Yankee Smith Trail
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:37 pm
When we arrived this morning it was 11 degrees. There was 4-6" of hard packed snow. The weather was a long ways from last week. Winter truly arrived this week. For the first mile my feet were cold. It didn't help that I left my hiking boots in my car overnight. But, with a little hard hiking, I warmed up.
We both strapped on our snowshoes. We didn't have a problem with deep snow. But, we were going to cross some ice flows, and we had to cross the Countryman Kill Stream. This creek has a fair amount of water running down it. When we crossed the creek, Alexis almost fell in. But, we saved her from a cold dunk in the creek. We then hiked down to the five waterfalls. We didn't venture down to the waterfalls. With the exception of the second one, which has a nice walkway to the top and bottom of the falls.
From there we took the Yankee Smith Trail to Winter Clove Resort. The trail runs along the State property line. It is a fairly level hike across the bottom of the ridge. Along the way we encountered a number of small waterfalls. They were just small ones. Around 5-10' high. They all had nice ice flows. But, easy to cross with snowshoes. The sun came out a couple times during the day. Thankfully, the wind was calm. When we got the Artist Falls bridge we turned around and hiked back.
While it was cold at the start of the hike, the temperatures warmed up during the day. By the time we got back to the car the temperature rose to 26 degrees. Overall, we had a good time. The trip is about 7 miles round trip. Here are a couple of pictures:
map of the hike of the Yankee Smith trail from Stork Nest Road to Winter Clove Resort
Bridge by the DEC registration box
Beginning of the Yankee Smith trail on the waterfall side (countryman kill creek)
Forth waterfall on the Countryman Kill Creek
View of the Yankee Smith Trail
The beginning of the trail on the Winter Clove side
Artist Fall bridge near the Winter Clove Resort
We both strapped on our snowshoes. We didn't have a problem with deep snow. But, we were going to cross some ice flows, and we had to cross the Countryman Kill Stream. This creek has a fair amount of water running down it. When we crossed the creek, Alexis almost fell in. But, we saved her from a cold dunk in the creek. We then hiked down to the five waterfalls. We didn't venture down to the waterfalls. With the exception of the second one, which has a nice walkway to the top and bottom of the falls.
From there we took the Yankee Smith Trail to Winter Clove Resort. The trail runs along the State property line. It is a fairly level hike across the bottom of the ridge. Along the way we encountered a number of small waterfalls. They were just small ones. Around 5-10' high. They all had nice ice flows. But, easy to cross with snowshoes. The sun came out a couple times during the day. Thankfully, the wind was calm. When we got the Artist Falls bridge we turned around and hiked back.
While it was cold at the start of the hike, the temperatures warmed up during the day. By the time we got back to the car the temperature rose to 26 degrees. Overall, we had a good time. The trip is about 7 miles round trip. Here are a couple of pictures:
map of the hike of the Yankee Smith trail from Stork Nest Road to Winter Clove Resort
Bridge by the DEC registration box
Beginning of the Yankee Smith trail on the waterfall side (countryman kill creek)
Forth waterfall on the Countryman Kill Creek
View of the Yankee Smith Trail
The beginning of the trail on the Winter Clove side
Artist Fall bridge near the Winter Clove Resort