Magic day 2 (TC, BD, BH)

[Maria]

After the adventures of the Magic traverse on Saturday a few of the gang decided to join me on my inaugural hike of the trail I just signed up to maintain - the mile section between Black Dome and Thomas Cole. I think partly they wanted to see if I could actually use the long pruning shears I had with me :razz: I had hiked the trail once before but with another group under difficult circumstances (too long of a story there!) but I remembered that that section had struck me as being special. So Jay H, Mudhook, my friend Skip from Albany and Mountain Mejin (aka Cannonball) got started at Barnum road. The skies were somewhat overcast and we thought we might see a bit of rain, but as we got going things cleared and, while we didn't have bright sunshine, there were some some lovely views along the way on this oh so pretty trail.

I could feel all the elevation gain from the day before in my legs as we began, but we all slowly warmed up and took our time getting up to Thomas Cole. From then on I realized what a beautiful trail I had gotten - soft and mossy, piney and slightly mysterious. I realize now too, as I checked out paintings of Thomas Cole on-line today, that I have always liked his work - I just never connected the name with the images before and the trail reflected the mood of paintings. So I am especially happy to take care of this little spot.

Though it turns out there was no maintaining to be done! My shears went unused as someone had been through there in the past few weeks and trimmed already. After putting up with a bit of ribbing from the guys we hit Black Dome and took in the views. Blackhead was then climbed, we felt our first sprinkles and a smattering of hail for a few moments and I got to witness Cannonball's favorite way to descend mts - as much butt sliding as is possible :D

Thanks all for joining me and adding another dimension to my Catskill journeys.

[mountainmeijin]

What a colorful day that was! 'Specially with sunshine, drizzles, fog and hail in the span of six hours.

I hope I wasn't too much of an anchor on the group. Too much construction work makes my back and legs weary. You've definitely got a great section of trail. In fact, that section from the Caudal all the way to Thomas Cole has stuck with me ever since my first time over it. Great place to hike on a cool, misty day. The forest on top of TC, in particular, is ethereal in the fog.

Btw, having realized that this completes the Blackheads in all four seasons for me, I now have the idea of a grid chewing on the inside of my skull...

What peaks are next on the agenda for you?

Gotta get my pics up, next...

[Jay H]

A nice day out in the woods for sure, the sleet was kind of odd but I guess it was a sign of things to come, monday was fairly cool down here.. Colors are nicely out on the range though mostly a triage of yellows.

Stopped at every viewpoint to soak in the views, watch the nettles dying and just to enjoy the nice fall weekend, I guess in this case, icing on the cake...

Jay

[Rockledge]

You picked a great section of trail. Thanks for taking it on. The guy that takes care of the other side of Black Dome has been too lazy to walk up there so thanks for reporting back. :rolleyes:

Glad you all had a nice day. No sleet in the southern Cats.


watch the nettles dying
:tup: :tup:

[mudhook]

A great walk to wind down after Sat.'s hike with the Magic bunch.
Nice to meet a new face and see a long missing member of the Catskill Clan.
And a second ride in style back to the car, couldn't ask for any thing more..

[mountainmeijin]

Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/574987056VbeZun?vhost=community

Always gotta have pictures.

[Maria]

Good hiking with you Pete and thanks for the photos. I only have that one group shot the father took of us on BD but pm me your e-mail and I'll pop it out to you for your collection. Haven't got it on-line since it's just one.

In answer to your question - that makes 24 of the list for me, so slowly winding my way through.