When I arrived this morning at the parking area on Platte Clove Road it was 39 degrees with a light drizzle and I was in the clouds. My initial though was that the clouds would lift and the drizzle would stop. That would happen, but not after I had visited the summit and was on my way down.
It was windy at the parking lot, so I put my fleece and shell jacket on. There are were about 7-8 cars there. Most were ice climbing in the Devil's Kitchen. I could hear the crashing of water from Plattekill Falls from the Parking area. I headed across the King Post bridge on snowshoes. As soon as I entered the forest, the wind stopped to zero mph with drizzle. Soon I was sweating, so I took my fleece off. My shell jacket was soaking wet, but not soaking thru. I couldn't put my hood up, because I would get too hot. So, my hair was sopping wet along with my coat and snow pants. I was dry and warm inside, so I was good. Part way up the snow disappeared due to the water running down the trail. Made it difficult to snowshoe up the trail. The further I climbed the thicker the clouds became. The rain continued. That part sucked.
When I finally got to the third quarry, the wind picked up and I started to dry out. but, as I approached the summit, the conifer trees dumped lots of water on me. I became wet again, along with high winds. I was still in the clouds.
From the third quarry up, traveling was difficult. It became icier, but I started to break through the snow pack. As I got near the summit, I would fall in up to 3'. That sucked, along with the conifer trees dumping water on me. It really sapped the energy out of me. Once on the summit, the clouds were so thick, I couldn't see more then 25-50' in front of me. No point in looking for view points. I quickly turn around and headed down. About 1/2 way down the clouds cleared away and the rain stopped. Oh well!
When I got down to the 2nd quarry, I spent some time checking out the quarry. In the summer I am reluctant to do this due to Rattlesnakes. It is about 1,000 feet long. Quite a big quarry. I stopped for a moment to change back into my fleece jacket because it was windy and colder. I also eat a little and had a bottle of water.
When I got down to the trail junction to Indian Head Mtn I took some time to check out some routes down into Devil's Kitchen. Think I found a route I had researched before. I then walked back to the car. I only hiked 6.5 miles, but I was tired due to the break-thru on Plattekill summit ascent. Here are some pictures:
King Post construction bridge across the creek by Platte Clove Road
Walk thru the conifer forest at the beginning of the hike
Lean-to
Water crossing by the lean-to
Trail past the Lean-to
Trail up to Plattekill Mtn - Clouds are getting thicker and thicker
Quarry #2 - nice view of the Hudson Valley
