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Eagle Mountain 8-4

Balsam Mtn (3602), Beaver Kill Range, Big Indian Mtn, Eagle, Hayes, Hirams Knob, Fir, Hemlock, High Falls Ridge, Mongaup, Sand Pond Mtn, Spruce, Willowemoc, Winnisock Lake Mt,
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Jon
Posts: 324
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2011 9:43 pm
Location: Bangor, PA

Eagle Mountain 8-4

Unread post by Jon »

So I was going to go up eagle and Big Indian, but it was super humid out. The temp was only 80s but the air was really thick and oppressing. It's nice that the hike up to Eagle is mostly in the shade, but there were tons of flies out on Saturday. It was really disgusting when I got to the summit there were millions of flies, some of them an inch long and really black.

In addition to all the flies, I figured I was the first person on the trail. I was breaking all the spider webs on the way up, and probably ate about 20-30 spiders and rotting fly carcasses. I had borrowed my wife's poles for the day since my splints were hurting me and I wound up just waving them around in front of me to try to get the cobwebs out of the way before me.

I got back to the intersection pretty early, by about 1 and decided to skip the humidity and more bugs and not go for Big Indian. I'll go up there when I take the bushwack to Fir. I hiked back down past the lean-to.

When I was near the end of the trail, I stopped to take a picture and I spotted some sunglasses on the trail. I was thinking about bending down to pick them up, and all of a sudden there was instant pain in my arm, and in the back of my gaiter. I thought the fastener on my gaiter had caught on my skin or something and I looked and saw a giant bug biting me. I think it was a wasp or a hornet and no matter how many times i swatted it away it just kept jumping back on me. I ran away and finally got rid of it, but my arm and leg stung until I got back to NJ.

So yah, I got to the top of the mountain but the bugs won...

Here's the registration box and the sign reminding you that this trail passes through private land
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The trail follows a stream, and it crosses it a few times. I imagine in high water a lot of these would be difficult. There is also some woods roads and a camp up here on the private land. Here's a bench I saw at the intersection with the road.
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Here's a bridge where the woods road crosses the trail.
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Entrance to private land
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Nettles on both sides of the trail. There's a lot but not soo many that you can't snake through. I didn't get hit this time. whew.
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I always tell my wife and my mom about them, and they don't understand about the tiny needles until I showed them this picture. Here's a closeup of the stem of a nettles.
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I don't remember much of a climb. There's only two sections where it's steep enough to be considered "vertical" and even those sections are easily navigated. I would say that Eagle is a relatively easy climb compared to some of the other 3500 trails.
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Here's me at a clearing that I decided was the summit, or close enough to it. I couldn't tell from mike's picture if there were any cairns or anything, and I saw this firepit that looks destroyed and decided it was probably it. I didn't see much of a trail west of here, and the flies were going crazy with me being the only smelly thing within a mile.
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Here is a section of fern covered trail. There are some pines on this mountain, but they don't dominate.
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Back by the lean-to
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I assume this is a spring for the lean-to. It's flowing even though the stream is dry.
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Waterfall from the bridge
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Another small cascade with a pool below. It was right after this that I was stung by the wasp
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Back at the car
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mike
Posts: 1442
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:20 pm
Location: Ravena, NY

Re: Eagle Mountain 8-4

Unread post by mike »

Nice trail report Jon. Looks similar to what we saw on the hike up the mountain. No views, but the forest is nice. Nettles, not so much. Lots of nettles in that region.

When I woke up on Saturday, it was already hot and muggy. I decided to cancel my solo hike to Stoppel Point from Dutchers Notch. It would have been miserable. Sunday might have been better. Quite a good breeze and slightly lower temperatures.

When we hiked Eagle a week ago, the horseflies and deerflies keep trying to bite me. They have quite a sting, and are very persistent. I had bug spray on, and it only slowed them down.

I tried to take a picture of the falls, but the sun and shade made a mess of the pictures. Your actually looks nice. I would like to get Rich K there for some photography from inside the ravine.
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Jon
Posts: 324
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2011 9:43 pm
Location: Bangor, PA

Re: Eagle Mountain 8-4

Unread post by Jon »

yah I wanted to go down to them and get a closer look but it is private property and I figured I should just stick to the public trail.
mtnclimber
Posts: 496
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 10:46 pm

Re: Eagle Mountain 8-4

Unread post by mtnclimber »

There is a better waterfall on the trail from the road up to the col between Eagle and BI. It is about 150' off the trail. Real pretty.

The ones down by the road are nice too.

Love that picture of nettles. They looks so delicate when you first see them. But, once stung, you learn to hate them.
daveoleary
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2012 1:05 am

Re: Eagle Mountain 8-4

Unread post by daveoleary »

I hiked up Big Indian and Eagle mtns from the Biscuit Brook parking lot last Saturday. It started raining as I was leaving the parking lot, but then slowed to a drizzle as I was near the Biscuit Brk shelter and crossing the streams. Only when I passed the 3500' elevation sign did it start raining much harder and the thunder started :-(
Climbed up to sign the canister anyway but didn't hang around. Continued on toward Eagle in the pouring rain. By the time I got to the junction it was still raining hard and the thunder claps were coming within less than a second after the lightning, so I decided to head down to the lean-to along the Seager trail. Almost all the elevation drop is in the first mile, so getting a bit tired by the time I got down there. There were a couple of crossings on the way down which were well over ankle deep and the stream by the shelter was roaring along, glad I did not need to cross it. Ate lunch at the shelter and waited a little while and the sun started to peek out, just as I was wondering how long it would take to walk back out on the road to the trailhead where my car was parked. The sky was definitely clearing and the thunder had stopped so I headed back up the hill. I figured that Biscuit Brook and the other crossings down low would be pretty high, I would walk up to Eagle to give the streams a little while to drain out (not know how long they would take to crest, but what the heck, I had come this far). Disappointed to see that someone had taken the cairn rocks on the top of Eagle, constructed and used a fire ring right on top in the little clearing. What part of "no fires about 3500 feet elevation" is not clear? Headed back down, past the trail junction and over the shoulder of Big Indian, down to the parking lot. Crossing Biscuit Brook was not bad at all, maybe 12-14" deep. The trail crossing is at a pretty wide spot and the water was washing over the rocks that someone put in for crossing but by this time by boots and socks were soaked anyway so I just waded along the flat bottom using a stick for some extra balance. The only people I saw all day were four hikers coming down the trail within 30 minutes of starting (one woman who warned "naked hikers coming" and sure enough, the next three were naked! Two guys and a woman, friendly enough but we didn't talk long) and then there were a couple of guys down in the stream near the Biscuit Brook shelter. I didn't go to talk with them (I don't think they were naked). I guess about 16 miles altogether including the side trips to the summits and down to the Seager trail shelter. Pretty tired by the end, about 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., a good day.
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mike
Posts: 1442
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:20 pm
Location: Ravena, NY

Re: Eagle Mountain 8-4

Unread post by mike »

Sounds like you had quite a hike Dave. Rain and lightning is a combination I don't like. Especially when you are up on a ridge. But, you got to safety.

I don't think I have seen the stream by the lean-to run strong. I guess it does when it rains. Nice to know.

I am sure someone will build the cairn back up again. But, having a fire during the drought isn't a good idea.

Naked hikers? Wow! I guess I am happy to have missed that one. Maybe they were part of the Naked Hiking Club.

16 miles is a long day of hiking. Sounds like a good, even with all the drama. Thanks for sharing.
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