Green Catskills

Where to meet: TBD

If you’re available and interested in going on a hike, please let me know.  Upon completion of the hike, I will distribute mail-back surveys which you’ll complete and mail back to me.  This process helps us evaluate the hike before it’s informally launched late September and formally launched, June 2009.

For further details contact Catherine Harris at guidelore@hotmail.com. Tell her Green Catskills sent you.

Just a quick status report. I have been way too busy with family, work and life to do much hiking at the moment. My weekends have pretty much always had some event, function or deadline to contend with, and it seems like its been this way since April.

I keep checking my regular sites trail reports and it looks like this has been a great season to go. I have definitely been seeing alot of cars on the weekends if i drive past some of the trailheads. More then I can remember from past years for sure. For now my 3500 club aspirations are on hold or are VERY slowly maturing. I am still determined to officially get it done.

On a positive note, I have been attempting to get/stay in shape even without the weekly hike. The gym and I have been having a strong love hate relationship. I hate going at first but once i get there and get going I really love it. When I leave I feel like I accomplished something even if i have had a not so good day at work. On the Cardio I have been running and keeping my endurance up, and lifting a bit but nothing too crazy. I still plan on getting in at least 3 hikes before it starts to get cooler.

Thats all I have for now. Will touch base again soon!

We were not sure where we were going at 9 am this morning. There had been some discussion of Twin Mountain from Roaring Kill, but I read this post, and we decided otherwise. Another North face, melting snow and ice, we just were not in the mood for that. We did however want something somewhat intense after our easy going hike last week at Windham High Peak. Alison took the lead this week and she chose Thomas Cole (3940 Feet elevation) from the Barnum Road Trailhead. It was a good 3 mile walk up about 1700 elevation with a lesser Summit along the way. Sounds good! We picked up Joe and were at trailhead ready to go at 10:15.

The trail follows what looked like an old logging road for about a 1/2 mile to the Trail register. This logging road is in rough shape with alot of slippery rocks and not a smooth walk. We signed in at the Trail register and began a gradual incline up the Red Trail. Soon we came to the first of what turned out to be many steep inclines. The grade was steep and the terrain was quite technical. There really didnt seem to be many flat spots even when the ground did level out. I won’t lie, I was winded and this hike was pretty tough starting out.

As we walked up, we turned around and saw what was a 180 degree view behind us. We had started out at 2150 elevation at the Parking lot at Barnum Road and within a few minutes were over 2700 feet. You could see Kaaterskill High Peak, The Mink Hollow range and Hunter Mountain in this view through the trees. We pushed on taking breaks after every few steep inclines.

We met some backpackers heading to the Batavia Kill Lean-to and they were carrying alot of gear. We spoke for a moment and wished them well and then passed them. They definitely looked winded from the first couple of steep ascents and it turned out there was going to be many more for them just getting to Thomas Cole.

After some time we made it to a full 360 degree viewpoint at the top of what we found to be called “Camel’s Hump”. The views up here were unbelievable and on this clear day we saw Hunter Mountain, a portion of Windham Mountain and all of the Hensonville valley. Windham High Peak, Burnt Knob etc were on our North Side, Thomas Cole rose majestically to our East. We took a short break here and pressed on descending about 200 or so feet down the rocky path to the Col between Camel’s Hump and Thomas Cole.

The ascent to Thomas Cole was pretty gorgeous as well. We were still above 3500 feet, and the trees definitely had that wind sheared and old twisted look to them. However there were a few groves that we walked through where the Evergreens were thick and the large rocks on the sides of the trail were cool. This made this portion of the hike very refreshing. At a couple spots we found little divets under trees and rock filled with Snow, which we scraped up and put on our heads and arms to cool off for a moment. Simple pleasures like these feel amazing after walking a few miles uphill on a technical trail on a very hot Spring day.

