Where: Catskill Park, NY
# Days: 3
Mileage: 17ish
Mountains Bagged: Big Indian Mtn, Twin Mtn, Sugarload Mtn, Plateau Mtn, Hunter Mtn
Yay! Another trip in the Catskills. The more I go there, the more I love them. The mountains aren't necessarily tall, most of these are between 3500 and 4000 feet, but the terrain is challenging, and each trip has proven to be difficult and demanding, and I leave loving the mountains even more. This trip was no exception :)
This trip was taken with my good friend Tania. We set out on a very ambitious trip, which may have been our first mistake. We got up and over Big Indian Mountain, and because we had gotten started much later than planned, we camped between Big Indian and Twin. Nice campsite, nothing spectacular, but when the sun came up over Big Indian the next morning, it was quite beautiful. Unfortunately, getting going over Twin, Tania stopped me not too far up. She wasn't feeling too well, and after a long break and staring at the map and talking about our options, we agreed she would downhike a side trail back to the car, drive to a road crossing in about 6 miles, and meet me at the shelter 2 miles up from the road. Only one problem - we forgot to factor in the sun sets at 5pm now due to daylight savings, and wasn't so respectful of just how hard the terrain would be for me to hike the 9 miles to the shelter to meet up with her.
Going up and over Twin the rest of the way wasn't so terrible. Heading up Sugarloaf, however, I started to feel I was getting tired already. Thankfully, at the base of Sugarloaf, right before hiking up, I had met a mother and her son, and hiked up and over with them. They were great conversation, and made the climb a lot more enjoyable. Turns out, the son actually spent last summer working on Wildlife Management at the flight line at Eielson AFB in Alaska, so we had lots to talk about! Small world :)
When I started up Plateau Mtn, I quickly realized that this would not only be the hardest hike of the trip, but also that there was no way I was going to make it to the shelter before it got dark. At first, I was just going to pitch my tent when it got dark. But then I started feeling bad about Tania staying in the shelter alone, without a hot meal, and decided "what the heck, I love night hiking, I'll just night hike to the shelter!" The night hike was quite enjoyable, some of it I was able to do without a headlamp because the moon was so bright. There were field mice all around me squeaking away which made me smile, and I saw the most amazing sunset view over the valley. Well, around 8pm, I finally arrived at the shelter, exhausted and hungry.
The next morning, we hiked a nice easy hike up to Hunter, got a great view from the fire tower, enjoyed a tasty lunch, and headed back to my car. What a trip! I sit here tired, sore, exhausted, but still excited for whatever my next trip will be, just like always :)
Unfortunately, because Tania took the camera with her when she left me, I don't have any photos of my solo hike. We did get some photos though from before she left me and after we met back up, which I put up on my flickr:
www.flickr.com/photos/theashface
Hope you enjoy! Planning a winter trip hopefully in February, so stay tuned!!
