Indian Head Mtn. trip report

“At the 'butt-crack' of dawn on Saturday morning - Corporal Nasty, Goretex, and I set out for our two night, three day BP'ing trek to the Catskills - hopes of conquering the Devils Path from Indian Head to Hunter Mtn tickling our spirits - ha! - what drugs did our parents feed us as babies?!?

We had a nice drive up - admired the fall leaves and planned the marketing strategy for "Backpacker Action Figures", along with "Cruxifiction Action Figures", and the game of "Strife".

Got lost on the way - a reoccuring theme of the trip! - but ended up stopping to admire Kaaterskill Falls - before finally finding the packed trailhead for Indian Head at Prediger Rd. - hit the trail around 10:30 am - pretty easy intial hike - minus the muddy river which was the Devils Path - discovered an 'official' troll under a small creek bridge - those guys are lurking everywhere! - nah, it was only Corporal Nasty up to his highjinks! - enjoyed the quiet of the mountain for a small while before the true grunting and heaving began...

The muddy river soon turned into a slippery, slidey obstacle course of snow and ice - thankfully we had Goretex along with "Malcolm" the ice-axe, some eye-blinding rope, and his mountaineering boots to get ourselves up the particularily tough spots!

Stopped to enjoy a viewpoint where we had the company of a liitle grey snake lurking in the leaves - the guys tried to catch it for closer inspection but it got away before they could get their grubby little paws in it - :(

Found a nice campsite just off the trail and decided to call it a day at around 4pm - Goretex and I threw down the tent while the Corp' hung his hammock - ate like straved beasts and the Corp' surprised us with some Irish libations - made a nice fire with which to chase away the Snipes and roast some socks before passing out in our comfy beds - thank you Maple for loaning me your sleeping bag and pad - I slept like a wee babe, nice and toasty, and woke with a huge smile after my first night of warm sleeping since the cold weather has arrived.

After coffee and more food - we hit the trail again at 10am - thought we had reached the peak the day before but discovered that we had a hundred or so more feet to ascend when we faced a mighty big uphill scramble - again aided by that damn bright rope!! Not a view to be had at the peak - 'cause in typical Catskill fashion all was smoothered by fog...

Kept on placing one foot in front of the other as the mountain plotted to send us all on a downhill arse slide - about half-way down Goretex and I came across Corp' taking a breather - turned out he'd taken a spill on some ice and banged up his knee enough to make the rest of the descent muderous....reached Pecoy Notch and decided to keep going despite the contagious limp which was beginning to plague us all...went maybe a mile further up the Twins before making the choice to end the trip a day early - the down hill was trecherous - nice and wet, downright slippery with ice in places, and the sneaky loose rocks which are so true of any Catskill hike! Surprised a porcupine which was playing inside a downed tree trunk - Goretex almost ended up with an arm full of spikes - but the cute bugger took off before we could snap a picture...the wind was howling pretty strong as we continued our adventure down the peak - made me a little nervous with all the widow-makers creaking and swaying the gale...

Finally got to the car - where we gleefully ripped off our boots, cracked open a celebratory brew, and lay down in the middle of the now-desserted road - ahhhhhhh - what a great feeling!

Decided to grab some hippy-dipy grub in Woodstock and then headed back to our spot from two-weekends ago at the base of Overlook Mtn. to enjoy our last night out in the wilds - Goretex and Corp' found a great big dead tree to use as fire wood - you should have seen them climbing up that sucka'! - headlamps lighting the way up - great crashes of fire food splitting the night's quiet as they attacked the fallen giant with all the manly might they could muster up - meanwhile I'm laughing hysterically at the spectacle and building up the little fire - Goretex got the 'bright' idea to build a mammoth blaze - man, we could have signalled aliens on Pluto with that fire!! Took in a 'midnight-hiker' with the welcoming heat of the bonfire and some more Irish libations - hopefully he'll soon be a new member of the forum! Shared some stories before he headed back to the comfort of his home down the mountain and we all turned in for some restless sleep - the Corp' had a 'visitor' sniffing around below his hammock during the night - and we all had visions of the mountain lion the 'midnight-hiker' had told us was seen prowler around his backyard the weekend before...

All in all it was a boody brilliant trip - Corp' taught Goretex and I how to throw knives - and when we tired of that - "Malcolm" was employed as the flying ice-axe - good thing I throw like a girl - 'cause I tried to lodge that puppy 15ft up in a tree!

anyway - Mapleleaf was muched missed but we have some pictures which I hope Corp' will post later today - and we can't wait until the next trip! Woooowhoooooo! This stuff is addictive - this was my third BP'ing trip and first 'winter' one at that! Thanks guys - it was a blast!”

