An afternoon on Overlook.

[mountainmeijin]

It's a warm day, and the sunsets are getting later, so I decided to head out to Overlook, since it had been nearly a year since I last hiked it. I started of of the Mead's Mountain Road PA at about 4:00 Pm and it was packed with cars.

Hiking up I must have passed 40 people descending. I love Overlook Mountain, but I hate the Overlook Mountain "Trail." It's smooth, at a steady moderate gradient (ha ha). Just one monotonous step after another at a grade that's steep enough to be felt, but not steep enough to give the satisfying feeling of ascending. Furthermore, the smoothness will always make my heel fall lower than my toes, consistently yanking on my calves with every step, unlike the variety of positions of stretching and contracting and relaxing that your legs will go into on rockier trails. As a result, the trail tires me out like you wouldn't believe. I probably take less breaks hiking up Wittenberg than I do on Overlook.

Eventually I made the old hotel ruins and stopped for pictures. Bet that old place was something to see back in the day. After that it's an easy .5 miles to the summit. I trust fire towers for stability less that I trust overhanging ledges, so I skipped the tower and heading straight for the overlook, where one can see everything from Columbia County right across to the Burroughs Range. Beautiful day up there, and the summit was completely empty by now, save for one more person who stopped and stayed briefly. Guess I just missed the rush. I was tempted to stay for the full moon tonight, but I was getting tired, so I left by about 6:45. I've been meaning to hike that one at night for some time now, but have never gotten around to it.

One thing that depresses me is the sheer amount of trash along the trail. I packed out more junk today....maybe the 3500 club should organize a cleaning up effort along the trail. This is such a nice little mountain, it's a shame to see it disrespected like this. Great day overall.

Pictures: http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2356700090099999532FnTDYo

Note: I'm not sure whether this thread fits better under Catskill Trip Reports or the Catskill Hundred Highest section. Moderators can move it as they see fit.

[Mark Schaefer]

Nice report and photos. Reports on CHH summits are appropriate in either forum. "The Catskill 100 Highest" forum is a "Special Interest Forums (Membership required)" and as such is only viewable by users who register as members of this site. The "Catskill Trip Reports" is viewable by guests of the site. So unless there are private land issues it is probably preferable to post trip reports in the "Catskill Trip Reports" as you did.

It is amazing how much traffic Overlook Mountain gets even midweek on a nice day. In some respects the sturdy old carriage is good because it handles all of the hiker traffic well without suffering much erosion. And thank you for the garbage cleanup.

Some information on the hotel which I have posted previously on VFTT, but I will repeat here.

It is often thought and written in guidebooks that the Stock Market crash or the Depression caused the demise of this third hotel building. However, that is not quite accurate. An article in the May-June 1976 issue of DEC magazine The Conservationist, "My Grandfather and the Mountain", written by Bill Newgold contains quite a bit of history that I have not seen written elsewhere. Bill was the grandson of Morris Newgold who built the ill fated third hotel building we see in ruins today. Morris Newgold was the owner of the Times Square Hotel in NYC. He purchased the second Overlook Hotel in 1917 and restored it to profitability. In 1924 it burned down, as had an earlier hotel. Morris Newgold sold the Times Square Hotel and used the proceeds to fund the new concrete hotel on Overlook. Work began in 1927. He was not invested in the stock markets, and so was unaffected by the stock market crash. Construction work continued on the hotel through the depression until Morris Newgold became ill in 1939. The exterior was essentially done. A central wooden tower rose 4 stories above the current roof line, shown here (http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/overlook/overlook1A.html).

The main hotel building never opened for business. It was boarded up in 1940, but was quickly vandalized. It is often said that many houses built near the mountain in the subsequent years were equipped with plumbing taken from the hotel. World War II and the changing tastes in American travel were the final blows that kept the hotel from completion. Additional info and photos are on the Hudson Valley Ruins (http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/overlook/overlook.html) website.

The "1928 House" behind the hotel was completed and opened. It housed a few guests, although it primarily housed the staff overseeing the work on the hotel construction. As late as the 1970s much of the wood interior of the 1928 House remained, and several times I walked through the rooms. Eventually the building was gutted for safety reasons. For the same reason the DEC has discussed fencing off or demolishing the concrete remains of both buildings, but for now they are considered stable enough to leave as they are.

[TFR]

I'd bet on the tower! It's recently been renovated, and when was the last time the ledges had any maintenance? :eek: :D

The Catskill 3500 Club has a litter pick up on 214 between Hunter and Phoenicia, once or twice a year. If you drive that section of the road, you will see an Adopt-A-Highway sign with their name on it.

