I lived in Tivoli, NY for many years, in a cabin behind Tivoli Bays, with a perfect view of the mountains and I would always look at the big ledge and wonder what it would be like to climb it. Because of my work, which is only getting more intense (I study and survey timber rattlesnake and copperhead populations), I figured it was time to get up there and see what was going on. I have heard about there being many rattlesnakes on Minister's Face, with a den above the ledge, to the south side, and friends that have been up and said they’ve seen them in the rock slides below. I have also heard the rock slide was formed in the 1920s, when part of the cliff collapsed, and people heard it from many miles away.
And so, the only write up online was by a couple that visited in 2018 and took some photos, did a blog write-up and left a map of their ascent. I followed their course, parking at the regular Mead’s Mountain trailhead and taking an Uber to MacGee Rd where an easement trail cuts through some quarries and heads up an old stream bed with some small cascading waterfalls. The entire trip to the end of the brook was fairly easy, light uphill walking. There were some trails, criss crossing, none of them leading anywhere specific, good GPS know how is a must. At the end of the brook, it got noticeably steeper, but with some switchback up hill, it wasn’t so bad, for less than half of a mile. When I reached the rock slide, I was a little surprised at how easy it was to get up there.
Crossing the rocks, toward the north end of the face was a fun little adventure, looking for rattlesnakes with each step. I only saw three of them but I’m sure there were plenty more that I missed. The ones I saw were very placid and not at all irritable, I was able to pull one out and get some good photos, large snake.
Getting to the top of the face became problematic when I ascended a sloped hill to the bottom of the ledge and found myself stuck in a little box canyon. I slid down the steep hill, and this took quite a bit of effort and tired me quickly. I had to follow the cliff base another 1/8 a mile until I came to an area that I could climb. Some laurel made it easy, for grip, to ascend a chute that took me to the outcrops on the north side of the upper face. The laurel was bad though, along with trees with low lying branches, and this hindered my progress toward the south side of the face. I found two more rattlers sitting at the edge of a vista, without a care in the world that I was there, standing right over them. At some point the laurel was so bad I couldn’t continue. I noticed my water supply was half empty, with a good ¾ of a mile left to the top, to catch the trail to the fire tower, and so I headed away from the ledge and toward my way points. The laurel was treacherous. I was swimming in bushes. At some point I panicked a little and thought I might never get out, and that it might be easier to go back the way I came up, but I pushed on anyhow. Thankfully, within a few hundred yards, the forest opened up, and although the terrain was uphill, climbing plateaus with small ledges, there was very little laurel for the rest of the way.
I found the trail, waved to some other hikers, took some photos at the vista, and made my way down to my car. My feet were so sore and the 2 mile walk downhill on the road was slow going. I don’t really like the Mead’s Mountain / Fire Tower hike, and although it was all bushwhacking and the laurel on top of the face sucked, Minister's Face was more fun than the fire tower walk, IMO. I have been on about 170 hikes this year, to about 120 places, and this was one of the more dificult hikes (I do a lot of shorter walks up hills and small mountains visiting pit viper spots), although I was glad I accomplished this moderate to mildly advanced hike (by normal Catskill standards).
If anyone is planning on going up and wants some info, feel free to PM me.
DC
