Trail MAintenance New York

“April 26th-27th 2003


This will be the first of 3 Trail Maintenance trips planned for the trail that was adopted by TheBackpackr.com.

Map #42
It is the Warner Creek trail.
It is between Willow Trail and The Long Path.
You can park your car on Jessup Rd. We do have permission but as long as there are not to many cars. If there is, we can do a shutle to to trail head on Rt 40.

We can do this as a day hike with the work, or an overnight.
If we do an overnight we can stay at Devils Tombstone campground Friday and Sat.
This way we can hang out around the campfire on Friday night and then we also can have a place to take showers. If you have never done anything like this, take my word for it. It is HARD work. But if we get a good group together, we can make this fun as well as a liltte easier with more people.
We can also backpack in.
The total milage is about 2 miles of hiking and the Trail itself is about 1 mile.

If you want I can fax anyone a copy of the Map to show you where we are going to be working.”

“Maple, no showers at Devils Tombstone. Sorry.”

“oh I didnt know that. too bad. oh well I guess we can all just sit around the fire stinking together.


what do they say?

"A family that works together can stink together"”

“Should be really stinky after a hard day chopping back brush. At least you will not have to worry about bears.”

“LtHiker, will you be able to join us?”

“sounds good maple...”

“FYI
This was included in the letter I recv'd.


"For your protection you should send me your Social Security Number. I must supply SS# to the Department of Environmental Conservation for maintainers to be covered by Workmens Compensation in the event of an injury. This apply to co-maintainers also."

I have already sent mine in.
So the bottom line here folks is that this gentalman will need your SS#'s.
I will send his email address to anyone that wants to do this. this way you can send it directly to him. I will inform him of who will be helping out and whos # he should be getting.”

“About time some of you Yankees got off your butts and did some maintaining, hee hee.
(See my trip report on the Sipsey Trail Maintenance Trip Planning thread)
I did SO much work on that trip, I'm ashamed of myself. ;)”

“Do you mean Map #41?

Willow is a pretty spot.”

“nope I have as Map# 42
its a little bit North of Phoenicia-Mt. Tobias Wild Forest
Its between Hunter Mt and Slide Mt.”

“Map# 41”

“Ya communist!”

“shut up you friggin moron!!!



man I love that word MORON”

“Waaah, bp2go, she called me a moron!”

“DUMBASS”

“So I take it that you will be there in the Spring?”

“There she goes again, ... Potty's back folks!”

“"So I take it that you will be there in the Spring?"
mapleleaf
03:58:28 PM
02/18/03

Not me. I expect to be somewhere in West-By-God doing my own volunteer gig that weekend.”

“Maple I will check the dates. I might be able to. If not this one then definately a later one.”

“Lt, that would be wonderful!!


aw come on Geo, you being a wuss?

maple”

“good for the trail..but it's late and i wanna poke fun at something...2 miles hike into the camp..no showers, and cutting brush back...HOI..i think your needed in New york!!..lol”

“Tremper & Overlook (quarry) Mts have em. On the trail you'd probably be ok, but personally I'd poke around with a stick/tool before I reached in with my hand. After you guys start making a racket, they'd all schedadle. If you do get annoyed with them, don't get your picture on the front page of the local rag (like one Delaware fisherman), as they are a protected species. (Only God knows why)”

“Now he tells us about the snakes! My section is from Mt. Tremper to Willow trail. Should be fun, with all those snakes. I got all my info on trail maintenance from the conference this weekend. I'm psyched!”

“A camp gornd near with showers
camp”

“They have some of the most highly skilled raccoons at North/South Lake that I've ever seen. Bring rope or straps for your cooler or leave it in the car. These guys stop at nothing & I think they can pick locks. I bought a BB gun for these guys, so I wouldn't disturb others. Forget about trying to scare them away by shouting or throwing things as they are (cute) but fearless.

The Katerskill Falls south of this campground is worth visiting but I prefer walking North along the escarpment among rock & scrub pine. Walks North & South yield small plane wreckage pieces.”

“well im looking for a campground near the trail that we are going to be taken care of. if this turns out to be an overnighter I think stinky people may want to shower!!
or maybe it is me that wants THEM to shower LOL”

“Mapleleaf, just string up a tarp, fill a bucket with creek water, and step behind the tarp and dump the bucket over your head. Voila!

Oh, you wanted to wash your hair ....?”

“Maple got my maps out and found your trail. Is your section close to Mt Tremper or Silver Hollow? Actually if you are parking on jessup road I guess it is sort of in the middle. A closer campground is Woodland Valley, with showers and a stream flowing through camp. I have never seen any racoons there but the bears can be fun. Also there is a great pizza resturant between your trail and camp with cold beer. Pheonicia is also a really cool town. Not quite as hippie as Woodstock, but not as touristy either.
The campgrounds are closed that time of the year. May 2nd is when north south lake opens, may 16th for woodland valley. Looks we will be camping on the trail.

LyndyS "along with Overlook mtn, Tremper mtn.shares the distinction of harboring the Catskills largest timber rattler population" quote from the Catskills trails guide.
At least you will have something to eat, I here it tastes like chicken.
Mostly the snakes a located in the old quarries.
Are your two sections next to each other?”

“sweeetttt!

so maybe we should change the dates?

Lyndys is right near mine.”

“Yikes! Okay, I'm really an arachniphobe, but after that I'm afraid of snakes. If you see an Irish lady out there banging sticks against rocks and hollering to chase the snakes away, that will be me.”

