Highlights of 2006?

[Deb]

What were some of your personal hiking highlights for 2006? Big or small?

I would have to mention something that blows me away even today when I think about it: seeing a mature American chestnut tree in bloom near Sundown primitive campsites. My friends and I were just walking along and there it was. Five trunks. Unmistakable. Wow.

[daLunartik]

I would have to mention something that blows me away even today when I think about it: seeing a mature American chestnut tree in bloom near Sundown primitive campsites. My friends and I were just walking along and there it was. Five trunks. Unmistakable. Wow.

Ummm - just the thought of a 5 leader Chestnut :D :D :eek::hippy2:

Still got a few more days of hiking left, so I don't want to jinx 'em - I'll let ya know next year :tup:

[Mavs00]

What were some of your personal hiking highlights for 2006? Big or small?

Do you mean just in the Catskills, or in general?

[billandjudy]

Finishing:D

[mountainmeijin]

1. Finding 3 gloves, sunglasses, a nascar t-shirt, two handkerchiefs and a sweater on various trails...all frozen solid and having been there quite some time...but not too long to be salvageable. All I need now is a set of pants to complete the outfit...incidentally, if anyone is looking for some clothes lost in the Catskills I seem to be the guy to ask about it.

2. Weekend of October 8th on Twin. Warm weather and full fall colors as far as the eye can see. Saw several people napping on the false summit.

3. The colorful weather on Bearpen/Vly back in June. It's not every day that you have both open summit views and torrential downpours concurrently.

4. Not necessarily Catskills, but the times I spent exploring the abandoned village at Potterville.

5. Being caught on top of Slide in an ice storm back in April. Not a pleasurable experience, but not one I'll soon forget.

And 100 other quirky moments (like taking a friend from Long Island to Ashokan High Point and having to explain what an acorn was) that I won't even try to list.

[lumberzac]

Seeing as this is in the Catskills section, I’ll list only my Catskill highlight, which was successfully completing a Devil’s Path dayhike in a little over 12 hours.

[Peakbagr]

Bookah and I getting a running start on the Catskill100's. :tup:

[MattC]

My Catskill highlights for 2006:

-Finishing a winter round
-Getting my first trail work experience
-One beautiful late summer morning by myself on Buck Ridge Lookout, after spending the night in Diamond Notch. It was sublime

Matt

[Doodles]

Finishing the Catskill 35 and if all goes well tomorrow,

Finishing the Catskill W35.

All the great people I have met this past year in the Catskills.

George

[mudhook]

Started the 2006 highlite with a trip up Graham and Balsam Lk Mt. 1/2/06, will finish highliteing 12/31/06 with something.

[Gary]

Sorry, just noticed your talking cats.

In that case - after Sewards - only 8 lives left.

#1 - Deciding not to give up on the 46 after dying on Seward...
#2 - First solo hike to grab Iroquois
#3 - Near sprint up Esther and Whiteface
#4 - Every step in these mountains

Not necessarily in this order.

[Jay H]

Catskills highlights

1)Finally getting to see the Mongaup Pond campsites and hiking some peaks over there. I can certainly thank the CAT102 and Mark Schaefer for the wonderful beta on all those beautiful little peaks we have in the region. The hiking around Mongaup Pond, such as Sand Pond, Beaver Kill Ridge, Hodge Pond is really beautiful. Beech Mtn is a very nice peak that 95% of the peakbaggers will never see.

2)The CAT102 in general, what a fun thing to do, I am enjoying the bushwacks more than the 3500 peaks, I love the great little places you go to just to hike some silly peak. Barkaboom is probably the silliest peak I've hiked so far on the 102, it is such a nice little hop though and getting there is fun.

3)MAGIC'06 Turned out to be a fun and very nice weekend with a chance to finally meet some folks for the first time, rather than just by their username. And the hiking was great too!

Jay

[coldfeet]

Highlights were trying to plan days off between my children's activities and other responsibilities....but here are a few...

Hiking Thomas Cole/Black Dome with funkyFreddy and my crampon bar kept sliding off....called Rock and Snow from the peak asking for help :eek:

Late May Cat 3500 club hike up Graham with Tom and Laurie...thunder, lightning and hail!

Saw a porcupine on Rusk on a club hike..

Jay's gathering was nice

Other hikes...
ADK- winter hike across Avalanche Lake with RockySummit birds ate out of my hand..
Baxter ---Katahdin with 2 of my children
Maine - vftt winter gathering
Mass..- vftt gathering

6 views and brews hikes!

[Tmax]

#1 My "winter" finish on Windham HP in a rain storm and HarryK in shorts!:D

#2 Running into a porcupine on Thomas Cole summit and my dog obeying my command to "stay" and not chase it...:bang:

#3 Climbing Kaaterskill HP in icy conditions for HarryK and SpongeBob's finish with my arm in a sling:eek:

[Deb]

- After several years of just thinking about it, I did the Wittenberg loop from Woodland Valley as an overnight April 19-20. I saw my first-ever Catskills bear on the east side of Slide. The next morning the walk on the old road (public easement) north of Winnisook was tranquil and beautiful.

- Seeing the Blue Pool for the first time and jumping in. So cold.

[daLunartik]

My first Bear encounter, on Big Indian

Luna Moths on Biscuit Brook Trail

Seeing a Bobcat in broad daylight while watching Bald Eagles feed at Tivoli Bay

A Flying Squirrel in flight on Windham (gotta love night hiking!)

Waking up and seeing a Fox hopping in the forest of Wittenberg

Spending 10 minutes "hanging out" with a Porcupine on Vly

Woodpeckers on every hike, including standing in a swarm of Sapsuckers on Windham and finding a Pileated woodpecker nest between Eagle and Balsam

[TFR]

Finishing the W35, doing a lot of the CHH.

[Snickers]

Catskills #1629 :tup:
Chipping away at the Whites - up to 23 :tup:
Great trip to Switzerland - Walkers Haute Route from Chamonix, France to Zermatt, Switzerland :tup:
Finally starting to work on the ADK 46 :D
Meeting Joe :p (he is turning out to be a very special person in my life) :p

Happy Trails!!