Sunday I hiked from Rt 16 near Devil's Kitchen to the summit of Plattekill Mtn. It snowed on Saturday, so I took my snowshoes. I started out around noontime from Rt 16. There was about 4-5 inches of snow on the ground. The trail still had water running down it, which made travel difficult. There was a number of people who had traveled before me. The further I hiked, the less number of shoes prints I saw. Finally, I was down to one person ahead of me.
When I got to the trail head to Indian Head, I suddenly picked up quite a few people ahead of me. But, when I got to the lean-to, there was a half-dozen people there. They were all Asian, and didn't really want to talk with me. Their lunch smelled terrible. I pushed further up the trail.
At the junction to Plattekill Mtn and by the old blue stone quarry, I left the only set of foot prints behind. The hike up to the high blue stone quarry. It was a quick trip. A lot of new large trees down on the path. When I got past the upper blue stone quarry, I left the well defined trail, and took a left and headed up the old path to the summit.
I was able to follow the old trail from time-to-time. Actually, a nice hike. When I got near the top, there was a number of conifer trees. The summit was a little boring. There were a couple of large boulders at the summit. I also went further south to look at the views overlooking Echo Lake. Didn't have a real good view. But, I could see the Ashokan Reservoir. There was about 6-8 inches of snow. A herd of deer had walked thru. I did see one grouse fly off.
While standing there, I started to get cold quickly. My gloves were wet, and I got cold. Once I started to hike down, I did warm up nicely. My gloves dried out quickly. Fell once on the way down. It will be better once we get more snow.
Got back to the car around 4pm. Nice little hike. It was 5.66 miles and a little over 1,000 vertical feet. Easy hike. Will do it again this winter.
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Plattekill Mtn Trail - Indian Head Mtn Range
- mike
- Posts: 1442
- Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:20 pm
- Location: Ravena, NY
- dave
- Posts: 712
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:14 pm
- Location: Acra New York
Re: Plattekill Mtn Trail - Indian Head Mtn Range
I have always liked that hike during the Winter. It is a very easy hike. I don't like it during the summer. Too big of a risk of Rattlesankes.
- alexis
- Posts: 53
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:12 pm
- Location: Kingston NY
Re: Plattekill Mtn Trail - Indian Head Mtn Range
I was in Florida, and missed this hike. I left for FL a couple days prior to your hike, it was 60 degrees out. Then you get a dump of snow. I look forward to hiking Plattekill later in the winter. Thanks for the detailed description of the hike.