I need your help please!

“I was just asked to help maintain a section of a trail in the Catskills!!!

YEAH!!!!

My question is,
This is whats aval. I don't know the Cats that well, so im looking for input for these trails.


Part of the letter I recv'd.


"We have a number of vacancies throughout the Catskill Forest
Preserve. These are located on the Eacarpment, Black Dome, Rock Shelter,
Phoneicia Trail on Mt. Tremper, Willow Trail, Lost Clove, Dry Brook Ridge,
Mongaup Hardenberg and Phoenicia-East Branch Trails as well as the Long Path and
Devil's Path. If any of these interest you and you would like to maintain a
section, let me know which trails are of interest and I will send you the
specific segments available"

any help with info would be great...”

“Devil's Path, obviously. It sounds very mysterious. I have no real knowledge of the area, please understand that.”

“Maple stay away from Mt Tremper, the guide book says that it has the highest concentration of Rattle Snakes in the Catskills. This is the main reason I have never hiked there.
Don't have an experience with any of the others.”

“thanks LT, thats the kind of info im looking for. also I would like a trail that I can take care of then stay the night. you know make a weekend out of it.”

“plus, i want to be able to take the family there to help. It will be the family of trees all pitching in and helping.
:)”

“Sounds like a great family outing. Do you have any of the guide books? I'll get mine out and look up the other trails.

I have hiked parts of the escarpment trail and it has some really beautiful areas but it is also highly traveled. The Katterskil Falls are right off the escarpment trail.

If I remember right the Lost Clve is supposed to be a really cool spot. Tried to hike it last year but got rained out. Supposedly there was a civil war ammo depot up there and relics still get washed out after a heavy rain.”

“The only guide book I have is


"Guide to Catskills Trails"
Its from AMC.
Ill have to sit down and start looking up the trails. Good idea!!!

I like water falls, so this might be a good place.(The Katterskil Falls)”

“learn them as you go

trail maintenance is like the peace corps its the toughest job youll ever love”

“Maple, if you haven't been to Katterskill Falls you should definately make the trip. It is just a short day hike, you can get to the top from a road near the north-south lake campground, or the bottom from 23a I think. Nice spot but it can get crowded on weekends. Lots of tourist hikers wandering around lost.”

“troll, I need to pick just one trail...”

“Mapleleaf, I applaud your desire to maintain trails, it's great work. But if memory serves, it seems you are involved in a lot of other volunteer work right now. My question to you is, do you think you will have enough time to devote to your section of the trail to properly maintain it? If you think you can, great, more power to you. But seriously think about how much time you will hve to devote to this. Proper trail maintenance takes a lot of time, it's a big commitment.

Again, I applaud your desire to help. Volunteerism is one of things that makes America great. But please make sure you will have enough time to do the job right before you commit.”

“I hear your concern. I tend to get myself into trouble when it comes to volunteering. I strech myself thin sometimes. But I like the Catskills so this why I can still get my weekend backpacking in and still take care of the trail. Ill go 2x's in the months of March, July, Sept (or Oct).
Spring, summer, fall.

And with my family helping we can cover the 1 mile that i'll be assigned to on the trail.”

“Trail maintenance involves cutting back summer growth at least once a season. The rest of the time you walk your trail and feel good inside. I maintained the Turk Mountain Trail in Shenandoah National Park in the early 80s and the person who took it over after me complained there was nothing to do. The only other possible thing to do is repair water bars after heavy rains.

When the paint blazes become faded, you get that find job. That might be necessary every two to three years. Then there is the ever popular litter clean-up after hogs wallow through. It's easier to set up an ambush and shoot the hogs, that way you can carry out all the litter in one fell swoop. Plus, you get to keep their gear if you don't get blood on it.”

“Cool, good for you Mapleleaf! Man, those are a lot of cool options. I don't think you could go wrong with any of those choices. I think I remember hearing what lthiker said about Mt. Tremper, I'll have to check it out sometime. I love snakes, even rattlers!”

“help artex, you have been on that Mountain more then I have. I need to pick one. :(”

“Artex, I have been thinking about hiking up Mt Tremper without my dog just to check out the snakes. Evidently they are congregated around some old abandoned Quarries near the top of the mtn. The quarries might be fun to explore”

“Maple - It's OK to say NO ever now and then.”

“I wish I could. But there is so much out there. But I may start having to say NO. Im running out of hours and days n my weeks.”

“Maple, if you think you can handle it, go for it. If it's as easy as Geo says, then it should be a lot of fun. The maintenance I've done included a lot more hard physical work, but was fun nonetheless.”

“If I remembewr correctly, Backpacker mag rated Devil's Path as one of the toughest trails in the Cats.”

“LtHiker - that would be cool. I've heard of rattlesnake "dens" in the area, it'd be really cool to find some and photograph them. I'd imagine they're probably pretty inactive with the cold weather right now. Want to get together sometime and try to find some dens?

