Fir 7/3/2010

[niceguyted]

Saturday was a nice day for a hike. I accompanied FatVegan on his ascent of Fir Mountain, #37/39 for his 3500 Club patch.

Just a basic up-and-back: we parked at the Biscuit Brook TH and headed up the Pine Hill/West Branch trail, stepping from the trail into the woods about 100 yards or so past the lean-to. As I was lost in a reverie, I wasn't paying much attention and missed the signs for the lean-to completely.

Scott called out the turn-off and we took a bead on the summit - using our compasses and maps, which we carry (especially when we'll be off trail). Hear that, no0bs? Carry a map and compass, especially when you'll be off trail.

My bad, I just read WollyBear's KHP TR and am still pretty flabbergasted at who walks these woods ("I think I know" - wait, wrong poem, and that's not even how it goes).

Anyway, nothing exciting to report; we took the direct route to the summit and the not-so-direct route back down. You can see our treble-clef here on my EveryTrail page. Man, I love bushwhacking in the Catskills.

Just as we hit the canister, we met a foursome who were on their way back to the Slide Mountain PA - they'd reached Fir via Hemlock and Spruce, and informed us that Spruce is in the CHH. I really wanted to say "I knew that", but I'm not as familiar with that list as I should be (so I smiled and said "cool"). I suggested to FatVegan that we follow their tracks, bag Spruce on the way back, and finish up with a road walk, but he said maybe when he changes his name to JackedVegan. That'll be soon enough, I'm sure.

Not too bad a 'whack for the day - compared to Rusk a couple of weeks ago, I felt like I could almost have brought my rollerblades.

A couple of people from Brooklyn had signed in to the register before us (we hit the TH around 10/10:30AM), stating they were headed up to Fir as well, but we saw neither hide nor hair of them on the way up or back. And there was still a Subaru with NY tags (yes, I know everyone in the Cats has one of these) in the lot when we left around 15:00 or so. Maybe they just didn't sign out and the Subaru wasn't the one we saw in the morning?

Anyway, tomorrow we should be finishing off Scott's 35 (er, 39) on Rocky & Lone. If you don't hear from us (here) by tomorrow evening, just wait longer.

[Halia and Flammeus]

Nice report, young Jedi. Flammeus and I finished on Fir back in December '08. We had received a great tip re: finding Fir's can months prior when we were wandering around Big Indian: "when you feel like you should be about there, it's 15 minutes farther."

Flammeus and I also did that CHH traverse over from Winisook a while back: Winisook, Hemlock, Spruce, Fir, Big Indian... back when I cooked up crazy traverses to try to slow down The Swede... a group of us ended up doing it on an 80 degree day in April and we all got scorched. There are some nifty spots in those woods - I remember the top of Winisook having some cool open spots.

Enjoy my beloved Rocky and Lone. Congrats to the Fat Vegan. Nice accomplishment.