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I took my Brother on his very first Catskill hike. We ended up just doing Giant Ledge, but he had a great time. There were hardly any bugs and it was a clear day. It was around 70 with very little humidity. Here are the photos I took. Sorry about the quality, they were taken from my phone.
The halfway point to the top of Giant Ledge.
That is me with Cornell and Wittenberg in the background. Couldn't really see Slide with the leaves on the trees. I hope to finish the Catskill 35 with those 2 mountains in the Fall. Though i still have 15 left to do, including those 2.
The Devil's Path cleary visible in the background.
mike wrote:Great pics! You picked a great day to go hiking. Looks like you had a great time.
You can never get tired of Giant Ledge.
Which 15 do you have left?
Giant Ledge is a good hike for inexperienced hikers. This was my third time up there, last two times I did it with Panther, and the views are just as great as ever.
If I remember correctly, I've got 10 hikes to do the 15 high peaks. I plan to do Westkill, Balsam, and Balsam Lake and Graham over the summer. I also have Twin and Sugarloaf as one hike, Cornell and Wittenberg as another and Kaaterskill High Peak. For true bushwhacks I have Big Indian and Fir, Halcott, and 3 I'm not looking forward too, Lone, Rocky, and Balsam Cap. I'll probably do Lone and Rocky together.
For Balsam Cap, which way do you recommend doing it. The short and steep way, or from the Neversink?
When you get ready to do Kaaterskill High Peak, let us know. We'll take you up the western access trail. One of the best hikes in the Catskills. To find all the great features, you need someone to guide you.
I usually do Balsam Cap with Friday. But, I would do it from Moonhaw Road. I prefer to do this hike in the Winter months.
Rocky and Lone are tough. Again, I would do it when the leaves are not on the trees. Much easier. I would do this from Denning Road.
You could do it as a full transverse. Hike from Denning. Hit Lone -> Rocky -> Balsam Cap -> Moonhaw Road. Need to spot a car on Moonhaw Road before starting from Denning.
Try doing the bushwhacks from late October to early May. Leaves cause too many problem. Halcott has LOTS of prickers, so do it in the Winter.
I'll let you know when I plan to do Kaaterskill. I'll probably end up doing it sometime October or maybe late September.
When I did Friday last Fall I did it with a couple friends who had already done Balsam Cap, so they decided to do it with Slide. We hiked up slide, down the steep side and halfway between it and Cornell we turned off the trail and bushwhacked up to Friday. It was very thick trees the entire way. Friday was only my 4th Catskill high peak.
I guess I'll probably finish the Catskill 35 with Halcott than. I wanted to finish with Wittenberg and Cornell, but I've heard the Cornell crack can be nearly impossible if there is ice.
That is the first I've heard that you can go around the Crack. The problem in the Winter for me is getting an early enough start, so I'm not doing a lot of night hiking. It takes me 2 to 2.5 hours to get up to the Catskills.
TrunksWD wrote:That is the first I've heard that you can go around the Crack. The problem in the Winter for me is getting an early enough start, so I'm not doing a lot of night hiking. It takes me 2 to 2.5 hours to get up to the Catskills.
I hear that, takes me 2 hours going like 75-80 to get up to the catskills from NJ. I couldn't imagine in snow covered roads going at 50, it would take like 3-4 hours.
Then you gotta figure there's less day light in the winter, and slower going in the snow. Only way to get it done would be to stay up there the night before, somewhere really close to the mountains and then go.
I was lucky doing the winter peaks this past winter, there was no snow. Just getting a vehicle up some of these roads is difficult. I remember going up peekamoose rd and it being snow covered and thinking i was just going to slide off into the ravine. That was with like 2 inches of snow. What happens when there's 5 feet?
Also you might be able to get "around" the crack, but as long as it's covered in ice I don't think it would be that bad with a set of crampons on.
TrunksWD wrote:That is the first I've heard that you can go around the Crack. The problem in the Winter for me is getting an early enough start, so I'm not doing a lot of night hiking. It takes me 2 to 2.5 hours to get up to the Catskills.
I hear that, takes me 2 hours going like 75-80 to get up to the catskills from NJ. I couldn't imagine in snow covered roads going at 50, it would take like 3-4 hours.
Then you gotta figure there's less day light in the winter, and slower going in the snow. Only way to get it done would be to stay up there the night before, somewhere really close to the mountains and then go.
I was lucky doing the winter peaks this past winter, there was no snow. Just getting a vehicle up some of these roads is difficult. I remember going up peekamoose rd and it being snow covered and thinking i was just going to slide off into the ravine. That was with like 2 inches of snow. What happens when there's 5 feet?
Also you might be able to get "around" the crack, but as long as it's covered in ice I don't think it would be that bad with a set of crampons on.
It was a great winter for hiking. I went up there almost every weekend from mid February to the end of April. I went from 11 high peaks to 24 out og 39 (Which Includes the 4 winter peaks).
