My first bushwhack was today!

[coldfeet]

Hello it me again..busiest I've been in my life and it caught up with me today..Thx to the Catskill 3500 club and Ted for the trip..thx for the hotspots, blood, whip marks in my face, slips on my butt and hurting my good elbow..Gee that was fun but the car ride wasn't..very long again..I'm not the greatest person with detail trail reports so it's ok to click off now..

We bushwhacked Halcott in the Catskills..due to bad weather coming in we made the trip shorter..but I think my wife called Ted and told him to keep me out a little xtra longer.. the hike up was slippery and i could have used the crampons on the icey parts..got hot spots in both heels..put on the mole skin..maybe i over did it this week with the 4 hikes..didn't realize i cut my thumb going through some thorns, until i noticed all the blood..little cut but lots of blood in the thumb..made it to the top and signed my name..hiked the ridge and we made a little detour but eventually we ended back in the right direction..then the sleet came and what a pain..slipping and sliding and real slow..I scored a 9.9 on my split eagle over a really wide log..i couldn't believe my legs could spread out that far without my knees breaking..the funniest thing was my pole got stuck in a crack, I slipped and the pole got catapolted about 8-10 feet in front of me..really cool 360's but going right at the person in front of me..luckily the kick was to the left and just missed it's mark. I don't think that will ever happen again but who knows..all in all it was fun..I wouldn't do it again tomorrow but give me a week and i'd try it again..PS please don't tell me again that hike is the easiest one..you tell me the same thing on every hike i do!

 

[MattC]

Hey Coldfeet,

Halcott is definitely the easiest Catskill peak-just kidding! Easy/hard is all subjective, and based on about 50 different factors, so don't sweat it. It sounds like you're doing fine w/ the Catskills peakbagging so far. The beauty of the Catskills is that you can learn to bushwhack, winter hike, backpack, etc. without getting in over your head. They're much more reasonable than many other NE ranges. For instance, it's difficult to really get lost once you've studied the maps a bit and practiced map and compass skills. In the Catskills you're never more than an hour or two from something. Also the approaches aren't as long as say, the ADKs.The open forests on many of the peaks (such as Halcott) are fun to walk through as well. It gets a little more dicey on stuff like SW Hunter and Rocky. Although I'm sure you'll also do fine on those.

None of this is to take away from the challenges you've met thus far. You've done several fine hikes, and bagging four in a week is definitely a solid week.
Keep at it. It's very addictive, but it's a good habit to have. As for the drive, yeah, it's often harder than the hike, but what are you gonna do. I'll be doing the same thing to get up to the ADKs this spring and summer.

Matt

 

[Jay H]

Halcott is one of the nicer short bushwacks in the catskills, lot so nice waterfalls on Rt 214 you can check out while heading north from Phoenicia, even one on the usual path to Halcott.

Congrats on your first bushwack! Halcott is generally regarded as a fairly easy bushwack, many people do that with Rusk which since Halcott is generally only a half-day hike so you can go do Rusk too.

Hey, if you are certified deadly with your hiking poles, I'll make sure to be behind you!

Jay

 

[coldfeet]

Hey Matt..thx for response.it was one of the best weeks in my life! Don't let my wife hear that..shh..

Jay -- I don't know if I can duplicate that again with the poles but to let you know they were EMS poles that kept collapsing (sp?) on me.. Judge..I swear it was an accident!