“I will be posting pics as soon as I get home!!!!

hell Ill take the Pc with me and post them right then and there”

“Heck count me in sounds like it should be entertaining.
Lyndy have you ever seen the size of the barking wood spiders in the Catskills?

ps Maple I will bring my video camera, it woul be worth the weight”

“Most snakes are pretty shy. (water snakes aren't) It would have to be 70 degrees with no air movement for them to even move around. (cold blooded) I've hiked the Catskills & Adirondacks for 35 years & rarely see them. (got bit in the ramapo's)Of course the Adirondacks has few outside the Hudson & Champlain valley. The last person around here got bit in the Shawangunks (which I think has more) because he stopped to point at it. Guess they don't like being pointed at. Just move away or move them with a stick. The forest rangers will get REAL testy if you kill them. Well there's always the brown recluse spider.........”

“wow, stop that!!!!
I want her to have fun.

Lyndys, there are no animals in the Cats. ok?


would I lie to you :) its me Maple!!”

“Thats right no animals at all, except for friendly little chipmunks.”

“wait a min. I have had to deal with those little buggers. They DO NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER!!”

“LOL last year hiking in VT they were trying to take cookies right out of your hands. The Catskills chipmunk isn't quite that tame, but when you are hiking down some trails you can hear what has to be thousands of them running around in the leaves.”

“hey maple, i'd love to get in on this, it's about 15 minutes from me...i have the map set for the catskills so i'll try to check out the exact section...what do you need from me first?”

“The Lions & Tigers & Bears

(only kidding) but we do have Poison Ivy. I think the only critters that have really annoyed me in the Catskills were field mice. Used my tent for a ski slope one night, when I set it up in a lean-to many moons ago. Tend to nibble their way into packs too. In the Adirondacks, It's the Loons. These are the ducks that can swim underwater (kinda neat to guess where they're gonna pop-up, canoeing)But they can make a racket when you're trying to sleep.”

“maple e-mail me about the ss#”

“Ok it seems that I forget that Pathman was coming up for his visit to New York that very same weekend. So im going to have to change this for May 17th. plus its a full moon weekend yyyeeeaaahhh. Sorry guys, but you know what its like to want to meet new people and ive been waiting to meet pathman for a long time!!


But the good news is we can still do a hike with the Pathman that weekend!!!

Lt, ill contact the guy and tell ask him how he wants to handle the SS#'s.


Cool turtle!! the only thing that I will be needing now is everyones SS#. But dont send it to me just yet. I need to find out how the # are going to be handled.”

“May 3rd

or

May 16th?


which is better. I dont want to take anyone away from the Dolly Sods trip.”

“Spring on the Sods starts May 16 and runs to the 26th.”

“so i was thinking that the 3rd might be better.”

“persistant Porcupines. These fellas will eat your shoes, and will not give up easily. Seen a few on the Burroughs range trail (Slide/Cornell/Wittenburg). Need a good bear bag setup to keep em away.

Not seen any snakes up there but have elsewhere. Give them some distance and leave them alone.”

“Manuka how long ago do you hike that trail? I have been wanting to do that trip in a loop. starting at woodland valley. Is it as tough as they say between Slide and Cornell?”

“yes i think early May would be a great time to do this hike. The flowers and the birds all coming out. very nice. A good way to welcome the Spring.”

“LtHiker,

I have hiked the loop a couple of times in a clockwise direction.

First let me do my disclaimers. I do not know how tough "they" say it is. I have always done it as a multi-day, I hike for fun, not to prove anything.

From Woodland valley there is a pretty steep uphill, then it flattens out, still uphill but easy to a trail junction. Left goes downhill still easy to the Terrace Mountain Lean-to, good campsites there also. No water at the lean-to, have to use a stream on the main path 1/4 mile before the trail junction. First trip up here camped at Terrace, but that was because of a late start from NJ and it was getting dark.

Staying on the trail easy uphill to the the Wittenburg, the best view on the trail. Easy hiking down then up to Cornell. Descending from Cornell into the col there is a great viewpoint from a big rock on the RH side.
There is supposed to be a spring on the Cornell side of the col but I have never found it and I have looked. 2nd trip camped in the col, earlier start from NJ.

Going up Slide from the East has 2 patches where you need to climb/scramble using hands, each about 15-20 ft not a big deal even with a backpack. If you have someone very afraid of falling, use the bearbag rope to pull their pack up and have them climb up with no pack.

Near the top there is a permanent spring coming out of a pipe about 25ft off the trail on the RH side. No need to filter or anything this comes from deep earth. After the spring there is a section that has a ladder made from logs, but no big deal to the top.
Down Slide is easy except for a rocky section near the bottom that is tough on the ankles.

The road is just plain boring downhill to the hairpin where you get back on the easy uphill trail up to Giant Ledge.

Trail junction to GL is about 0.7 miles. GL is about 1 mile to left,
1st trip spent a 2nd night on the ledge, great spot but can get a lot of wind. 2nd trip just completed to Woodland.

Downhill most of the way to Woodland Valley, 1 steep uphill section only.

This would be a tough day if you wanted to complete the loop as a day hike. A fair hike in two days in Winter, and you would probably want an ice axe for the steep bits of Slide.”

“Thanks for the info. I want to do this as a 3 day weekend camping one night between Cornell and Whittenberg and then the next night go to Giant Ledge. I have met people that were doing it as a day hike that seems like more work than fun. I hike for fun and enjoyment not punishment. I was on whittenberg last spring and someone that was going on to slid told me that there were some areas that you had to use climbing ropes to get up and down. Sounded alittle extreme, I just couldn't imagine carrying my 80lb black lab up a ladder or up a cliff.

I must put this on my todo list for this year, anyone interested?”

“LtHiker, best to camp between Cornell and Slide, some good spots on the Slide side of the dip, also closer to the reliable water spring.

I do not think that the dog will have problems getting up anywhere. The 'ladder' is made from logs and is on a lean so the dog can just trot up. If the logs are dry and you have good balance you do not need hands..”