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Re: Old fort on Kaaterskill Mountain Range

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 12:18 pm
by dave
I would be real interested to see you do this again, and post the hike on-line.

I understand that many of the boulders on the side of Round Top Mtn came from "Rock pushers" in the late 1800's that would search out large boulders and push them over the side, and get excited about them crashing down the mountainside. Same thing happen at Kaaterskill Falls. Fortunately, they didn't get Boulder Rock or the rock in Indianhead.

Re: Old fort on Kaaterskill Mountain Range

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 11:48 am
by mike
Yes, I really want to go back soon. Maybe this weekend. Depends up on a number of different factors.

Yeah, the boulders were strange. It did seem like they were pushed down, and didn't come down with a glacier. That part makes sense. I think the lower ledge is the key to the hike. Also need to figure out the last part of the hike to Kaaterskill High Peak.

I also want to follow the trail to the top. But, I would like to go with someone else who is patient. I do want to measure out the fort and document it.

Re: Old tory fort on Kaaterskill Mountain Range

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:30 pm
by mike
Hiked back up there again Sunday. Took the lower ledge, but it leads to a dead-end. 50' drop on the left and a 50' cliff on the right, and a 30' wall in front of me. Had to backtrack all the way back to the west side the Round Top Mtn. Then went back to the widest ledge around 3250'. Found the old trail, which was not that hard. It hugged the edge of the ledge. Pretty easy walking considering what the other ledges looked like. Had to clear some downed limbs out of the way.

After reaching the saddle between Round Top Mtn and Kaaterskill High Peak, we hugged the north side, and found an easy entry way to the saddle. It appears that horses came up there in the past. Might be an another easy way up. Worthy of some investigation.

Measured Tory Fort. Only have some walls on two sides. Still not sure how big it is.

Did find some of the trail up the west side of KHP. Comes out 50' south of the KHP summit.

Did hike up from the DEP parking lot #2. Shortens the hike almost 1.5 miles. I think this is the shortest hike, and the easiest hike to Kaaterskill High Peak.

The freshly fallen leaves really made following the trail hard.

Re: Old tory fort on Kaaterskill Mountain Range

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 11:18 am
by mtnclimber
Seems like there is a possibility that this could become a nice snowshoe trail in the winter. The North access trail is too difficult, and the south is too dangerous. I will have to try it sometime.

Re: Old tory fort on Kaaterskill Mountain Range

Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:11 pm
by Peakbagr
First post here. I know a couple of Catskill people who would love to join on a hike to the old fort. One of them is a historian with a number of books to his credit.

PB

Re: Old tory fort on Kaaterskill Mountain Range

Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:04 pm
by mike
Yeah, I would like to show some more people the Troy Fort. I spent years researching and looking for it. I am actually pretty excited about finding it. I would like to keep the party small. Cindy has also expressed a desire to do the hike.

I know that Rockysummit was looking for it back in 2005 from the Viewsfromthetop forum.

We found a map from the 1950's that had the exact location marked on it. I searched the saddle for quite some time, and I was just about ready to give up, when I found it. I then confirmed it with a military historian. He confirmed the location, and gave us some history on it.

We also know that they had horses up there. We are not sure which route they used to get them up there.

I really like the west access path. Very few people know about it.