Hunter Mt.

[Dick]

A trip to NH with forum member Antlerpeak was postponed, so Joanne and I decided to add our third Catskill peak in 20 years! In spite of being so close to these mountains, we've always gravitated toward the Adirondacks, which we know much better than the Catskills. I really don't know why. They are both so beautiful in so many different ways. In any case, down we went. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day: sunny, temps in the 40's. We were apparently the only hikers there that day. At least no one else parked there or signed in at that trailhead. We had the entire mountain to ourselves! How often does that happen?

Two stone arch pillars (minus the arch) served as our gateway at the Becker Hollow trailhead. The trail was gentle, as it wandered through an old farm area, and crossed the stream on a well-built bridge. After a few stream crossings (all were flowing, but easy), the trail started to go up. And up. And up some more. Essentially the trail was one large set of switchbacks up to a ridge. The woods are incredibly open, not the claustrophobic constraint of so much of the Adirondacks (also beautiful, just different). No snow at all at these lower levels. Only an occasional downed limb or two. The fact that leaves were not yet on the trees afforded us rear views as we gained altitude. Almost no birds or wind, just a wonderfully eerie calm, with occasional creaking of trees, though we heard the wind above us - a portent of things to come!

As we climbed higher, we saw occasional patches of snow in the woods. Eventually this gave way to occasional patches of snow on the trail - slushy to hard-packed, easily skirted or walked on. Finally, several hundred feet from the summit, winter set in. The trail became all snow (c. 4-5") and we encountered the wind we had heard below. Certainly not much snow compared to what's left in some of the Adirondacks, but winter nevertheless. We followed faint tracks of past hikers, though on some of the sections the snow had blown over. We were armed with crampons (overkill) and Yak-traks (fairly useless), but we intentionally did not bring our snowshoes with us. In retrospect, that was a big mistake, but we were expecting conditions similar to Windham High Peak, which we had climbed a few weeks ago, which had no snow. Snowshoes would have been helpful, but barebooting was OK. We went slowly and we were fine.

At the junction we encountered two signs near a log. One was the "yellow" trail to the summit (which we followed), and the other was the blue trail to a lookout area, I think the location of the earlier fire tower. The two signs were confusing (the blue trail indicated .3 miles to Hunter Mt. (site of the former tower), and the yellow trail indicated .35 mi. to the tower, which I understand is the true summit. From the signs only, one could surmise that the ultimate summit was straight ahead, and that both areas are connected.

Moving toward the tower on the Yellow trail, the going was mercifully level (more or less), and after some confusing pink flagging (should be removed?), eventually the trail goes into a "tunnel" of firs and balsam, finally reaching the summit. The summit is a flat circle containing a ranger's cabin, a firetower, a privvy (a solid '7' on Joanne ADK rating scale!), and a horse thingy (that's a technical term, known and understood by only a few informed outdoor scholars). Signs indicated there were several ways to get to this mountaintop, one of which is by horse.

Absolutely no views at ground level, due to a ring of fir and balsam trees surrounding the summit. From the tower, INCREDIBLE 360-degree views were seen! However, the knock-you-down wind up there was so fierce that I could only stay for a few seconds, and didn't want to attempt loosing the camera, or my life, so Joanne's pictures at the second landing will have to suffice.

Descending was uneventful, save for a few fun butt-slides (planned and otherwise). A DEC website suggested that this trail was "arguably the most difficult hike in the Catskills - climbing nearly 2,000 feet in two miles." Our take was that it was more or less comparable to Cascade Mt. in the Adirondacks - one of the easier of the high peaks - minus the summit rock cone. Do seasoned Catskill hikers have that impression? It was a nice little workout, but not really a big deal compared to other challenges in the Adirondacks. Is that really the hardest of the trails that the Catskills has to offer?

So...we're Catskill 3'ers! We're certainly enchanted enough with the area to return to do other hikes. Whether we do them all remains to be seen. So many peaks (and other places), so little time!