As we got closer to the Summit we ventured off to a little spur path that gave us a pretty unbelievable view of Belleayre mountain way off in the distance. Snow was still to be seen on this mountain well to the other side of the Catskills from where we were standing. We didnt stay here long and went up to the actual summit of Thomas Cole which was secluded in a grove of Evergreens. There was no views to speak of at the actual Summit, but we were pretty happy with what we had done so far. Black Dome was only another .9 miles on the trail, but we didnt feel like descending down to the Col and going back up to that summit today. Another mountain for another day we felt. It was about 1:00 and we decided to make our way back to the really nice view at Camel’s Hump and eat a quick bite before heading back down to the cars.

Back at Camel’s Hump we ate and took a few pictures. We briefly spoke to a man who was doing Trail maintenance there, as well as a pair of Hikers also on their way to Thomas Cole. After lunch we head back down the Mountain at a brisk pace, passing a few groups heading up to Thomas Cole. I was pretty surprised to pass a family with some very young kids, (4-5 years old) on the way up to Thomas Cole. These kids had gotten up some pretty steep areas, yet they seemed unphased and pretty happy actually.

After we got down to the cars, our feet were hurting from the fast downhill and technical walk we just did. All 3 of us were sunburned in spots since the Sun was out in full force and of course we weren’t wearing any Sunblock. After a tiring and rewarding climb up to Thomas Cole on this fine April day, we went to Stewart’s in Haines Falls and got Milkshakes. The perfect end to a great Hike.

View the pictures of the Hike here.

The Weatherman has been horribly wrong for going on 3 weeks now. This weekend most Weathermen had forecast 30 degree temps with chance of Snow and Rain on Saturday with a clearing up on Sunday with temperatures in the high 40’s. Well what really happened was we had 70 degree weather with clear blue skies on Saturday, and on Sunday the day we had planned to go on our Windham High Peak hike, there was 30 degree weather and grey clouds and a misty rain. Such is life. However we persevered and in the end I was very glad we did.

Joe, Alison and myself started out at 10:30am at the Peck Road access in Maplecrest with hopes of bypassing any snow and ice on the trail. My thought in planning the hike this week was that we have been hiking north face trails lately and each time, they end up having snow and ice in the lower altitudes with much deeper, wet snow in the 3000 feet plus altitudes. Well after Westkill Mountain last week we were ready for a change. What a pleasant surprise we had to find no snow and ice at all and just sporatic muddy spots! Windham High Peak (WHP) has two access points. One from Route 23 in East Windham,and the other is Peck road. We chose Peck road, thinking coming from the South would help avoid the Snow. We didnt know that Route 23 and Peck Road access meets at Elm Ridge Lean to and takes the same ascent to WHP. The weather was cold windy and a fine mist of rain was falling on us in the parking area. We decided to leave the heavy rain gear in the car and only go with our waterproof windbreakers. We knew after a little time walking we would be sweating and we had a pretty long way to go (3.8 miles up and the same back out) so we chose to leave the extra weight behind.

The first part of the trail to WHP from here is on the Yellow Trail to the Elm Ridge Leanto where it intersects with the Blue Escarpment trail. The trail is wide and is made up of many large flat rocks that reminded me of a stream bed. There looked to be some foundation ruins off to the side of this trail, perhaps someone lived here many years ago. Not long after starting out hike on this trail, the fine mist turned into a large flaked snow. It wasnt sticking and it wasnt wet so we considered ourselves lucky. We weren’t getting wet at all. Sure enough by the time we had made it to the Elm Ridge Leanto (1.6 miles in) I was warm and took off my windbreaker and was down to a Tshirt and a Vest. We decided to check on the Leanto and found it in good shape. People had left some grills, a frying a pan and even a Dog Leash there for whoever may happen upon it and need it. We didnt stay here long and began our ascent up the Blue trail.

Not far along along on the Blue trail we found ourselves walking through a very beautiful Evergreen grove filled with tall creaking Balsam firs. The trees seemed like they were talking to us as they creaked to us from above. It gave me a wonderful feeling to walk through here as it smelled so fresh and beautiful and the sounds were so peaceful. These trees also shielded us from the wind which was pretty cold and still carrying the snow down. I am assuming that the log walks that we found on the path were put there because this area gets very wet and swampy when it rains alot. We were happy to hop onto them and play on the balance beam while leisurely walking along in this Pine Forest.

