- Joined
- Apr 1, 2009
- Messages
- 1,079
The write up below is a mash-up of three different trip reports:
On the weekend of 6/23/12 - 6/24/12 was the first New York Blades and Bushcraft meeting. The outing was in the Catskills, specifically, the Hunter Mountain loop. There ended up being five of us. The plan was to travel about four miles to the summit of Hunter Mountain at 4040 ft. and then go down another mile to an elevation below 3500 ft.
We got started walking down a dirt road, and then the trail just climbed steady for the next four miles or so.
After few miles, we stopped by a water source to fill up. It was a spring that had been lead to a convenient location with some pipe. Even though it was spring water, we decided to play it safe and filter it.
Between the five of us, we had four different filters. Zig had a MSR gravity filter, mibuwulf had a Platypus gravity filter, Son Of Beanbag had an MSR Miniworks EX, and WoodTrekker had a Sawyer. The results? Thanks to Son O's furious pumping action, he had filled up first. Zig had some flow issues with his filter, so we all had a nice rest. And of course, some photo opportunities.
After another mile or so, we stopped for lunch. For the location we chose a leanto site off the trail. For those of you who may not be familiar with the area, in many forests, in specific locations there are set up shelter or leanto sites. The one you see in the picture is very typical of these shelters, although newer than most. Some people like to use them instead of carrying a tent, or go to them in case of an emergency. This particular lean to was located exactly at 3500 ft, the highest elevation where you are allowed to camp overnight in the Catskills.
What made this site particularly nice was plenty of space, and the view from one of the cliffs to the side.
It had a good view nearby and a cool little trail that was very tight to get there and back.
After me ate, we set off on the trail again. The summit of Hunter Mt. was now just another mile up the trail:
For some reason no one stopped at this trail-side view, but it was one of the best of the trip, and I snapped a quick pic.
We reached the summit of Hunter Mountain. The marker indicated that we were at 4040 ft.
At the summit was a well maintained fire tower which offered great views of the surrounding terrain:
The tower itself cast a mighty shadow:
Looking down at the gang:
From the summit it was another mile downhill until we reached a lower elevation of 3500 ft. The location was marked with another leanto similar to the one you saw above. We had planned on camping in that area after finding a suitable location. Unfortunately, it turned out that the terrain was not conducive to a camp site. Even though we searched for quite some time, we could not find any flat areas large enough to accommodate five people. We decided to set up camp close to the leanto itself. WoodTrekker used his Shangri-La 5.
Son O' and I used a two man REI tent and the other two guys pulled out their hammocks, and set up nearby. Mibuwulf and I did some work on the fire place. He down played his masonry abilities, but when you see the stone creation he made the next day, I think you'll agree he was being modest.
We got a fire going and rustled up some grub- it was a real pot-luck affair:
Regarding the fire, there was such an overabundance of fire making/starting materials in the area and along the trail, if you couldn't get a fire started around there, you didn't need to retake bushcraft 101, you needed remedial bushcraft special education! We found everything from birch bark to chaga to conifers oozing flammable pine resin- The Catskills really are a buchcrafter's paradise.
Zig added a little color to the affair with these roasted peppers:
After dinner, we hung out late, Son O' made everyone s'mores and a good time was had by all.
The next morning when we were done with breakfast, we realized with great horror that we had not cooked any bacon by hanging it from a stick the whole trip, and we started to fear that it would be disqualified as a bushcraft outing. To remedy the situation, we quickly set off making some feather sticks to the shouts of "Bushcraft! Bushcraft!"
When we felt secure that we had met the bushcraft quota for the trip, we packed up and started down the mountain. The way down followed a section of Devil?s path. It is generally a very hard trail, but this portion was not too bad.
We caught one view on the way back down and it was typical of most Catskills views- tree covered mountains:
There were stinging and wood nettles everywhere. Son O' got it pretty bad, although it didn?t seem to slow him down.
We stopped to collect some Chaga on a birch tree off to the side of the trail.
Eventually we came to a river that led to a small waterfall and swimming hole:
Zig, Son O' and I decided to make our way into the icy cold water.
Here is Zig doing his best Tarzan impersonation before he dove in from high on the cliffs:
Well maybe he didn't end diving in, but Zig and Son O' made it all the way in, I couldn't do it because the water was just too freezing cold.
On our way, WoodTrekker spotted some strawberries. There was even an actual strawberry on one of the plants.
There were also some other berries we couldn?t identify.
Not surprisingly, not too far from the area, a bit further into the woods, there was a pile of bear scat.
A little downstream Mibuwulf put those masonry skills I mentioned earlier to good work and created this most precariously balanced rock sculpture in the middle of the river:
We kept following the river almost all the way out. Soon we were back at our starting point. The trip had been about eight miles in length, with about 2000 ft increase in elevation. Below you can see the tracks recorded by WoodTrekker's GPS. You will notice that for one of the section there is a straight line. That is the part where he forgot to turn on the unit. The red line added approximates the actual route that we took. The arrow on the left tip of the track was our starting point.
Here is the elevation profile. It wasn't anything too extreme, but made for a fun, challenging trip.
We finally made it back to the parking lot, and everyone was kind of wishing the trip wasn't over. This was a really good time with a great group of guys. We are already planning another outing.
