SW Hunter Bushwhack

[MattC]

Got my first Catskill canister on 10/9. I was supposed to be doing it along with the main summit, with the 3500 Club. I got to the Devil's Tombstone lot a little early and one other guy showed and said the hike leader wasn't going to make it. He and I ended up hiking to the first junction together, then he went up the fire tower, and I went a little past Devil's Acre lean-to, took a bearing (SW 230), and went off into the woods. I found bits of herd path here and there, but never found the old railbed. It was mostly thick evergreens, but I did come upon one beautiful, open stand of white or paper birch. Once my (probably somewhat inaccurate) altimeter got around 3740-60, I figured I had done most of the elevation and was pretty close. After a while of looking, I sort of gave up on the canister, and started walking straight west. I thought maybe I could get off Hunter pretty quick and perhaps go on to Westkill. After a bit I came to a wall, maybe 75-100 feet high. A light bulb went off as I realized there was still some more elevation.
I found a way around it with just a little scrambling, and within moments of getting up top, I found an obvious herd path. A little walk to the southwest and there was the canister. Shout out here to Mark Schaefer, who had just signed in in late September, and who told me about this site the day I met him on Slide back in August.

After an early lunch, I went back down the north side, going about NW 340.
It was very steep, and poor footings were everywhere, but gorgeous country.
Lots of blow-down, leaves everywhere, small, mossy boulders, and the forest was fairly open. I followed a herd path briefly, lost it, then was on a stream bed for a few minutes, then just down the mountainside. Eventually I got to the brook (the begining of the West Kill, I believe) and followed it west and downhill for about an hour. I had to ford back and forth a lot, and occasionally got up on the steep sides. Sometimes I was able to walk on rocks right down the middle. There was an interesting rockslide/blowdown area a little before I got to the Diamond Notch/Devil's Path junction. I got there about 1, rested and ate, then tried a little of West Kill. I got about 15 minutes up the trail before my body said "what the hell are you doing?" and I went back to the junction and had a real rest. I then went back over DP to my car. As I was leaving the lookout (the one a little to the west ot the Devil's Acre lean-to) I met a guy who had just done SW Hunter as well! This actually turned out to be a great day, even though the hike leader didn't show. Doing Hunter fire tower would have been a little redundant for me at this particular time, since I was just there a few weeks ago, and I ended up doing SWH in a really fun, interesting way. The next day I did all three Blackheads and Windham High Peak from Barnum Rd. to Peck Rd. I rounded out the three-day weekend with Twin on Monday. I may write another post about these hikes, 'cause I want to talk about some garbage I found on Twin.

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Matt, sounds like you have been having a lot of fun hiking in the Catskills. When I climbed SW Hunter in late September I initially missed the old railroad herd path coming from the lean-to. So I used the opportunity to go to the Geiger Point viewpoint and then came back to look again. It is pretty much at the 3540' height of land on the Devil's Path. It is about 0.3 miles east of Geiger Point, and about 0.2 miles west of the Devil's Acre Lean-to. There is often a very small rock cairn at the junction, however, some hikers prefer that the junction be unmarked so the cairn is often missing. The cairn was there on Sept 27.

Another way to locate the herd path: the Devil's Path has red DEC markers. Immediately west of the herd path junction there is a tree on which the red markers on both sides have faded to near yellow. Currently these appear to be the only faded markers in this area. There is also another unmarked path that leaves the Devil's Path about 50 yards west of the herd path, however, it quickly ends at a campsite with a fire ring.

Initially the herd path goes south but gradually turns due west. The herd path follows a narrow, overgrown, level, horse-drawn railroad grade (Fenwick Lumber Company, 1903-1917). After about 0.5 miles on the grade another small cairn on the left/south marks the start of the short 200' climb south up a small drainage. The herd path meanders a bit on the flat summit but leads to the canister. The herd path seemed almost too easy compared to my first two bushwhacks to SW Hunter when I just climbed up from the lean-to. The herd path hike was about 25 minutes from the Devil's Path going up, and 20 minutes to return.

 

[MattC]

Mark,

I did see the cairn on the way back and realized that I hadn't gone nearly far enough west on the DP to find it. The guy I met near the lookout had just come back from doing SWH on this path. Now I'll know where it is for future hikes. I'm actually glad I didn't find it this time though, since I ended up getting some much-desired experience with different facets of bushwhacking including going through dense forest, around a wall, down a steep descent, and along a brook. It also made a nice loop going up from the DA lean-to, coming down to West Kill Falls and then back over the DP. I had never hiked that part of the DP (between the DA lean-to and Diamond Notch) and had never been to that lookout. It made it a much longer hike than it had to be, but I was happier doing this route than just bagging the peak. I only wish I'd had a camera. I'd not brought mine since SWH isn't known for scenic vistas, but now I realize that there's plenty of photo-worthy stuff besides summit views. I probably could have shot a whole roll just of the West Kill!