Windham High Peak

[Rik]

Today I got to take a teenager hiking for her first hike. Always such a pleasure to introduce a young person to the woods and hills. Dali, Charlene, and the daughter of a friend of Charlene joined me for a hike on this beautiful November day. It was cloudy on the drive down but cleared as the day went on. I had originally thought I would climb something I hadn't climbed before but since we had someone new with us it seemed to make sense to hike a familiar hike. Last week when we drove by the trailhead for Windham we both agreed it had been a while and we should reclimb that one soon. All of this lead me to Windham. It was six years ago almost to the day that we had climbed this trail. We had been back from the other side a couple of winters ago. A couple of cars in the lot. The register is very messed up from people signing on numerous pages. The beginning of the trail is very wet. Is it always like this? Last time the ground was frozen so I was surprised at how much water was on the start of the trail. In fact, it was wet in several places. There were paths forming around many of the wet spots. Probably the wettest Catskill hike I've done except the snowmobile trail on Kaaterskill. The walk up was nice and the sun got warmer as we climbed. There were a few people at the southern lookout when we got up there so we continued on and had lunch at the rocks with all the engravings in them. After lunch we backtracked to the southern view and spent some time staring at the Blackhead range and soaking up the sun. The wind was much less here as well. On the way down we saw a few people coming up and we passed the people we had seen on top. I think our new hiker enjoyed herself. She did well all day but I caught her dozing off on the drive home. I think Charlene may have dozed as well. And come to think of it, so did Dali! I don't think I dozed for more than a few minutes. Beautiful fall day in the Catskills.

[mudhook]

Windham is a nice spot to introduce someone to hiking. Lots of variation, lots to see. The bottom is often a wet mess from Rt 23 to the first real turn.
I find when I tell my passengers i'm going to take a short nap, they are more than willing to stay awake the whole trip home. Dog included.

[Mark Schaefer]

IIRC there is some beaver activity along the stream paralleling Route 23 (the outlet of Spring Lake) which is causing the flooding at the start of the Escarpment Trail. WHP is a nice short trail with a nice view reward. Great for new hikers. Those reforestation areas (primarily Norway spruce, with some red pine) are a favorite of mine also. Although they are not native species, they do provide a very attractive and surreal scene to walk though.

It seems like a number of the trailhead sign-in registers have been in need of repair recently, with books suffering water damage. Roaring Kill trailhead perhaps, but my memory is a little hazy. The summit trail register on Huntersfield was also moved inside the lean-to this year, which solved it's leaking problem.

[Rik]

It seems like a number of the trailhead sign-in registers have been in need of repair recently, with books suffering water damage. Roaring Kill trailhead perhaps, but my memory is a little hazy. The summit trail register on Huntersfield was also moved inside the lean-to this year, which solved it's leaking problem.

The latch on the box itself is also broken. It's being held closed by a walking stick wedged under the latch.

[Jay H]

Have to be careful with a lot of those sticky latches... My friend once cut his hand pretty bad. It was very bloody like many finger cuts and wasn't a great way to start a hike...getting cut on the trail register!

Jay