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Sherrill 3-10-13

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 6:33 pm
by Jon
Was still 2 feet of snow, and we followed some other snowshoers up. We didn't get to the trailhead until about 10:30, and by then it was already warm enough to not have coats on. We heard a steady howling in the valley that sounded eerie. It was like a wounded wolf or coyote or something. We never saw any tracks or heard it after we got up Sherrill.

The tracks we followed were fresh, but the snow was just starting to warm up. Here is Frank below some large Hemlocks.
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I used the photomerge to make this out of 3 shots of a huge hemlock.
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The trail up
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The unbroken snow
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I'm pretty sure this is Halcott. It's hard to tell which way our backs were facing.
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Funny because Frank took 3 pictures of me and this is the only one in focus. Oh well...
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Frank by the canister
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We headed down into the valley between the two mountains
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Sherrill from the lower portion of North Dome. It started getting really hot and we turned around and abandoned North Dome. It was so hot and the snow was reflecting so much in between those mountains, that as we climbed back out we both got sunburn.
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We ran into the party that was ahead of us, and they were heading back up Sherrill. We started sinking in the snow pretty bad, like over 1 ft because it was melting so much. We climbed back up to Sherrill and then back down the way we had come to the parking lot.

Re: Sherrill 3-10-13

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 10:14 pm
by TrunksWD
Nice shots as always! You must be getting close to finishing. I hiked Plateau the same day. Even though there was a couple feet of snow it had been walked on enough that we only needed microspikes.

Re: Sherrill 3-10-13

Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 11:39 pm
by mike
The hike from Shaft Road to Sherrill Mtn is very nice. But, if you have to break trail, it wears you out. A couple years ago, I did Sherrill. At some points, I would sink in 2' for each step. Very tired. There is also a very nice view looking south from the summit. Nice pics.

Don't remember the large conifers. Where did you see them?

Re: Sherrill 3-10-13

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 5:55 pm
by Jon
Thankfully I wasn't breaking trail. Mind you this was my 1st time there, and also the first time I snowshoed in the catskills. We just followed the path that the party ahead of us had plowed.

We were more to the northern side of the spine, we hadn't really climbed up the apex. This was a little more shaded and hemlocks are found on shady slopes like this. This one had a very nice stand. It will be interesting to return there in the summer and see if the wooly adelgids are attacking them like they have struck the ones on Wittenberg.

Here is the GPS track that we took, and I don't know the exact location of the Hemlock grove but it is somewhere in the general location of this green rectangle. It was before it started getting really steep.
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Some more photos:

Here is the picture taken 15 minutes prior to the Hemlock grove. So it was within 1/4 mile of this perspective of this mountain (I think it's Halcott)
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Frank standing by the larger trees
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Some younger/smaller members of the family:
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We only hiked in them for maybe 5-10 minutes. I should have taken some better shots.

Re: Sherrill 3-10-13

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 9:06 pm
by SNEAKers
Really like the huge hemlock photomerge! These types of shots are my favorite (especially the Nat Geo redwood shots), but they are very difficult to get. Great job on this one!

Re: Sherrill 3-10-13

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 11:00 pm
by mike
I remember now. I remember seeing them off to the north slightly, but didn't go there. I'll have to revisit it again to check them out. I think they are further up the mtn too. But, off the spline of the ridge.