nietzschescat
New member
We had planned a route from the first parking area on Spruceton Road to avoid the steep ledges, but that parking area wasn't plowed. So we drove to the next parking area which already had 3 vehicles parked there. We decided that it made more sense to follow a broken trail than to walk back down the road a mile and break our own trail.
We put our snow shoes on in the parking lot and headed up the Devil's Path. We saw a deer almost immediately and then a lot of deer tracks on the lower part of the trail. The trail was really packed since there were 10 people ahead of us according to the register. We followed the trail until it made a sharp turn towards Westkill. There is clearing that the map shows to be a pond (not real obvious under the snow) and someone had set up a tent near there. We followed the broken trail up the steepest part of the mountain which ironically is what we had tried to avoid.
North Dome has beautiful open woods with lots and lots of rocks and spooky trees (Yellow Birch and Cherry). The rock ledges were visible and we started getting nice views back towards Westkill. The snow started getting deeper (1-3 feet) and it was wet and soft, what I call "snow man snow." It was very slippery and difficult to get a grip with the snow shoe crampons especially going up and over the rocks. I love the rocks though.
The last set of ledges was covered with sheets of ice and icicles, but we managed that one too, kind of wandering around to find the best route if the broken trail wasn't making us happy.
The summit is pretty flat and I started having trouble with the snow balling up on my snowshoes (Atlas). My husband wasn't having a bit of trouble with his (MSR). We followed the trail to the canister, up a few more knolls. It felt a bit like cheating, but I guess unless you head into the woods right after a snow storm like we did last week and break your own trail there are going to be tracks.
We headed back down the same way we came up. There were a lot of Hemlocks with woolly adelgids on the summit.
Going down was pretty quick since we slid on our butts most of the way. The wind was so loud through the valley between Westkill and N.Dome that it sounded like running water.
When we hit the trail we could hear people whooping up on the mountain, so they were probably doing a bit of sliding too. The trail out was kind of painful, since it had a few gradual inclines.
As we came down the final slope into the parking lot we noticed that there were other people there who had just finished their hike. So (now is where is gets weird) we say hello and no one says anything. I literally made eye contact with 2 different people and said hello and they just looked at me, and my husband did the same thing. This group of 7 people just literally acted like we didn't exist. I don't know if it's a NYC thing where you are around so many people in close proximity that you are used to ignoring people 2 feet away from you or if maybe they were just uncomfortable in the environment, but it was a little weird. Then we had to ask them to please move so we could actually get into the van and then again to move and move their things so we could drive out of the parking lot.
Anyhow, it was a good day and a nice hike. We drove back across the river stopping first in Shokan for some coffee and a snack and then had a nice dinner out with a glass of wine.
We put our snow shoes on in the parking lot and headed up the Devil's Path. We saw a deer almost immediately and then a lot of deer tracks on the lower part of the trail. The trail was really packed since there were 10 people ahead of us according to the register. We followed the trail until it made a sharp turn towards Westkill. There is clearing that the map shows to be a pond (not real obvious under the snow) and someone had set up a tent near there. We followed the broken trail up the steepest part of the mountain which ironically is what we had tried to avoid.
North Dome has beautiful open woods with lots and lots of rocks and spooky trees (Yellow Birch and Cherry). The rock ledges were visible and we started getting nice views back towards Westkill. The snow started getting deeper (1-3 feet) and it was wet and soft, what I call "snow man snow." It was very slippery and difficult to get a grip with the snow shoe crampons especially going up and over the rocks. I love the rocks though.
The last set of ledges was covered with sheets of ice and icicles, but we managed that one too, kind of wandering around to find the best route if the broken trail wasn't making us happy.
The summit is pretty flat and I started having trouble with the snow balling up on my snowshoes (Atlas). My husband wasn't having a bit of trouble with his (MSR). We followed the trail to the canister, up a few more knolls. It felt a bit like cheating, but I guess unless you head into the woods right after a snow storm like we did last week and break your own trail there are going to be tracks.
We headed back down the same way we came up. There were a lot of Hemlocks with woolly adelgids on the summit.
Going down was pretty quick since we slid on our butts most of the way.
The wind was so loud through the valley between Westkill and N.Dome that it sounded like running water. When we hit the trail we could hear people whooping up on the mountain, so they were probably doing a bit of sliding too. The trail out was kind of painful, since it had a few gradual inclines.
As we came down the final slope into the parking lot we noticed that there were other people there who had just finished their hike. So (now is where is gets weird) we say hello and no one says anything. I literally made eye contact with 2 different people and said hello and they just looked at me, and my husband did the same thing. This group of 7 people just literally acted like we didn't exist. I don't know if it's a NYC thing where you are around so many people in close proximity that you are used to ignoring people 2 feet away from you or if maybe they were just uncomfortable in the environment, but it was a little weird. Then we had to ask them to please move so we could actually get into the van and then again to move and move their things so we could drive out of the parking lot.
Anyhow, it was a good day and a nice hike. We drove back across the river stopping first in Shokan for some coffee and a snack and then had a nice dinner out with a glass of wine.
