Burroughs Range - 10/13

[mountainmeijin]

First off, let me say that I've never seen a bear attempting to cross a highway before. Heading west along Route 28 today, a bear darted in front of my car and retreated back to the shoulder with just a few feet to spare. Offhand, I'd guess he was about 200 lbs. I wish I'd pulled over and gotten a picture of him.

Today, Kmorgan, his friend Rich and myself started out of Woodland Valley at around 8:30 am, having spotted a car on Slide Mountain Road, for a traverse of the Burroughs Range. The weather was crisp and clear, with temperatures in the mid 30's in the valley. Fall has finally arrived, it seems. We hiked at a moderate, steady pace up Wittenberg and made good time, taking only about three real breaks on the way to the summit. The last mile was still long, as we scrambled up ledge after ledge.

We reached Wittenberg's summit around 11:00 am. It was still as spectacular as ever. The revelation of Wittenberg's summit is probably one of my favorite summit unveilings anywhere. The trail zigzags endlessly upward and finally moderates, tempting you with sunlight shining through the trees before you suddenly spill out onto the open summit ledge. The best summit in the Catskills, in my opinion.

We started our descent towards Cornell at 11:25 am. I was keeping an eye on the alternating ribbons of sun and clouds to the northwest, remembering my Adirondacks hike last weekend. With the cool temperatures today, rain might have been dangerous, but it stayed dry all day.

We reached Cornell's summit around noon, having happily bumbled our way up the Cornell Crack. There are so many great cliff scrambles in this range. On Cornell western face, we were treated to a spectacular view of Slide. From the valley on the east branch of the Neversink, Slide seems like an easy walk-up. It's hard to believe that it's the highest in the Catskills from that side. From Cornell, it looks high, distant and very imposing. There were some tricky ledge descents down Cornell, but once we reached the bottom of the col it was an easy stroll to the base of Slide, though the trail seemed to make some odd zigzags.

The east face of Slide is spectacular. We scrambled up several large, near-vertical rock faces along the way, often with not much in the way of good handholds or footholds. At one point, we waited for a group of twelve students from Binghamton University to shimmy down narrow cleft in an almost vertical cliff as they traversed the range in the opposite direction from us. At around 3,950' the trail ascended a long ladder over some actually rather benign-seeming ledges. It was puzzling why they would put a ladder here, but not on the tougher ledges down below. At the top of the ladders, we were treated to a spectacular view back over the range. We admired how far we'd come since Woodland Valley.

At 2:15, we reached Slide's summit which was teeming with other hikers. Though the views at the top are rather overgrown, you can still tell how much higher you are than the surrounding peaks. We began our descent around 2:30. To add some variety, I suggested that we descend the Curtis-Ormsbee Trail. The views south and west along this trail are becoming rather treed-in, but overall it's got more flavor than the section of the Burroughs Range Trail that it bypasses, in my opinion. The upper reaches are soft under foot, and the lower parts were showing some nice foliage, as well as several interesting rock formations.

Kmorgan's knees were feeling sore from the long descent, so we slowed our pace in this section but still made good time down to the Phoenicia-East Branch Trail. This trail was beautiful; a gentle walk along an old road, covered with fallen leaves in a multitude of colors. If the conditions stay like this, it might be a worthwhile hike just to spend a day strolling along this old road.

We made the steep final descent and arrived at the Slide Mountain Road trailhead at 4:30 pm. This was a wonderful hike, and not nearly as strenuous as I was originally expecting. Every lover of the Catskills should make this traverse at one time or another, and preferably many more times.

Congratulations to Rich on becoming a Catskills 13'R and I wish you both the best of luck on your remaining peaks. I had a great time today. Thanks for the company.

Pictures will be up tomorrow.

[kmorgan]

Hey Peter, thanks for posting a great trip report.

It was great making another new hiking friend. The drive home was a lot harder than the hike! Made it back to Long Island and dropped Rich off at LIE exit 32 around 8:15 p.m. and got to my house just before 9. With no sleep to speak of the night before most of the drive home is missing (scary). I ended up doing the last hour or so by grabbing ice cubes from the cooler to rub across my face and neck to keep me awake.

I'll probably have my pictures up sometime tomorrow and will put the link up when I do.

Hope we can hike together again soon.

Kevin

[mountainmeijin]

Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/561047964UVfXSq

Must have been odd lighting conditions, not all of them came out well. Particularly the ones on top of Wittenberg.

[mountainmeijin]

>> I ended up doing the last hour or so by grabbing ice cubes from the cooler to rub across my face and neck to keep me awake. <<

Ya, I feel your pain. Driving up to the 'daks last weekend I left at 2:00 am on about one hour of sleep with REM's greatest hits stuck in my CD player. You can only sing along to "Orange Crush" so many times before it fails to perk you up.

It was definitely a good hike. Post when you're gonna finish your 35. If I can, I might like to tag along. My recommendation would be to finish with Sherrill and North Dome. Maybe make a car spot, so you can hike in from Deep Notch and whack down off of ND to the Devil's Path back to Spruceton Road.

[Jay H]

Maybe you should have Simple Mind's Alive and Kicking to at least visuallize the catskills too (and some funky hairdos!)

Jay

[kmorgan]

OK, my pictures are up here:

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/561047811gmYcxP

Will keep you in mind for my 35 finish, and any other hikes I come up for.

Kevin

[daLunartik]

Nice TR . This hike always has a special place in my heart, as it was my first Catskill hike (though we did it as an overnight). I always thought the view of Slide looming over you from the col was spectacular. I was actually kinda disappointed when I found how easy it and little the mountain seemed from western approach.

I think the reasons for the ladder placement where they are, has to do with how high up on the face of Slide you are. A tumble there could mean a long slide to the bottom - particularly in winter conditions. Also, I think they are more useful when descending - least ways I always find it easier to climb a cliff face than come down one.

[Jay H]

In winter, it seems to be very hard to find the ladder and most of the times I've climbed slide from Cornell in winter, we wind up just scaling the oodles of snow up using snowshoes in fact, a bit left of the ladder as you look up towards Slide from Cornell.. but I guess it is reassuring that it is there...

When going down ladders in winter, I find it too, a lot more comforting to butt slide down a slide than sometimes downclimb an icy and unknown ladder (think of the the ladder on Armstrong in the ADKs)...

Jay

[Doodles]

Nice TR. Sounds like a nice full day hike and nice pictures. Last week there was another bear crossing the road sighting on the way to a hike. A nice start. Thanks for sharing.

[Edelweiss]

Thanks for the TR and pics. Now I know what that often-mentioned Cornell Crack looks like. We hope to climb Witt-Cornell before the snows hit.

[billandjudy]

Nice TR and pics too A favorite of ours also

[mountainmeijin]

>> We hope to climb Witt-Cornell before the snows hit. <<

You'll love them. I'd say that Wittenberg has the best view in the Catskills. Have you done Slide yet? You really have to try it from Cornell to get the most out of it.

[rockysummit]

Hey Cannon Ball, great TR and pics! The view from Cornell to Slide is one of my favs!...I can remember a few backpacking trips, many years ago from the other direction. The first, late November with some frozen precip, down Slide, and before the ladders! I also have a video from the summit, with the camera placed on the rock (no tripod), with clear views of the reservoir and Cornell and Wittenberg...Classic Catskill traverse!