Kaaterskill HP and Roundtop 10/16/06

[billandjudy]

After 7 weeks of remodeling, I'd had enough of paint,flooring,molding etc. I had to get out of the *&*^@# house!
I was looking for something that wouldn't kill me (I wasn't sure how much fitness I had lost) plus a HH, so KHP and Roundtop would do just fine--about 9.5 miles,easy trails and a short BW. The day was great--50's I'd say--bright blue sky. The walk up KHP was the usual mud and wet areas--a bog really--hit the summit got some views and off to RT. What a great BW after getting thru the Balsam top--clear sailing with a very apparent herd path down to the col. Some cool cliffs to climb up and through. I found the view on the North side--actually better than KHP I think. Tok a bearing straight down and picked up the Snowmobile Trail back. What a great feeling to be back outside!! I'm just wish Judy could have come but she had to work.
Not much color left--just yellow Beech leaves--Maples are all gone--
Stopped at the waterfalls that follow the lower trail--nice pics http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/554884681tQSXyC
with quite a bit of water flowing

[Mark Schaefer]

Nice report and pictures. Roundtop is a very nice mountain.

The waterfalls is on the Hell Hole Brook. I have seen at least one guidebook refer to this stream as the Plattekill Creek (the main stream of the Platte Clove), but it is actually a tributary. The Plattekill Creek is the stream that passes under the king post bridge in the Platte Clove Preserve, on the Long Path just south of the road. The Plattekill Creek also drains the southern slope of KHP, one stream west of the Hell Hole Brook. It crosses under the Platte Clove Rd just west of the Platte Clove Preserve.

Hell Hole is a curious name, but after all it does flow and fall into the Devil's Kitchen. The stone bridge on the Platte Clove Rd over the brook is call the Hell Hole Bridge. The brook downstream from that bridge is a very popular ice climbing route in winter. A very impressive wall of ice lines the west side of the brook in the Devil's Kitchen during cold weather.

[billandjudy]

Thanks Mark---None of my maps have the name of the brook. It is quite pretty--I'll have to go back in the winter.

[Jay H]

Ack, are the nettles gone yet??? Did you bushwack down from RT to the snowmobile trail? Matt, Fred, and I did KHP and RT in the summer and I think we made it a point to sort of go back towards KHP because of a fear of bushwacking down right into the nettles on the south side of the mountain. We didn't go back to hurricane ledge but we kind of angled back towards the unmaintained trail on the south side but enough so that we missed the cliffs.

Mark: There is a "hell hole" in Popolopen Gorge in Harriman SP.. or it might actually be Bear Mtn but they're right next to each other. It is a nice place with a nice trail and a nice man made waterfall on the popolopen gorge. People whitewater the stream around there out to the Hudson right by the Bear Mtn Bridge from what I've seen.

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/3830/

Anyway, further upstream I think is Hell Hole and it's labelled on the NYNJTC maps for Harriman SP.

Jay

[billandjudy]

Nettles are gone as are ferns and any other plants that don't freeze well. There were icicles hanging from the ledges on the north side, and signs of frozen and thawed mud. Can snowshoes and crampons be far off? I BW'd back down the north side to the SM trail (nice glimpses of Twilight Park and Tannersville in the valley)--no sign of nettles there (not even frozen ones). I know the south side is nettle heaven.
There is a very distinct herd path between KHP and RT--did you guys see it?

[Jay H]

I think we followed one for the most part. In between the col between RT and KHP, we kind of spent a little time at a really cool ampitheater like place. it was a narrow cut in the col and just past it there was a little shale/bluestone cliff where we were thinking it would be cool to have a little concert there, kind of like a catskills ampitheater..

Jay

[mudhook]

I saw the theatre but never found a herd path on my trip last summer. Great views on RT SW side, never got to the north side. Nice? Have to go back. Whos afraid of nettles? (now that they are gone)! I saw hectacres of dead and dying nettles sunday. hurray for winter.

[Mark Schaefer]

RIP nettles. OK, OK, RIH nettles, 2006. And speaking of Hell.

Mark: There is a "hell hole" in Popolopen Gorge in Harriman SP.. or it might actually be Bear Mtn but they're right next to each other. It is a nice place with a nice trail and a nice man made waterfall on the popolopen gorge. People whitewater the stream around there out to the Hudson right by the Bear Mtn Bridge from what I've seen.

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/3830/

Anyway, further upstream I think is Hell Hole and it's labelled on the NYNJTC maps for Harriman SP. Jay, I have photographed the falls/dam below the Hell Hole in the Popolopen Gorge several times, usually in the spring. I have also photographed kayakers there, but only downstream in the flat water near that new fangled hiker suspension bridge that connects the two forts. I will need to look for the kayakers nearer the falls the next time I am there. From your link it sounds like kayakers also paddle above the dam. It is in Bear Mountain SP (though the boundary with Harriman SP is not far away).

Hell Hole is a very common name. I suppose part of it was the past history of seeing wilderness as an unfriendly or threatening place. But also most of us probably have worked in, lived in, driven through, or otherwise had the misfortune of being in hell holes. ;)

Regarding the Hell Hole in the Devil's Kitchen, here are some photos (http://www.yellowecho.com/travel/devils_kitchen.htm) downstream from the Hell Hole bridge. And some ice climbing photos (http://www.steveline.com/iceclimbing/catskills/) of the Hell Hole. And a few from the other side of the Devil's Kitchen, the Cold Kill Falls (http://www.mirolka.com/DKitchen.htm) (a.k.a. Black Chasm Falls) which are downstream from the Devil's Kitchen lean-to.

The ice climbers have their own creative terminology when it comes to describing routes, the most popular are listed here (http://www.alpineendeavors.com/logistics/catskill%20ice%20conditions.html). Those guys and gals live in an alternate reality from most of us, but it looks to be an eerily beautiful world.