Dick

[TFR]

As we climbed higher, we saw occasional patches of snow in the woods. Eventually this gave way to occasional patches of snow on the trail - slushy to hard-packed, easily skirted or walked on. Finally, several hundred feet from the summit, winter set in. The trail became all snow (c. 4-5") and we encountered the wind we had heard below. Certainly not much snow compared to what's left in some of the Adirondacks, but winter nevertheless. We followed faint tracks of past hikers, though on some of the sections the snow had blown over. We were armed with crampons (overkill) and Yak-traks (fairly useless), but we intentionally did not bring our snowshoes with us. In retrospect, that was a big mistake, but we were expecting conditions similar to Windham High Peak, which we had climbed a few weeks ago, which had no snow. Snowshoes would have been helpful, but barebooting was OK. We went slowly and we were fine.

At the junction we encountered two signs near a log. One was the "yellow" trail to the summit (which we followed), and the other was the blue trail to a lookout area, I think the location of the earlier fire tower. The two signs were confusing (the blue trail indicated .3 miles to Hunter Mt. (site of the former tower), and the yellow trail indicated .35 mi. to the tower, which I understand is the true summit. From the signs only, one could surmise that the ultimate summit was straight ahead, and that both areas are connected.

Absolutely no views at ground level, due to a ring of fir and balsam trees surrounding the summit. From the tower, INCREDIBLE 360-degree views were seen! However, the knock-you-down wind up there was so fierce that I could only stay for a few seconds, and didn't want to attempt loosing the camera, or my life, so Joanne's pictures at the second landing will have to suffice.

Descending was uneventful, save for a few fun butt-slides (planned and otherwise). A DEC website suggested that this trail was "arguably the most difficult hike in the Catskills - climbing nearly 2,000 feet in two miles." Our take was that it was more or less comparable to Cascade Mt. in the Adirondacks - one of the easier of the high peaks - minus the summit rock cone. Do seasoned Catskill hikers have that impression? It was a nice little workout, but not really a big deal compared to other challenges in the Adirondacks. Is that really the hardest of the trails that the Catskills has to offer?
Dick

I did a hike like that up Hunter once, it turned to snow as I ascended.

The sign:

http://home.hvc.rr.com/trankin/IMG_3263.JPG

The problem with this sign is 'Hunter Mt' is not the summit. The firetower area is the summit. Those trails make a loop btw, so you can walk around to both and be certain if you want to! :D

I love the views up there!

The Becker Hollow trail is a long, steep pitch, with almost no breaks. There are steeper pitches in the catskills, but they are shorter. But for a long, steep pitch, it probably is one of the toughest. Of course 'long' is relative here. It's only 2.2 miles to the summit.

After you hike the other 32, we'll discuss it further! :D

[billandjudy]

The Devils path from Notch Lake up to Plateau is a steep climb. 1700 vertical in 1.1 mi. I remember it being a real quad burner. We did it in the fall and had great views back into Stony Clove Notch

[Edelweiss]

Here are some pictures of Dick's and my hike up Hunter Mountain.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&conn_speed=1&Uc=tdpb2qu.9mpbkc02&Uy=-sq4lu&Ux=0

[Jay H]

Nice pictures Dick and Joann! Looks like a beautiful day. Commonly pretty windy on Hunter Mtn, especially in the firetowers where there is no tree protection. I see you took a picture of the adaptive horse loading station (for lack of a better name) on the summit. The equestrians can start at the trail on Spruceton Road cause there's another "loading station" there too, however, becker hollow, where you started is on the east side of Hunter and Spruceton Road is somewhat on the western approach.

Many people get lost on Hunter cause you get tourists taking the ski lift up the mtn, then hiking a short way past the old John Robb leanto and the Colonal's Chair (as one of your trail sign pictures points to) and then getting to the firetower. But then they can't find their way back or more often than not, miss the right turn on the Colonel's Chair and wind up on Spruceton road, begging one of the homeowner's there to drive them back to Hunter Mtn ski area!!!!

Jay

[Mark Schaefer]

Nice pictures Joanne and Dick

I already responded on VFTT, but a few additional notes. Those signs at the trail junction have always been a pet peeve of mine. Mainly because of the summit confusion, but also because the 0.62 miles via the blue trail is more like 0.5. I was almost glad when I saw the signs laying on the ground last September, hoping that the DEC might provide better replacements. Perhaps adding confusion is that the named trails (Becker Hollow, Spruceton, and Hunter Mt) all end at the old fire tower site. It would make more sense for the Hunter Mt. trail to actually reach and terminate at the summit, but I will settle for less ambiguous signs.

At the southwest edge of the current tower clearing is a rock, giant step up. The rock is engraved with the 4040' elevation and a large arrow pointing north. This rock is generally considered to be the summit, which is perhaps important only to county high point purists. Most hikers understandably just make a beeline to the fire tower for the view. The tower cab is usually open weekends in summer (less often in other seasons), which gives some protection from the wind. But I often prefer weekdays, and like you I have occasionally had the summit to myself. I have even had rare days with nary a breeze.

Near the old tower site is a very nice ledge view into the Spruceton Valley. A path begins opposite the top of the Becker Hollow trail. Many years ago there was a short, yellow-marked trail, but the sign and markers are long gone. The path is still easy to follow, and splits in two just before the two viewpoints. Though these are a more limited view to the south and west, I like them much as the tower view. It is also a good spot to hear Bicknell's Thrushes and other birds once they return.

I had never noticed the "detour" sign in Tom's photo before. Perhaps it was a temporary mud season detour. The short 0.3 miles of trail between the two tower sites is one of the muddier trails in the Catskills, although by Adirondack standards the mud is meager. There is a fairly good theory (though debated by some) that the last ice age in general covered the Catskills up to 3500'. The depth rose to 3900' on the higher summits. The summits of Slide, Hunter, and a few others appear to have escaped the most recent glacial scouring that occurred at lower elevations. Both Slide and Hunter have greater amounts of soil above 3900' and lack deep glacial striations which supports the theory. There are some more weathered striations on the Slide summit, however, that indicate earlier ice ages completely covered the Catskills.

[Dick]

I already responded on VFTT, but a few additional notes. Those signs at the trail junction have always been a pet peeve of mine. Mainly because of the summit confusion, but also because the 0.62 miles via the blue trail is more like 0.5. I was almost glad when I saw the signs laying on the ground last September, hoping that the DEC might provide better replacements. Perhaps adding confusion is that the named trails (Becker Hollow, Spruceton, and Hunter Mt) all end at the old fire tower site. It would make more sense for the Hunter Mt. trail to actually reach and terminate at the summit, but I will settle for less ambiguous signs. We were forewarned by the guidebook about the sign confusion (color), which we didn't think would be a big deal. I actually noticed only the fire tower sign on the way up, stuck in the snow. We saw tracks leading to what we new was the old fire tower site. On the way back we saw the second sign, half buried in snow on the ground. It said "Hunter Mt." and for a fleeting moment I thought we hadn't reached the true summit until I remembered that the book said the new tower was the true summit. Maybe all the old sign has to say is "lookout" or "old tower site" or some such, with correct mileage to true summit. At the southwest edge of the current tower clearing is a rock, giant step up. The rock is engraved with the 4040' elevation and a large arrow pointing north. This rock is generally considered to be the summit, which is perhaps important only to county high point purists. I didn't particularly notice the rock with engraving. No purists here. We were out for a nice dayhike, not a conquest. Even finishing the ADK 46, we felt no need to touch every marker! Near the old tower site is a very nice ledge view into the Spruceton Valley. A path begins opposite the top of the Becker Hollow trail. Many years ago there was a short, yellow-marked trail, but the sign and markers are long gone. The path is still easy to follow, and splits in two just before the two viewpoints. Though these are a more limited view to the south and west, I like them much as the tower view. It is also a good spot to hear Bicknell's Thrushes and other birds once they return. Thanks, we'll have to check this out next time (and there will be a next time!).
I had never noticed the "detour" sign in Tom's photo before. Perhaps it was a temporary mud season detour. The short 0.3 miles of trail between the two tower sites is one of the muddier trails in the Catskills, although by Adirondack standards the mud is meager. I can't say for certain if it was there, but I don't remember it. It may have been removed (it looks temporary) or was buried in snow (both signs were on the ground).There is a fairly good theory (though debated by some) that the last ice age in general covered the Catskills up to 3500'. The depth rose to 3900' on the higher summits. The summits of Slide, Hunter, and a few others appear to have escaped the most recent glacial scouring that occurred at lower elevations. Both Slide and Hunter have greater amounts of soil above 3900' and lack deep glacial striations which supports the theory. There are some more weathered striations on the Slide summit, however, that indicate earlier ice ages completely covered the Catskills. I appreciate the information from a knowedgeable Catskills person! We continue to become more enchanted with the area. Still hard to believe the TH is an hour from home and we've never been there!

