Another fun day exploring Catskill 100 highest peaks.
After a long drive to the Denning trailhead, Jo, Bookah and I headed out on the trail, passed the turnoff for Lone and Rocky and started to climb. With a recovering back injury, I had more than a little anxiety about completing the traverse and avoiding further injury.
We jumped off the trail and headed for East Wildcat(EWC) arriving there quickly. Nice woods, but lots of beech saplings in your face and blowdown up higher from the big ice storm.
After a brief break on EWC's wooded summit, headed west towards West Wildcat(WWC). Although the woods were deciduous and open, the broken tree tops from the ice storm made for lots of bobbing and weaving.
The forecast was for cool, low humidity and windy, a perfect day for whacking. The breeze didn't really pick up until late in the day and the rain that had prevously fallen was being drawn up with the warming sun, so it was warmer and felt more humid than expected.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=avk6ugum.2elctwka&x=0&y=8jgpcn&localeid=en_US
After the trip west across the range, WWC's ridge was decidely nicer, as the fern glades and large beech groves had much less ice storm damage. The top of WWC had many fern-y open spots and after the usual prowling around to find the highspot, we enjoyed a nice break before heading down.
With the warmer than expected temps, Bookah took advantage of every spring, seep and mudwallow, and slurped the water I carry for her in between times.
The highlights of 'whack for me were the acres and acres of ferns all along the ridgeline and a spectacular 3 - 5 acre hemlock grove we discovered. After being in and out of the sun all day and seeing nothing but hardwoods, we topped a small rise and entered this grove. There was little storm damage on the ground and the shade, open woods, darkness, and breeze sweeping thru made us drag our feet so it could last longer.
If you've hiked Windham and hit the 'enchanted forest' you know the feeling.
This was 3x the impact as is appears and disappears out of nowhere, quite unexpectedly.
I almost forgot...on our way down we came across a woodlands matriarch. A giant white pine of huge size and diameter. It didn't sport multiple trunks as many do, and the crown appeared undamaged from ice or lightning. Just tall, thick and majestic.
Farther down we encountered some grouping of white pine giants here and there, but none quite so large.
A interesting day in the woods with Bookah now at 95/102.
After a long drive to the Denning trailhead, Jo, Bookah and I headed out on the trail, passed the turnoff for Lone and Rocky and started to climb. With a recovering back injury, I had more than a little anxiety about completing the traverse and avoiding further injury.
We jumped off the trail and headed for East Wildcat(EWC) arriving there quickly. Nice woods, but lots of beech saplings in your face and blowdown up higher from the big ice storm.
After a brief break on EWC's wooded summit, headed west towards West Wildcat(WWC). Although the woods were deciduous and open, the broken tree tops from the ice storm made for lots of bobbing and weaving.
The forecast was for cool, low humidity and windy, a perfect day for whacking. The breeze didn't really pick up until late in the day and the rain that had prevously fallen was being drawn up with the warming sun, so it was warmer and felt more humid than expected.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=avk6ugum.2elctwka&x=0&y=8jgpcn&localeid=en_US
After the trip west across the range, WWC's ridge was decidely nicer, as the fern glades and large beech groves had much less ice storm damage. The top of WWC had many fern-y open spots and after the usual prowling around to find the highspot, we enjoyed a nice break before heading down.
With the warmer than expected temps, Bookah took advantage of every spring, seep and mudwallow, and slurped the water I carry for her in between times.
The highlights of 'whack for me were the acres and acres of ferns all along the ridgeline and a spectacular 3 - 5 acre hemlock grove we discovered. After being in and out of the sun all day and seeing nothing but hardwoods, we topped a small rise and entered this grove. There was little storm damage on the ground and the shade, open woods, darkness, and breeze sweeping thru made us drag our feet so it could last longer.
If you've hiked Windham and hit the 'enchanted forest' you know the feeling.
This was 3x the impact as is appears and disappears out of nowhere, quite unexpectedly.
I almost forgot...on our way down we came across a woodlands matriarch. A giant white pine of huge size and diameter. It didn't sport multiple trunks as many do, and the crown appeared undamaged from ice or lightning. Just tall, thick and majestic.
Farther down we encountered some grouping of white pine giants here and there, but none quite so large.
A interesting day in the woods with Bookah now at 95/102.
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