Thanks for looking,
BEAN
On the weekend of 6/23/12 - 6/24/12 was the first New York Blades and Bushcraft meeting. The outing was in the Catskills, specifically, the Hunter Mountain loop. There ended up being five of us. The plan was to travel about four miles to the summit of Hunter Mountain at 4040 ft. and then go down another mile to an elevation below 3500 ft.
We got started walking down a dirt road, and then the trail just climbed steady for the next four miles or so.
After few miles, we stopped by a water source to fill up. It was a spring that had been lead to a convenient location with some pipe. Even though it was spring water, we decided to play it safe and filter it.
Between the five of us, we had four different filters. Zig had a MSR gravity filter, mibuwulf had a Platypus gravity filter, Son Of Beanbag had an MSR Miniworks EX, and WoodTrekker had a Sawyer. The results? Thanks to Son O's furious pumping action, he had filled up first. Zig had some flow issues with his filter, so we all had a nice rest. And of course, some photo opportunities.
After another mile or so, we stopped for lunch. For the location we chose a leanto site off the trail. For those of you who may not be familiar with the area, in many forests, in specific locations there are set up shelter or leanto sites. The one you see in the picture is very typical of these shelters, although newer than most. Some people like to use them instead of carrying a tent, or go to them in case of an emergency. This particular lean to was located exactly at 3500 ft, the highest elevation where you are allowed to camp overnight in the Catskills.
What made this site particularly nice was plenty of space, and the view from one of the cliffs to the side.
It had a good view nearby and a cool little trail that was very tight to get there and back.
After me ate, we set off on the trail again. The summit of Hunter Mt. was now just another mile up the trail:
For some reason no one stopped at this trail-side view, but it was one of the best of the trip, and I snapped a quick pic.
We reached the summit of Hunter Mountain. The marker indicated that we were at 4040 ft.
At the summit was a well maintained fire tower which offered great views of the surrounding terrain:
The tower itself cast a mighty shadow:
Looking down at the gang:
From the summit it was another mile downhill until we reached a lower elevation of 3500 ft. The location was marked with another leanto similar to the one you saw above. We had planned on camping in that area after finding a suitable location. Unfortunately, it turned out that the terrain was not conducive to a camp site. Even though we searched for quite some time, we could not find any flat areas large enough to accommodate five people. We decided to set up camp close to the leanto itself. WoodTrekker used his Shangri-La 5.
Son O' and I used a two man REI tent and the other two guys pulled out their hammocks, and set up nearby. Mibuwulf and I did some work on the fire place. He down played his masonry abilities, but when you see the stone creation he made the next day, I think you'll agree he was being modest.
We got a fire going and rustled up some grub- it was a real pot-luck affair:
Regarding the fire, there was such an overabundance of fire making/starting materials in the area and along the trail, if you couldn't get a fire started around there, you didn't need to retake bushcraft 101, you needed remedial bushcraft special education! We found everything from birch bark to chaga to conifers oozing flammable pine resin- The Catskills really are a buchcrafter's paradise.
Zig added a little color to the affair with these roasted peppers:
After dinner, we hung out late, Son O' made everyone s'mores and a good time was had by all.
The next morning when we were done with breakfast, we realized with great horror that we had not cooked any bacon by hanging it from a stick the whole trip, and we started to fear that it would be disqualified as a bushcraft outing. To remedy the situation, we quickly set off making some feather sticks to the shouts of "Bushcraft! Bushcraft!"
When we felt secure that we had met the bushcraft quota for the trip, we packed up and started down the mountain. The way down followed a section of Devil?s path. It is generally a very hard trail, but this portion was not too bad.
We caught one view on the way back down and it was typical of most Catskills views- tree covered mountains:
There were stinging and wood nettles everywhere. Son O' got it pretty bad, although it didn?t seem to slow him down.
We stopped to collect some Chaga on a birch tree off to the side of the trail.
Eventually we came to a river that led to a small waterfall and swimming hole:
Zig, Son O' and I decided to make our way into the icy cold water.
Here is Zig doing his best Tarzan impersonation before he dove in from high on the cliffs:
Well maybe he didn't end diving in, but Zig and Son O' made it all the way in, I couldn't do it because the water was just too freezing cold.
On our way, WoodTrekker spotted some strawberries. There was even an actual strawberry on one of the plants.
There were also some other berries we couldn?t identify.
Not surprisingly, not too far from the area, a bit further into the woods, there was a pile of bear scat.
A little downstream Mibuwulf put those masonry skills I mentioned earlier to good work and created this most precariously balanced rock sculpture in the middle of the river:
We kept following the river almost all the way out. Soon we were back at our starting point. The trip had been about eight miles in length, with about 2000 ft increase in elevation. Below you can see the tracks recorded by WoodTrekker's GPS. You will notice that for one of the section there is a straight line. That is the part where he forgot to turn on the unit. The red line added approximates the actual route that we took. The arrow on the left tip of the track was our starting point.
Here is the elevation profile. It wasn't anything too extreme, but made for a fun, challenging trip.
We finally made it back to the parking lot, and everyone was kind of wishing the trip wasn't over. This was a really good time with a great group of guys. We are already planning another outing.
Thanks for looking,
BEAN
Last edited:
