Tom Rankin
Well-known member
We started out from the end of Spruceton Road at 8:30and went up the Devil's Path. It was near freezing and there was obviously some snow up high, but almost none at the bottom. It turned out that there was never more than an inch of snow from Monday's flurries, and only a little ice here and there. No one wore traction devices and no on slipped and fell.
We wound our way up to the start of the old train tracks, and then donned another layer against the snow still on the trees along the tight herd path. This is where we started seeing lots of animal tracks. We saw bear, bobcat, grouse, turkey, other-bird, and possibly fox. Only the grouse itself was seen. The rail road bed is in ok shape. There are a few blowdowns to make your way around. It appears as though someone has spent quite a bit of (illegal?) effort to maintain the herd path from the railbed to the summit. We saw no blowdowns, and there were freshly sawn logs!
Leavitt has become almost trivial, from being one of the toughest whacks in the Catskills several years ago. Oh well...
After getting back on the real path, we continued up to the Hunter Summit. There were several people and a few dogs at the top. The tower was covered with rime ice, and a foggy mist was blowing across the summit, obscuring visibility quite a bit. We noted 5 different kinds of water during the day: flowing water, sheets of ice, rime ice, fog, and hoar frost.
We ate a snack and then returned down past the John Robb leanto site, making a big 10 mile loop. As we went down the old road we cleared all but one large blowdown out of the way. The new bridge is still under construction. Someone had thrown one of the building planks over the stream and used it to cross. We finished at 3:00 and headed off to celebrate!
We wound our way up to the start of the old train tracks, and then donned another layer against the snow still on the trees along the tight herd path. This is where we started seeing lots of animal tracks. We saw bear, bobcat, grouse, turkey, other-bird, and possibly fox. Only the grouse itself was seen. The rail road bed is in ok shape. There are a few blowdowns to make your way around. It appears as though someone has spent quite a bit of (illegal?) effort to maintain the herd path from the railbed to the summit. We saw no blowdowns, and there were freshly sawn logs!
Leavitt has become almost trivial, from being one of the toughest whacks in the Catskills several years ago. Oh well...After getting back on the real path, we continued up to the Hunter Summit. There were several people and a few dogs at the top. The tower was covered with rime ice, and a foggy mist was blowing across the summit, obscuring visibility quite a bit. We noted 5 different kinds of water during the day: flowing water, sheets of ice, rime ice, fog, and hoar frost.
We ate a snack and then returned down past the John Robb leanto site, making a big 10 mile loop. As we went down the old road we cleared all but one large blowdown out of the way. The new bridge is still under construction. Someone had thrown one of the building planks over the stream and used it to cross. We finished at 3:00 and headed off to celebrate!
