. I noticed some old notches cut into the trees marking the spot. The woods were pretty through here.....the leaves were all yellow and it was a field of boulders for the longest time. We just kept Balsam Cap on our right shoulder and kept angling over towards the ridge we came up on. Eventually the woods started to look familiar, beech trees with little pockets of hemlocks. Peter even recognized a specific downed tree. It had been a little overcast all day and finally it started to rain. We stopped and put on our raincoats. The leaves were falling like snowflakes and eventually we were back at the cabin and following the woods roads down the the van. We went past the road we came up on and had to back track at one point, but we were close enough to the road at that point that we could hear the water in the brook.
We came out of the woods right where we went in, headed to Shokan for some coffee and back across the river.
It's taken us 7 years to climb all these mountains, but we've done most of them in the last few years and almost half of them in the winter. There are a lot of places I'll never go and things I'll never do, but I feel grateful to have the Catskill Mountains so close to home and glad to have accomplished this one small thing. Something like breaking trail up a mountain in 3 feet of snow gives me a sense of strength that I can carry with me all the time and the beauty of these mountains gives me a place in my mind that I can escape to. These mountains have become my sanity.
Glenda and Peter Brown (no numbers yet because I haven't mailed the stuff in. )
ps. Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this .