Soon after exiting the Pine Forest, we once again resumed climbing up towards WHP summit. As we rose, the trees lost their comforting feeling from below and now became much more twisted and bare as we ascended higher. The forest here reminded us of something out of a fantasy novel where Dark riders might soon pop out of the fog which surrounded us and chase us through this forgotten part of the world. The real story we believe is that the wind up on WHP can get pretty intense as we found out when we got higher. These trees which many have been here for ages have just naturally twisted and malformed due to the wind conditions leaving it with a very surreal and almost malevolent look to them. As noted earlier, there were a few viewpoints that we passed at this point in our hike, however since the Mountain was completely enveloped in a thick fog we didnt stop at any of them.

I checked my GPS altimeter and we were making great time. Already at 3200 feet, which after what seemed like a never ending journey up Westkill last week was a welcome surprise. The other thing about our hike up Windham High peak is that it seemed so gradual. There was never any really steep sections. The trail seemed to have a few mildly steep sections, then it would level out for awhile, then gradually ease you into another climb. It was really refreshing and we kept on commenting that we couldnt believe how easy this seemed comparably to Westkill and other mountains this time of year. I accredit to the fact that we were climbing a South face and also there was not a drop of snow on the ground although now it was snowing intermittently on us. At about 3400 feet, the trees had a thin layer of Snow stuck to them as if the wind had whipped it into sticking to the sides of the trees and branches. It was quite pretty and funny because none of this snow was sticking to the ground at all. They still had a gnarled quality to them up here, and the gloom of the fog surrounding the mountain was still quite prevalent.

In what seemed like no time at all, we saw the 3500 feet elevation sign and knew we were close to the top. The ground leveled out and the trees were much shorter and twisted. The trees were covered with a coating of ice that was so beautiful! However there was almost none on the trail itself. It was quite amazing to see these sort of hybrid weather conditions atop this mountain.  A little off the trail we found what seemed to be an Airplane cockpit cover that was getting snowed on. There looked to be good places for views on all sides up here, but it was so foggy that I didnt check too much to see if the rest of the plane could be found close by. We made the summit and congratulated ourselves on another 3500, and what seemed to be a very easy and mild hike through some great terrain. We had made it in about 2 hours total and thought that we should break out the PB&J’s and eat a quick Lunch. As we did the most wonderful thing began to happen. The clouds began to break up before our eyes and through what was once a thick layer of fog we saw Blue skies for the first time all day. Views north of the Cairo Durham area and beyond began to appear before us very far below and we really thought this was due to some sort of Divine intervention. We had passed two hikers on their way down and we commented that they were definitely not as lucky as we were to have this happen before our eyes.

After enjoying our luck and the view for a few more minutes, we packed up and began the descent back down to Peck road. Now walking through the gnarled forest was much less surreal. Views of Thomas Cole Mountain, Blackhead and Black Dome as well as the Maplecrest valley appeared below us. It was magnificent and we took many picture opportunities. We made it down through the Gnarled forest, and the Pine forest below that in what seemed like a short time. Even with taking a few photo stops, we were back at the car in about an hour and 45 minutes. We didnt feel the least bit fatigued, if anything we were refreshed. We could not believe how beautiful this day that started out so “iffy” turned out to be. Windham High Peak is gorgeous right now, and this is an area that seemed to be not very populated comparably to Westkill and the Platte Clove area. If you are going up the South face, there is no snow or ice on the ground, but there is a bit of mud. All in a all a wonderful Spring hike in the Catskills.

View the pics of the Windham High Peak hike here.

I’ve added a lot of recently acquired Antique Postcards to the postcard page. Take a look, and let me know if you have any information on them that I do not have in the caption for each. I would very much appreciate any information at all.