“Okay, I have officially ruined my first trip- My knee stopped us from doing the route we had intended, and yes, I felt like crap about it as I'm sure anyone here would have... I think we were all a little zoned out as we made our way off the trail, it sucks having to cut a trip short like that, but Zay and Chelle were real cool about the whole thing. Instead of giving up completely and heading back to the city, we got another bag night out of it at the same spot we all met for the trip up Overlook mountain. The whole trip was a blast, I can't wait for the next one, although my knee is a little swollen and stiff today, so I guess I gotta heal a little first. That same knee is what stopped me from going on Pennsy's trip, figures something would happen to it no matter which one I went on. The pics came out great, even though my camera didn't want to cooperate on the trail, and I will have them up later tonight.”

“BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

no crappy feelings allowed! there probably was a bear with great big snarling teeth just waiting for us to crash out in its cave - we would have been human jerky for that bear and its bad as....s posse!!!

hey Corp' - sorry to hear that your knee still has a booboo - hope it gets better real soon - and if not - well, there's always the chain saw...

hehehe”

“nice report, sounded like fun!”

“I think we can officially say that route is cursed! :-)

Sounds like you guys had fun though, and that's the important thing.

I think I'm going to attempt the route again early December if you guys are interested.”

“Count me in.”

“i second that motion! count me in!

um...will i need any fancy gear for it in December?”

“Crampons and snowshoes might not be a bad idea, but I'm not very experienced at winter camping, so perhaps someone else should chime in. I'm planning on bringing both. I already own crampons, and will be getting snowshoes pretty soon. :-)

Hey Corporal Nasty, don't forget, I have a stove to give to your friend.”

“http://community.webshots.com/user/cplnasty
Here's the Fargin' pics, more to come later...
Artex, how's the neck doing? Thanks again for the stove, my buddy's looking forward to using it, although I don't think he'll be in shape for the winter trip... I used the Zip stove for this trip by the way, that thing's dirty as hell, but works like a crackhead for a buck. I had it going for an hour straight at one point, figuring out how much wood to feed it.”

“oh man you are a bunch of hams!! If you got lost you should have just looked for the really nice guy with the cute little doggies LOL

Im glad you all had a great time. I knew you all would. I was walking around on Sat without my jacket and wondered if the weather was as nice for you as it was for me.
I guess you runied your trip!!!!!
wait till Geo hears this one, oh man your going to get ribbed!!
Im glad the sleeping bag and pad worked for you chelle. I love it. But just watch out for those d@amn strings cause they will kill ya.
welcome back :)”

“oh man you are a bunch of hams!! If you got lost you should have just looked for the really nice guy with the cute little doggies LOL

Im glad you all had a great time. I knew you all would. I was walking around on Sat without my jacket and wondered if the weather was as nice for you as it was for me.
I guess you runied your trip!!!!!
wait till Geo hears this one, oh man your going to get ribbed!!
Im glad the sleeping bag and pad worked for you chelle. I love it. But just watch out for those d@amn strings cause they will kill ya.
welcome back :)”

“Corporal, the neck feels like it's a 100%. I have to go down to Florida for the next three weekends, and it's killing me because I'm anxious as heck to hit the trail! Yep, and that stove is waiting for your friend, it needs a good home.


So, I'm thinking of retrying that route on Dec. 7th. I'll post a thread with an open invite soon.”

“Excellent. Enjoy your time in Florida, bring home some boar jerky and we'll keep the trails warm for you.”

“Sweet! If I can get enough rattlesnake meat I'm going to make jerky out of that also.

I'm not kidding.”

“Oh my God.”

“"That same knee is what stopped me from going on Pennsy's trip, figures something would happen to it no matter which one I went on."

Listen to your body, its trying to tell you something. Yeah, I'm one to talk..... Hope your knee gets better.”

“Thanks Snow Nymph!
Listen to my knee? I don't know about that, we're not on speaking terms at the moment. In fact, if the damn thing keeps complaining, it's not coming on the next trip with me. I have a rusty saw in my closet with left knee written all over it.”

“oh no just use Jon (from the overlook mt trip) big asss knife!!”

“corp. did you see my Volunteer thread?”

“Not yet, let me check it out...”

“Okay Maple, can't find it, bring it back to the top for me...”