Echo Lake, Overlook, Plattekill from Platte Clove, October 13

[Mark Schaefer]

I started from the Platte Clove Preserve trailhead for the Long Path just after noon. The trail begins with a Plattekill Stream crossing on a king post replica bridge. This is followed by an interpretive trail identifying trees and historical artifacts. The trail is marked with green diamond shaped blazes. At the start of state land the blazes switch to blue DEC markers. The fall foliage was at peak along the lower elevation trails, but getting thin at the mountain summits. The views of the Kaaterskill HP, Roundtop, and Devil's Path mountains were all well past peak, mostly bare trees. Wednesday night's rain and wind took down many leaves.

This is the long, but by far the more interesting approach to the Overlook fire tower. Without side trips it is a 5.2 mile hike one way with a 1440' elevation gain. The side trips are what makes this interesting, and brought the hike up to 13 miles and 2460' elevation gain.

Codfish Point Quarry, 0.1 mile off the old Overlook Rd, has great views of the Hudson Valley and Overlook Mt. I stopped here on the way in and out as the light was considerably different midday and late afternoon, both nice in their own way. The side trail (yellow) is 0.6 miles southeast of the Devils Kitchen Lean-to at a point where the Overlook Rd makes a bend to the south and levels off after a gentle climb. There is no trail sign at the junction, but it is not hard to find. The quarry gnomes have been busy constructing several rock chairs for your resting and viewing pleasure. As I recall there were two chairs here in 2003, now there are seven, some of these are down the bluestone slag slope a ways.

Echo Lake (0.7 mile side trip, and 480' climb on the way out) in an interesting mountain cirque. I made an additional loop around the lake on unmarked paths. There is some nice color at the lake, but going past peak.

It was quite chilly and windy on the Overlook fire tower. I hiked down on the unmarked path which starts to the right of the ranger's cabin and follows the Overlook cliffs (which gave the mountain its name). This rejoins the trail just above the trail junction of the red and blue trails.

After hiking Overlook Mt I bushwhacked Plattekill Mt on the way out. There are nice views of Echo Lake and Overlook Mt from ledges at about 2800' just west of the ridge line on the way up. On the way down I aimed for the bluestone quarry on the north side of the mountain at about 2800'. I managed to hit this straight on (been here before). There is a nice view of the Bruderhof community (former NYC Police Camp), Roundtop, and Kaaterskill High Peak. From the quarry there is a well travelled old quarry road which intersects the trail just a few yards south of the Cod Fish Point spur trail. If you want to climb Plattekill, and are unfamiliar with the area, I would recommend bushwhacking Plattekill Mountain on the way to Overlook. That way you start on the easy-to-find quarry road, and it will optimize your chance of finding the quarry with its worthwhile views. From the quarry it is a straightforward whack up to the Plattekill summit.

There is also another quarry on the Long Path just north of the two Devil's Path junctions. Since this past August there has been a proliferation of quarry chairs here also. Got to love those industrious quarry gnomes.

[daLunartik]

Mark,

Thanks for the TR The timing is perfect, as I will be leading two of my "non-hiker" friends up Plattekill today. Not sure if I'll be able to convince them to keep going to Overlook, but I'll try.

After reading your report, I realized that in all my trip to Echo Lake, I have never been to Cod Fish Point! I can picture the junction point, but I don't think I've ever gone down to the quarry. Gotta rectify that!

[daLunartik]

I did end up leading my friends up Plattekill saturday, though the two became four. All four are non-hikers, who usually go on one big camping trip a year. Before we left the Catskill Conservation Center, I had already decided that I wasn't even going to suggest Overlook. We stopped for lunch at the little quarry just north of the Devils Path intersection.

At the Devils Kitchen Lean To, a camper was hanging his food bag - a plastic "GAP" shopping bag, on a tiny sapling next to his tent. I remember thinking, well, the Catskills don't have Bear problem.....yet! We came across him again, with another camper, at Cod Fish Point on our return trip. I also noted a VFTT patch on pack in the Lean To on the way out.

We stopped at Cod Fish Point on the way in, but there was a group there. Knowing we would be passing by on the loop back, we left them to enjoy the views. I took that opportunity to run a quick map and compass lesson, before we started off trail.

I was amazed at how apparent the old quarry road was, and can't beleive I hadn't noticed it before - guess you don't see what you aren't looking for. As we made our way up, one of my friends asked why this "trail" wasn't marked. I waited until we hit the quarry to give that history lesson (hey guys, remember where we had lunch.....?). By now, I had given a couple different lessons, and was starting to get some looks , but that what ya get for going into the woods with a Lunartik!

The rest of the way to the summit was a classic, open woods bushwhack. The crew had a blast, and I heard repeated comments of "we did things like this when I was a kid!". Found the summit with no problem, and we took a break so they could enjoy their acomplishment. When one of the Crew commented, "wow, we're up there", I almost callously replied, "yeah, only 3100' ", when I remembered that for most of them, it was their highest peak. It was nice, as I got to enjoy their "newbie" summit buzz - while it was a new mountain for me, I knew what to expect and what I'd see - they had no idea.

We started down, and I kept an eye on my altimeter making sure I didn't miss the ledges. For most of the Crew, this was the highlight of the trip, as they had camped at Echo Lake before. Of course, the views were spectacular. The cloud cover, and the location of the sun gave us a great display.

After we left the ledges, I noticed that the Crew had forgotten about my instructions of spreading out a bit, and were blindly following me in a tight, single file. So I headed for the thick and prickly , which spread 'em out a bit. They were very happy to finally hit the trail, after 3/4 of mile of open woods bushwhacking.

We had Cod Fish Point to ourselves, and I realized that I had stopped there before, but there had always been other hikers. On our way out, we ran into the camper and friend from the DK Lean To and chatted for a few before parting. When we hit the Lean To, a couple of guys and a bunch of little kids had set up camp along the opposite bank. I knew some of my lessons from the day had been sinking in, when one of the Crew commented to me, "Yeah, and their 150' from the trail my @*&%^"

[billandjudy]

Nice TR's ---Brings back a great day of hiking back in May :p . We did Plattekill on the way to Overlook--The leaves were just staring to show back then.We both agreed at the time that the route was a favorite. Time flys when you're having fun. This hike is on our winter list.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2...82736937RLppCf

[Jay H]

Plattekill is a really nice hike/bushwack cause it's packed with so many interesting views and history, the interpretive nature trail through the plate clove preserve, the old woods road that is there, of course as mentioned the bluestone quarries up and down the road and then there's the nice easy bushwack up to the quarry on the NE face of Plattekill with good views towards KHP and Roundtop. The leanto is area and as you seem to mention it is a fairly common leanto. Lots of people seem to use the leanto, hence the abundance of campsites across the stream.

Nice pictures Mark and DaLunartik

Jay