Mapleleaf - Long Path and Devil's Path are two veeeeery long trails, especially the Long Path (starts at George Washington Bridge, NYC, ends in Vermont. Devil's Path is confined to only the 'Skills, but it's still pretty darn long. Any idea which section of those two trails you'd maintain. Obviously it can't be the entire path for either choice. However, Blackdome is a VERY sound choice. Neat mountain. It's on the northern edge of the 'Skills and when you look north on a clear day, you can see Albany and also the Adirondacks.”

“It will only be about 1 mile of the trail

hey i want to go look for snakes :(”

“The Phoenicia-East Branch Trail is nice. Gradual uphill from the Woodland Valley parking lot to the col between the Burroughs Range and Giant Ledge. The Panther trail goes off to climb Giant Ledge from the col. The trail then descends to the road where there is another parking lot, again easy hiking.

There is a designated camping area on the Woodland valley side of the col, and a permanent spring about 1 mile away at the base of Giant ledge.

On the other hand the Devils path has a lot of very steep sections. Several sections will require a 2-3 mile hike to even get in there. Murphy's law says your mile to maintain may require 3 miles in, your mile and then the 4 miles out.

More lean-tos along the Devils Path.”

“Ive heard that the Devils path is very hard hike. So maybe not that one. But thanks for the info!!!”

“i read that there are many 4 foot long taranchulas in that area as well.... make sure your tent in covered in tin foil so they can't chew through and .......well... you know.....”

“well thank you very much, Marvin gardens....”

“LOL @ stratdewd!!!

Mapleleaf, of course you could come along to hunt rattlesnakes! They're neat animals. I've only come across a timberland rattler once. It was during a dayhike at Harriman State Park, and it was spread out across the path. I had to wait for it to leave before I could continue, obviously. Neat looking snake.”

“My experience with a timber rattler was a little less fun...”

“Isn't that where the Catskill Forest Preserve massacre occured last year?”

“I'd at least figure out how far and how long it'll take you to get to some of these trails...you may not want to drive a half a day to get to your trail. And look at the trails on topomaps and figure out the relief and distances...you may get a loooong and rough trail that is too much for you.

Happy hunting!”

“The trail itself is of little concern, IMO. It's the WORK after dropping the pack that taxes the person, not the route.

Based on my experience, the day will be spent standing and chopping and sawing and digging and snatching and lifting and pushing. The time and distance between work spots will be short - a chance to rest up, actually...

Your gloves will receive much more wear than your boots.”

“Artex, my old roomate in Tampa shot one in our backyard. I came home and he was in the back room. I smelled a caciatore like recipe boiling on the stove and went to taste it. I called out to him and asked what it was. He yelled out to try it. I shrugged my shoulders and took a spoonful. He started walking into the room as I was eating it, saying how tasty it was. He was carrying a board in which he had just pegged the skin of a four foot rattler on and informed that that was what I was eating. It was really good. I proceeded to eat lunch...”

“I've hiked the Catskills for 35 years & haven't been bothered by rattlers. I was nailed in the knee in the Ramapo's in my younger years. When I bushwhack, I wear snake gaiters but rarely see them on the trail. Stay out of the quarries though.”

“MAple I can vouche for the Pheonicia east Branch trail, I forgot it was the trail from Woodland Valley to Giant Ledge. Depending on the mile that they give you on this trail it could be an easy one to access. You can get there from the Woodland Valley campground or from the other end near Slide Mountain. It is a nice trail for hiking, with some rather steep parts with steps actually layed into it.
You could easily base camp out of Woodland Valley, with hot showers and bathrooms. There is a charge for staying there. Or just leave your car there and return to a hot shower before driving home.
Do you need something on the bus route?
You could also make it a TT group outing once a year for the "heavy" maintence in the spring. That would be fun.”

“Ok I went and looked at all the trails that are avaiable, but now I have another question.

1. take a trail that is very nice, that has 2 leanto's and 2 water sources and only about 1 mile in from the trail head. But the problem would be that it is a high traffic area.
or

2. Take a trail that is pretty much into the Park and that does not have alot of traffic. But is also a very nice area to hike in.


I want to be selfish, and take the back woods but then the high traffic area will need more work done.


what to do???”

“I'd say take the trail less traveled.”

“It'll make all the difference.”

“If you choose to extend yourself, I'd pick a trail section closest to the trailhead to limit the weight of the extra gear you might need to pack in. "Less traveled" sounds good to me also, but why not a section that you especially like?”

“sounds to me like your choosing between picking up litter and shelter repair versus weed wacking and cutting blow-downs. both can be rewarding in their own way. The shelter area will need more attention so consider whether you really up to the demands that will put on your time.”

“Also keep in mind all the surprises and land mines you will likely encounter around the shelter area.”

“The trail less traveled”

“treebait,land mines?

please elaborate.”

“he means dookie, maple....


watch out for them pumas too...and grizzlies...and scorpians.....and taranchulas....and bot flies.....and sasquatch......and aliens.....and wooly boogers...”

“... and oompa loompas.”

“HELLO, We are talking New York right??

oompa loompas=Little people?”

“Oompa loompas is Apmoo sapmool spelled backwards.”

“zipadee dee...if you are smart you'll listen to me...”

“I wan right!!!

hey will they turn me purple too?”

“u wan right?
makes less sense than what I said”