Jay H
01-08-2007, 07:44 PM
Hermit and I went and did the Blackhead range for his grid... we took the scenic way there by driving through the town of Hunter and up Rt 296 to Hensonville.... :)
Then from Big Hollow road, we were the first and only car at that parking lot when we got there around 8:30am, nobody else deciding to take advantage of the summer temps for BlackHead, but I figured we'd see cars there on our return for sure. Up the trail we headed, timing it perfectly that the major rains stopped before we left. I left my rain pants in Hermit's car and never did I have to don my rain jacket. The batavia kill was flowing pretty good which was a precursor of the entire weekend and just a bit of ice on the northern faces we saw. The steep section from the summit of BlackHead mt up the Escarpment trail had some decent ice patchs but they were navigatable without the use of crampons or stabilizers. Trail was wet and rocks were slippery. I fell on my butt and bounced back up once on the way down...
Great views of the schmoes trying to ski down Hunter on the patches of snow and just an overly warm day. Short sleeves were the name of the game and we finally ran into about 6 other hikers going up Black Head as we went down. We hiked Black Dome from Lockwood Gap over to Thomas Cole and then back over BD and then to BH and then down via the Batavia Kill.
Overall a nice spring hike!
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/556913063dGvReb
Jay
Then from Big Hollow road, we were the first and only car at that parking lot when we got there around 8:30am, nobody else deciding to take advantage of the summer temps for BlackHead, but I figured we'd see cars there on our return for sure. Up the trail we headed, timing it perfectly that the major rains stopped before we left. I left my rain pants in Hermit's car and never did I have to don my rain jacket. The batavia kill was flowing pretty good which was a precursor of the entire weekend and just a bit of ice on the northern faces we saw. The steep section from the summit of BlackHead mt up the Escarpment trail had some decent ice patchs but they were navigatable without the use of crampons or stabilizers. Trail was wet and rocks were slippery. I fell on my butt and bounced back up once on the way down...
Great views of the schmoes trying to ski down Hunter on the patches of snow and just an overly warm day. Short sleeves were the name of the game and we finally ran into about 6 other hikers going up Black Head as we went down. We hiked Black Dome from Lockwood Gap over to Thomas Cole and then back over BD and then to BH and then down via the Batavia Kill.
Overall a nice spring hike!
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/556913063dGvReb
Jay