Highpoint - Mount Mansfield, Vermont

Location: Mount Mansfield
Elevation: 4,393 ft
Distance: 6.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 2,600 ft
Difficulty: Easy/Moderate

I was lucky enough to get in an unexpected hike and check another highpoint off my list!

Because this was an unexpected visit, I did not get to choose the best weather day to do this hike. But I wanted to make the most of it and didn't want to miss the opportunity to get this peak.

There are a few routes to summit this mountain. The Long Path goes through here and is a pretty popular choice. I chose to go up the Sunset ridge trail. This trail has a lot of open viewpoints and would be the best option on a nice clear day. On the day I had made the summit, it had rained the previous night, and the clouds still lingered on for quite a bit. The beginning of the hike had intermittent spurts of drizzle and as I ascended more the rain dispersed, but everything was shrouded in clouds! If you have never hiked in clouds before, it is a good experience to have. To drive on a road and see a mountaintop enveloped in clouds and then be there in that cloud a few hours later.

 One of the beauties of this visit was that it was in the beginning stages of fall foliage. There would be occasional bursts of beautiful bright reds bursting from the greens and mellow yellows of a bunch of trees.

The hike begins from the Underhill State Park parking lot. There is a $3 fee per person, as well as restrooms. Here you will connect with the Blue-marked Sunset Ridge trail via the Eagle Cut Trail. It is a moderate ascent, but not too bad. There were about 2 spots that involved a bit of a rock scramble up. Eventually the trail opens up onto open rocks, offering grand views (when there are no clouds). Once I reached the intersection of the trail with the Laura Cowles trail at the top, it became extremely windy and created quite a windchill temperature wise. A few seconds of bare skin in the wind are really not a good combo. Good thing I bought my thermals with me!

And the highpoint, the CHIN

BRRRR.....couldn't stay at the top long. I had been hoping the clouds would clear, but no luck! Alas, I descended back down the way I came up. The rains from the night before and earlier that morning had turned everything to ice on top of the mountain.

On the way down, I decided to take the side trail they have that goes out to Cantilever Rock. The clouds had cleared here to get a nice view.

After resting here for a few minutes, shortly after starting out on the trail, I heard a distinct growl come from just off the trail near some rock crevices. My heart leaped high and legs jellied and profanities rolled off the tongue to say the least lol. I glanced behind me quickly and didn't see anything in plain sight and hiked quickly away, hoping the animal that growled would not follow me. And it did not. Thankfully.

I arrived safely back at the car, glad to have finished this summit.

I wanted to include a photo from my night at the Dry River Campground the previous night. I would highly recommend this campground if you're in the area and looking for a night out. It had rained off and on and after dinner this beautiful rainbow suddenly appeared. It really brightened my night!! Nature can sometimes devastate, but it also rewards. Just like life in general.

Best view in town....who needs an expensive hotel?! :)

Links: http://www.vtstateparks.com/htm/underhill.htm
http://www.summitpost.org/sunset-ridge-trail/394696

Quote for this hike:

"Happiness is good health and a bad memory." -From the Vermont local paper.

Hunter Mountain - Catskills

Location: Hunter Mtn (4,040 ft) in the Catskills of NY
Mileage: 4.8 miles
Elevation Gain: 2,210 ft
Difficulty: Hard
Type: Out and Back

The previous night I stayed at the Devil's Tombstone Campground. It has running water and an outhouse, but no other amenities if you're looking for a shower. It gets the job done for a place to crash for the night with your tent.

I hadn't decided on a hike to do the next day. It had rained quite a bit during the night and the morning was still quite foggy with mist. Not having a map or cell phone reception I drove along on the road to the first trail head I came upon. This turned out to be Hunter Mountain via the Becker Hollow trail. There was one person in the lot so I inquired the distance for the hike. "It's 2.3 miles to the summit," he said. Sounds good to me! Nice and short. "But it is steep he warned." Ah, can't be that bad I thought. It turns out it is about 2,000 feet in elevation gain over 2 miles. It took me about 2 hours to get up to the top and an hour to come down. Whew!

The trail starts out flat for a bit. It is very deceiving. It will then start to gradually climb and as it gets closer to the top it becomes steeper and steeper. It is an unrelenting climb, and seems to be never ending.

The weather wasn't too bad at the start of the hike. Looking out along side the trail you can see the mountain across the way as you're climbing up to match it's height. The mountain (not sure which one it is that is in view) looked so tall from where I stood that I couldn't imagine reaching it's height and looking out across and being level with it eye to eye. As I ascended more and more, it became as if I was walking into a rain cloud. I could no longer see across the way and it rained on and off through the openings of the trees. It made for a slower climb, once the rocks became more slick with rain towards the top.

