Catskillmountaineer.com Forum

Doing a thru-hike of Wittenberg-Cornell-Slide next weekend 6/20-6/22. We're thinking of trying a little bushwhack side trip to Friday mountain, since it's pretty close from Cornell. Anyone ever try this and know what the terrain between the two is like? Trying to figure how do-able an idea this is!

Red spruce.

Like Christmas trees. Planted two feet apart with their branches interwoven.

It's done pretty regularly by those who fancy the challenge. In fact, they often do a nine peak loop, starting with Table and Peekamoose, and then going over Lone, Rocky, Balsam Cap, Friday and finishing with the Burroughs Range. Any time I've been on Witt-Cornell-Slide, I've seen people finishing that loop. They come out bloody.

Good to know. Thanks for the info, kennykb. We were looking at the maps and it's just so close! W-C-S is a little short for a weekend trip for us, so wanted to add a little extra to it.

Like Christmas trees. Planted two feet apart with their branches interwoven.

PERFECT description Kevin!

If you head towards Friday from the col between Slide and Cornell, you can skip a lot of the dense fir trees. But, that short distance takes a lot of energy to get to the summit of Friday (or the cannister).

Friday Mtn is SO close, but SO far away! But, there is an easy route to get there, but I understand it is hard to find.

I hiked Slide and Friday in one hike and the trees were extremely thick. I was really scratched up. We were going slower than a mile hour and it was over a mile in the trees each way. I recommend hiking Friday from Moon Haw where the section of thick trees is much shorter.

The bushwhacking was not too bad, I have years of experience. I got up maybe 700' before the top of Friday Mt starting at 5:00 PM, then came back down before it got too dark. I found two ticks on my clothing, one was stuck in my boot between the rubber and the leather. If I do it again it will be in winter and on a clearly broken in trail somewhere else, I did not like such a long hike with no trail for the Catskills, it really does make a big difference when there is no trail, and I got sick of it after a while after I passed the cabin. I knew which way to go, but I did not like having to be looking all over the place all the time. I also expected it to be much more inclined, it was not too bad really and even a little down hill for a short bit in one place.

BTW if you get lyme I have something for that at my website, redirectionalism dot com. I am not trying to sell anyone anything, people are looking for help, just trying to be helpful with some links for that. See the links on the left, the first page is religious.