Hunter Mountain in NY Catskills

“Sunday Dec 29.
In the beginning there was the plan, and the plan was good. Drive up to Diamond Notch trailhead from New Jersey and hike in to the Diamond Notch lean-to. Next day hike the Circle path round Spruceton Run-Hunter-Devils Path back to the lean-to and out.

Diamond Notch road was not snow ploughed to the car park. Every tree along the road had aggressive “NO PARKING” signs. So drove around to the Devils Tombstone parking lot, getting late in the day.
3p.m. Snowshoes on, pack on, and up the trail following a single set of snowshoe tracks. 5:30p.m. now dark, starting to regret bringing the LED headlamp instead of the Petzl Zoom. 6p.m. the tracks I have been following disappear, the headlamp just does no cut it, I cannot see any trail markers.

Set up camp where I am. Stamp out a platform, dig holes for anchors, set up the pyramid. It was very cold so great to be able to move into the tent. Fire up the stove and melt snow to replace what I had drank on the way up and enough for dinner. I was on a bit of a slope so had to peg the top of the floor tarp, set the pack against the lower side of the pole to anchor it. I slept with the pole and pack to stop me sliding down. It worked great, warm and snuggly with the wind howling outside. I was not in the wind, but sure could hear it.

Monday, Dec 30.
Up at 7:30, clearly see the trail markers. I am too close to the trail. Pack and move breaking trail through 18 inches of snow. It took about ½ hour to get to the Devils Acre Lean-to where I stop and have breakfast with my morning coffee. The lean-to has wind blown snow throughout, a couple of inches in most places but much more in the front right corner. Rodent tracks everywhere. I am now glad I did not get here last night.
The tracks also change my decision to day hike the summit, I do not want my gear chewed.

After breakfast I backtrack the 100 yards to the Hunter summit trail and wander up, following ski tracks. The summit is a nothing. I continue the ½ mile to the fire tower. Here are the views I came for. Dump the pack and snowshoes and climb the tower. Cannot get to the top platform but the views from the stairs are fantastic.

Eat lunch and head back. Meet Charlie a day-hiker doing a circle from Spruceton road just before the intersection between Hunter and Devils path trails. Back down the hill, into the car about 3p.m. and start the 3 hour drive home.

Snowshoes are a necessity fro the Hunter area now.

Happy New Year everyone!”

“Hey manuka,

Seems like you had a good workout there. I also read your very brief report at Views From the Top.

Diamond Notch Hollow "Road" is rough year-round (probably more like a jeep trail) ...I imagine it's at the very bottom of the plowing priority list after snowfalls like last week's.

Every time I stopped at that Devil's Acre leanto, it's been littered with porcupine scat ...stinks to high heaven! I don't think I could handle sleeping in it.

BTW, there's an excellent vista from Hunter overlooking Spruceton Valley ...you didn't mention it above. It's at the end of a short side trail to the left about a half mile before you got to the fire tower. If you missed it too bad, but the fire tower views make up for any loss otherwise.

I was in the Cats myself yesterday ...did Windham High Peak from Route 23 ...my trip report is also posted at VFTT (though I got the date wrong).”

“Happy New Year Manuka!

Your trip sounds very familiar to mine the week before. This was before the Christmas snow and the day after a rain, so I did not strap snowshoes on the pack.

The plan was to do Hunter from the Devil's Path on 214, and loop around to the Diamond Notch lean-to for the night. After about an hour of hard climbing in boot worthy snow, it got deeper and crusty, making boot hiking very tough.

I decided to head back down to the truck and try from Diamond Notch. The last section of road was a sheet of ice and like you said, many no parking signs all over the place. I went to Platte Cove Rd to try Kaaterskill High Peak. Iced in again. My 4 wheel drive truck does all kinds of snow, but not ice.

I decided that camping out just wasn't in the cards, so I played around at Kaaterskill Falls and drove home that night.

Btw - Artex and I were up there Sunday. We did a day-hike snowshoe to Echo Lake and back from Platte Cove. The snow was great.”

“is that the fire tower by overlook mt?
if yes, then why could you not climb to the top?
we did it with blizzard like conditions!!”

“Mapleleaf, Hunter and Overlook Mt. each have their own firetowers.

Cool trip report, Manuka. Yeah, the Diamond Notch road to the trailhead is rough. 4X4 is pretty much required even in the summer.”

“Mapleleaf,

Could not climb to the top because the floor hatch is locked.
Yes I could have climbed around using the frame, but climbing unroped with a 40ft fall is not my style. I do have a family, and they do rely on me not taking unnecessary risks. I did go up the stairs as far as possible.”