The summit of this mountain has a tower that will offer great views on clear days. There is also a ranger station with a fireplace and bunk beds. I was the first to summit the mountain for the day and sign into the log book. At the top were 4 other people who had camped out the previous night. One of them graciously offered me some water without me asking. He somehow knew I had been low, as I had been rationing it towards the top. Unfortunately, because the mountain seemed to be in a cloud at the moment, I did not see the views from the tower, but my goal for the day had just been to summit. The views begin to look the same after awhile and I was lucky enough to see many the previous day. Sometimes the goal of a hike is the summit view and sometimes the goal is the journey and sometimes it is both. It is enjoyable either way.

Summit

Foggy Tower Scene

Once you turn onto this summit, a resounding peace automatically consumes the soul. Before reaching the tower, you are greeted with a forest of conifers that is a delight to walk through. It becomes a different world, after the difficult climb up. It is these moments of a hike that you remember why you do it, why you hike. You forget the difficult parts in that moment and savor the outcome.

Not every hike should be hiked in the most perfect of weathers. Sometimes it's good to experience a cloud or two. There is beauty in every angle.

When I reached the start of the trail again and got back to my car, the weather was crystal clear. It is funny how things change so quickly and how the weather on a mountain can be so drastically different.

I would like to add in some reviews on my camp out as well seeing as it was the first rain night test! I will save this for my next post as it is almost bedtime.



Link: http://www.summitpost.org/becker-hollow/202570

Indian Head and Twin - Catskills

Summits: Indian Head (3,573 ft elevation) and Twin (3,650 ft elevation) Mountains of the Catskills
Mileage: 8.4 Miles
Elevation Gain: 2,763 ft
Difficulty: Moderate

This hike includes 2 of the 35 summits over 3,500 ft in the Catskills. It makes for a good day hike. The trail head is on Prediger Road. Most of the lot was full by the time I got there at 10 am on a weekend morning.

Part of what I love about hiking is the drive to the destination. The drive leaves from the busy parkways of Long Island, thru the bustling activity of NYC to the crowded highways and rest stops of upstate NY until gradually it thins out more and more until eventually you hit the singular roads sparse of another car and you know you've hit home. The moment when that first mountain comes into view and a sense of heightened anticipation creeps into the heart. Blue Mountain Road is a wonderful name for a road and it was on this road that my anticipation finally reached it's peak knowing I was almost there. Platte Clove Rd, the road preceding Prediger is wonderfully scenic and peaceful as well. This road is closed during the winter time, which is another reason to do this hike within the season.

For this hike, it is simple to follow. You will traverse a section of the Devil's Path which is famous for it's strenuous elevation gain. Just follow the red markers. When you come to the first intersection before you make the right turn to start the uphill climbing, if you keep going just a bit you can check you the Devil's Kitchen Lean-to. It is a nice set up for a shelter to spend the night at.

The trail's climb isn't too bad. It is gradual in some spots. Then there are sections you will get to that are more like climbing and you will have to use tree branches as hand grips to pull yourself up. One couple there was actually filming the section you climb up. It is after that climb that you get to a fantastic viewpoint over a ledge at the top of Indian Head mtn. I think I was expecting some sort of obvious sign that I had reached the summit, so I hadn't realized I had already summited Indian Head until I was off it. Oops! The only other Catskill mountain I had peaked was Slide and that summit had been obvious. This one I kept hiking wondering when I'd get there until I was descending and eventually realized I was on my way to Twin. So I assume this viewpoint after the climb is the main summit.

You will descend a few hundred feet and get to the sign for the junction with the Blue Trail. You will be taking the Blue trail back down to your car after coming back from Twin. What goes up must come down and vice versa. So up we go again! Twin seemed to be a bit steeper. The views were also more grandiose. There is a great viewpoint just a bit before the actual summit, but make sure to continue on to bag the peak. There had been a group at the summit so this time I verified I had reached the official top. After the summit, turn around and retrace the trail back to the junction and follow the blue trail back to the trail head.

This was my first time on the Devil's Path and I expected it to be very strenuous from articles I had read on it. In actuality, it was not too bad. I imagine the difficulty comes from doing the entire path at once, which is about 24 miles, hence the continuous ups and downs would be a lot more tougher. For a day hike, the Whites contain more of the Devil in them in my opinion. :) Nothing quite kicks my tush more than the NH mountains.



Links:
http://hikethehudsonvalley.com/indian-head-mt-and-twin-mt/
http://www.catskillhiker.net/Catskill35/peaks/indianhead.shtml
http://www.catskillmountaineer.com/IH-twin.html