Tom Rankin
Well-known member
Ok, we all know the weather has been fantastic lately, so maybe no surprise that I was down to shorts again. But when we were driving to Mongaup Pond, we had to be careful of ice on the roads and there was still ice on the pond itself at 12:30 PM. We parked just outside the gate, and walked around the pond to the start of the 'real' trail. A few people were walking their babies or dogs around the pond, but there was no one on the trail. We did see a large bird, possibly an eagle, alight in a tree. We got up to the first peak (Mongaup East?) on the trail, and debated to go do Mongaup proper or go over to Sand Pond and maybe Beaverkill as well. We decided to do the hike on trail over to Sand Pond.
We dropped down about 400-500' to a col and then started back up. The walk up the other side was steep in places, and the trail looked like it had not seen a lot of use. We cleared out a lot of blowdown as we walked. When the Red trail comes in from the side near the summit, you hardly notice it. There are no signs and very few markers. By 2:50, we were up on Sand Pond, or almost. The trail starts to dip down, so we jumped out up on the true summit in a few hops. We then whacked back down to the trail and almost missed it because it was so leaf covered.
At this point, we decided that we didn't have enough time to get all the way to Beaverkill and back in a sane manner, so we turned around and enjoyed the walk back.
When we came back to the 2500' col, we decided to whack back to the pond down the stream bed. This had the plus of avoiding extra elevation gain and being a little shorter mileage wise, but turned out to be a little tricky going down the small valley. There were tons of very large trees down across the stream, and a lot of pricker bushes waiting for us all over the place. But we made it back in one piece. Once we got to the Firs, the going was a lot easier. There are a lot of nice vistas in the valley, that's for sure! The Moon was out and made a nice reflection in the water as we neared the pond.
Just as we were almost back to the car, and it was almost completely dark, a DEC Ranger drove up and chatted with us for a few minutes. He was very friendly. It was another great day in this very long weekend!
We dropped down about 400-500' to a col and then started back up. The walk up the other side was steep in places, and the trail looked like it had not seen a lot of use. We cleared out a lot of blowdown as we walked. When the Red trail comes in from the side near the summit, you hardly notice it. There are no signs and very few markers. By 2:50, we were up on Sand Pond, or almost. The trail starts to dip down, so we jumped out up on the true summit in a few hops. We then whacked back down to the trail and almost missed it because it was so leaf covered.
At this point, we decided that we didn't have enough time to get all the way to Beaverkill and back in a sane manner, so we turned around and enjoyed the walk back.
When we came back to the 2500' col, we decided to whack back to the pond down the stream bed. This had the plus of avoiding extra elevation gain and being a little shorter mileage wise, but turned out to be a little tricky going down the small valley. There were tons of very large trees down across the stream, and a lot of pricker bushes waiting for us all over the place. But we made it back in one piece. Once we got to the Firs, the going was a lot easier. There are a lot of nice vistas in the valley, that's for sure! The Moon was out and made a nice reflection in the water as we neared the pond.
Just as we were almost back to the car, and it was almost completely dark, a DEC Ranger drove up and chatted with us for a few minutes. He was very friendly. It was another great day in this very long weekend!
