Catskillmountaineer.com Forum

So we tackled Friday Mountain. Took us about 4.5 hours to get up cause the guys I was hiking with were a little out of shape. We didn't have enough time to get to Balsam Cap =(. Still was a great day for a hike, and we finally found the trail up to Friday Mountain. Those cliffs are amazing to hike along.


Spring has sprung


Some of the purple Trillium that Mike posted about last week.


Climbing up a hill. It is sooo much greener than when I went up slide last week.


Heading up after we traversed below the cliffs north of the cabin




Me


Heading up some ledges


Painted Trillium were all over above 3000 feet


Balsam Cap


heading up


Missed this trail last time.














canister on the tree


Summit shot


View from the top

It's a long slog up to Friday Mtn. I understand that the canister has been moved. It was quite a ways from the true summit. Not sure how far it has been moved. It really is too bad that you didn't get to Balsam Cap Mtn. It really isn't that far away. Maybe 1/2 hour if you are moving along. Balsam Cap Mountain is actually a lot easier because the terrain is quite easy. Some people also bag Rocky while they are up there.

I was on Rocky and Lone on Saturday. I did it the hard way, but I wanted to see all the view points. Not that many leaves on the trees, except for the beech trees.

Maybe when you go back, you can bag balsam cap mountain and rocky. It would make it a lot easier. If you did it as a traverse, you might be able to bag all six. Long day, no matter how you look at it. I prefer Friday, Balsam Cap, Rocky, and Lone as Winter hikes with snow on the ground.

We got to Balsam Cap last year when there was still a few feet of snow on the ground. We were trying to go to Friday, but never made it. We didn't see the trail up. I don't think they would have made it all the way up to Balsam Cap, it's a pretty windy way and they were beat from just doing Friday. I don't know if I'll be back there anytime soon. Also we did lone and rocky the next hike after that.
I've got more of the other trailess peaks to do. I plan on doing sherill and north dome next time. Also now my friends want to go back to the devil's path, and also traverse burrough's range. I still need to climb a bunch of the mountains along the Big Indian range, I haven't been to any of them such as eagle or double top. So there's a lot of places I have left to go. I doubt I'll go back up to Friday or Balsam cap until I've climbed all the rest, or unless some of my friends are itching to go.