Fresh back from several hikes in the Whites, my son and I joined the 3500 club for a hike on Halcott Mountain, one of the trailless Catskill summits.
The weather was picture perfect and although warming considerably in the afternoon, still reasonably comfortable during most of the hike.
The hike started at the parking area on the west side of NY42 and we climbed slightly before crossing the nearby branch of Bushnellsville creek well above the waterfall that is visible from the road. From there we mainly followed the same contour until crossing another branch of the creek and hiked upward to the ridge on a rather loose compass heading of roughly 260. In general we followed the law of up with some detours around a few obstacles, but not the nettles, which were plentiful and reached the canister without much difficulty.
Although the navigation was relatively straight-forward, Halcott had an abundance of pleasantries such as the stinging nettles, flies, prickers and some areas of difficult footing, especially in areas that seemed to hold quite a bit of soil in steep areas without well anchored rocks for leverage.
The summit flies (mostly house-fly like insects) were numerous and annoying but seemed not to be biting. They were actually found over much of the mountain, especially in and near the many blackberry patches. The blackberries themselves were a real treat and several of us feasted repeatedly on ripe berries.
There isn’t much in the way of views on Halcott, but there are hints of some possibly decent winter views on some ledges and areas of more open woods.
The bushwhack back down the mountain followed a bearing somewhat south of east until we turned more northeast side hilling for a good distance. One of the treats that this afforded was a mother load of nettles, some shoulder high, interspersed with yellow flowered jewelweed (I’d always thought of them as having orange flowers). Some of the group tried rubbing the jewelweed on themselves to relieve the nettle sting.
Other more genuine treats of the route down were a few very pretty areas covered with white Wood Asters and a nice hemlock grove that thinned into an area where there were some very impressive old giants scattered among open hardwoods.
Taking a more direct line down the hill, we continued until we located the more southerly branch of the Bushnellsville creek not far from the road, crossed it, and then paralleled the road until crossing the other branch just above the waterfall. We lingered a little longer at the creeks than earlier in the day for photos of the falls and other items of interest. There is a stone wall that is still quite intact near the road a little south of the PA, as well as stone structure that we assumed to be a fire pit. Since the hike, I’ve read a description of Halcott that mentions similar piles of stones being used to mark Indian graves in the area so this could have been one of those (possibly rearranged by passersby).
Once back at the parking lot out of the relatively cool moist woods, we discovered that it had become quite a hot day. I’ve read some descriptions of Halcott as one of the easier bushwhacks and others of it as one of the less popular summits in the Catskills, but on this day I found it to be quite interesting but also rather tiring.
Full trip report with photos at :
http://www.liwoods.com/TripReports/20100829Halcott.html
http://www.liwoods.com/TripReports/20100829Halcott.html
The weather was picture perfect and although warming considerably in the afternoon, still reasonably comfortable during most of the hike.
The hike started at the parking area on the west side of NY42 and we climbed slightly before crossing the nearby branch of Bushnellsville creek well above the waterfall that is visible from the road. From there we mainly followed the same contour until crossing another branch of the creek and hiked upward to the ridge on a rather loose compass heading of roughly 260. In general we followed the law of up with some detours around a few obstacles, but not the nettles, which were plentiful and reached the canister without much difficulty.
Although the navigation was relatively straight-forward, Halcott had an abundance of pleasantries such as the stinging nettles, flies, prickers and some areas of difficult footing, especially in areas that seemed to hold quite a bit of soil in steep areas without well anchored rocks for leverage.
The summit flies (mostly house-fly like insects) were numerous and annoying but seemed not to be biting. They were actually found over much of the mountain, especially in and near the many blackberry patches. The blackberries themselves were a real treat and several of us feasted repeatedly on ripe berries.
There isn’t much in the way of views on Halcott, but there are hints of some possibly decent winter views on some ledges and areas of more open woods.
The bushwhack back down the mountain followed a bearing somewhat south of east until we turned more northeast side hilling for a good distance. One of the treats that this afforded was a mother load of nettles, some shoulder high, interspersed with yellow flowered jewelweed (I’d always thought of them as having orange flowers). Some of the group tried rubbing the jewelweed on themselves to relieve the nettle sting.
Other more genuine treats of the route down were a few very pretty areas covered with white Wood Asters and a nice hemlock grove that thinned into an area where there were some very impressive old giants scattered among open hardwoods.
Taking a more direct line down the hill, we continued until we located the more southerly branch of the Bushnellsville creek not far from the road, crossed it, and then paralleled the road until crossing the other branch just above the waterfall. We lingered a little longer at the creeks than earlier in the day for photos of the falls and other items of interest. There is a stone wall that is still quite intact near the road a little south of the PA, as well as stone structure that we assumed to be a fire pit. Since the hike, I’ve read a description of Halcott that mentions similar piles of stones being used to mark Indian graves in the area so this could have been one of those (possibly rearranged by passersby).
Once back at the parking lot out of the relatively cool moist woods, we discovered that it had become quite a hot day. I’ve read some descriptions of Halcott as one of the easier bushwhacks and others of it as one of the less popular summits in the Catskills, but on this day I found it to be quite interesting but also rather tiring.
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