Dick

[rockysummit]

Glad you had a nice trip up Hunter. I also agree with Mark, the view from the ledge is more interesting, unspoiled and wilder. I usually spend a few minutes at the tower and then head for the ledge for a long break, soaking it all in. Hope you continue to stop by the Catskills... I'm sure you'll enjoy!

[MattC]

We continue to become more enchanted with the area. Still hard to believe the TH is an hour from home and we've never been there!

That's a wonderful thing-you have this whole new area to explore now. Glad to see you enjoyed another Catskills trip. I concur w/ the others' opinion of the lower lookout on Hunter-Rocky Summit summed it up nicely.

As you've already seen, the Catskills lack the wide open, spacious summits that make some of the Adirondack peaks so special. Some of the little Catskill lookouts are special in a whole other way though-they're often these quiet, intimate little places, yet they look out onto a substantial piece of land.

I also agree w/ Mark's point (made on the VFTT thread, actually) about multiple peak hikes. None of the trailed Catskill peaks is all that strenous when climbed alone, but they can become challenging when you string two or more together. Kaaterskill High Peak and West Kill come to mind as two that are often climbed alone, but most of the other High Peaks are commonly climbed w/ one or more others.

I still stand by my earlier recommendation of Wittenberg, BTW. ;)

Matt

[Dick]

I also agree w/ Mark's point (made on the VFTT thread, actually) about multiple peak hikes. None of the trailed Catskill peaks is all that strenous when climbed alone, but they can become challenging when you string two or more together. Kaaterskill High Peak and West Kill come to mind as two that are often climbed alone, but most of the other High Peaks are commonly climbed w/ one or more others.

I still stand by my earlier recommendation of Wittenberg, BTW. ;)

Matt

Thanks, Matt. Of course, many of the ADK high peaks are also often done in twos, threes, and more, as you know, though they don't have to be, and we often went against the crowd in that respect, sometimes by choice, sometimes do to our pace. For example, we did the Santanoni Mtns. in three separate hikes, The Sewards in three, and the Dixes in four, though people often do each of these ranges in one long hike. As I get more familiar with the Catskill area, and the maps, I'll be picking your brain to see what mountains might work well as a group FOR US and which ones we might want to savor. I'm also interested in the Devil's Path at some point.

Dick

[billandjudy]

Our favorite so far was a Blackhead Range traverse. Thomas Cole, Black Dome and Blackhead. We continued on to Acra Point and finished on the Black Dome Trail--2 cars are needed though. 1 at Big Hollow Road PA, the other at Barnum Road PA--it's a short drive from 1 to the other. It's a great day hike--about 8 miles and about 3100 vertical--If you get an early start you can extend it to include Burnt Knob and Windham HP--exiting on Peck Road--that gets you 13 miles and 4300 vertical. Another favorite traverse of ours is the Burroughs range--Again 2 cars are needed. We started with Whittenberg, over Cornell and then up the steep side of Slide, finishing at the Slide PA--unfortunately it was a rainy day so we missed the views on Whittenberg. It's on our list to do again!

[Edelweiss]

THANKS ALL for your encouragement and suggestions. It looks like we have another LIST :D of hikes to complete!

Joanne

[Dick]

THANKS ALL for your encouragement and suggestions. It looks like we have another LIST :D of hikes to complete!

Joanne

Hey, don't your remember? We swore off on doing lists!

Dick

[imarchant]

Nice Trip reportand pictures. I'm glad you have discovered the catskills! I'm saving hunter for my Final 3500 peak. I hope the views are as good on the day I complete :D

See this Thread (http://www.viewsfromthetop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11528) on the subject.