There is a side 'trail' (road actually) that goes right towards a comm tower but then bends left to miss it and turns into a nice trail. I find almost nobody goes that way. Lots of interesting stuff up there too and nice views. Check it out some time!

Overlook is probably the CHH that more people have done than any other, and don't even know it! :D

[Jay H]

Overlook is probably the CHH that more people have done than any other, and don't even know it!

Actually I would surmise it is more likely Belleayre since the high point is basically the mound they made to put ski lift#1 on or close enough to it. More so than Hunter Ski which isn't at the summit and Ski Plattekill where the summit is actually a little bit behind the ski lift so technically the skiers aren't summiting it...

I bet there are more skiers on Belleayre than hikers/skiers on Overlook. Is there a hiking-rule? :)

Jay

[mountainmeijin]

>>There is a side 'trail' (road actually) that goes right towards a comm tower but then bends left to miss it and turns into a nice trail. I find almost nobody goes that way. Lots of interesting stuff up there too and nice views. Check it out some time!<<

Would that be that little fork in the road about halfway up?

[Mark Schaefer]

>>There is a side 'trail' (road actually) that goes right towards a comm tower but then bends left to miss it and turns into a nice trail. I find almost nobody goes that way. Lots of interesting stuff up there too and nice views. Check it out some time!<<

Would that be that little fork in the road about halfway up? Yes, it is. The old roads appear on the USGS quad per topozone (http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=42.07923&lon=-74.10476&datum=nad27&u=4&layer=DRG&size=l&s=25). You can go up that way or take it on the way back down as Tom suggests, which is what I normally do. It leaves the marked trail between the 4th and 5th telephone poles south of the hotel ruins. It is at the point where the trail turns to the right, and the old road continues straight ahead down a slight embankment. It is easy to miss. I think I had hiked this trail a half dozen times before I spied it.

The old road was the original road that led to the two earlier hotels which both burned. The old road provided a long straight approach with a view of the hotel as guests approached in their carriages. It was similar to the "Long Level" approach to the Catskill Mountain House (with a view) on the Old Mountain Turnpike, which is now the Sleepy Hollow Horse Trail.

There is a nice view of the tower rising above the summit cliffs in an area of thin vegetation, with a fair number of standing dead trees. I have never found a completely open view, but it is a good one through the thin trees. So if you go down that way remember to look back for the view.

The map shows three cabins. The first (northern most) is still standing in ruins. The second has been removed and there is an open clearing, but no real view. There always seems to be a swarm of gnats at the second cabin site. Shortly after, you will reach a junction of two old roads. The right fork descends to the marked trail to Meads. The left fork is level and leads in a short time to the third cabin where there is the historic "Shandaken View". It is a fragment of the once very wide view, but there is still a small opening toward the Burroughs Range and Panther. There is a cell tower near the cabin. There are "no trespassing" signs on a fence around the tower and on the cabin, but you can walk around the site. It is all state land. The cell tower and cabin (now a storage shed) have a long term lease that preceded the state purchase.

[Mark Schaefer]

Overlook is probably the CHH that more people have done than any other, and don't even know it! :D
Actually I would surmise it is more likely Belleayre since the high point is basically the mound they made to put ski lift#1 on or close enough to it. More so than Hunter Ski which isn't at the summit and Ski Plattekill where the summit is actually a little bit behind the ski lift so technically the skiers aren't summiting it...

I bet there are more skiers on Belleayre than hikers/skiers on Overlook. Is there a hiking-rule? :)
Both are interesting observations. Tom is most likely correct concerning hikers. Jay may be correct concerning people at large. Another candidate which Jay will see soon is the summit of West Cave where there is also a mound at the top of a ski lift. I believe that mound is the current high point of West Cave. Cave also has a ski lift mound, but I think the summit is a short distance into the woods, just off of the connecting path to West Cave. All of these ski lift constructions are fairly recent (late 1990s or later), while hikers and hotel guests have been visiting Overlook for nearly two centuries. It might be a close call, but in time the ski centers will win out for sure.

Another interesting thought is that Belleayre and West Cave perhaps both received a little extra elevation from the ski lift construction. I had visited the Belleayre summit in the 1970s when it was still densely forested. It was a short bushwhack off the old "Hanley Corner's Trail" which came up from Kelly Road. That trail began on private and has been closed for a couple of decades. It previously joined with the current Belleayre Ridge Trail. There was a natural bump at the summit, but the ski center has clearly added a little elevation. That appears to be true at West Cave also.