Catskills Jan 16-18 2004

“Ok who is in? Check the trips page for details.”

“Damn you!”

“Naturally I'm in for this trip. One thing though, the parking area at the end of the DP on Spruceton Rd will probably be the end of the line for vehicles. According to the guide book, the rest of the road is not plowed in the winter.

Hiking the DP from there (including West Kill) to Diamond Notch Falls is probably about 7 miles, and another 2 to the Devil's Acre Lean-to. Hiking the road (assuming it's snow covered) would cut that down a few miles. Another option is starting on Diamond Notch road. Yet another option is starting on 214, but that's a fairly steep hoof in winter. Remember the "fun" I had on it this summer when I dehydrated?”

“Ok well the plans are not written in stone as far as the starting point. I would prefer not to come up from 214 since it is such a killer and not a "fun" hike. I will take a look over my maps.

Sorry Artex hahaha! How is the heat and mosquitos?”

“Diamond Notch Rd might be a good place to start. would you be coming up friday night or Saturday Morning? I would be up for either. I would like to do Friday just so get 2 bag nights out of the trip. The diamond notch lean to seems to be 1.6 miles in if DN rd is plowed.
Either way we could make a loop out of it by bushwacking over to SW Hunter Mtn summit and then bushwacking to the west to meet up with the DN trail. It would keep us frpm having to back track. That is depending on the weather.”

“Sorry, have a ski trip planned for that weekend :(”

“so did I, but I'm going”

“Grrrrrrrr!






















:-)”

“I hope to do a little hiking just prior to your trip. While I'll be working on those days, I could drive up & see if these roads are plowed or not at various sites for you. I have a jeep (with a winch) and snowshoes. Just let me know (& remind me) what you would like checked out.”

“thanks for the offer catskhiker. When the time gets closer I will give you a shout. How much snow do you have on the ground up there now?

That winch might come in handy if we get snowed in up there.”

“Wenches are always handy when it's snowing outside.

Oh, not what you meant. Sorry.”

“"so did I, but I'm going"

Yea, but I already paid for mine.”

“Hey get out of my thread you degrader you!”

“too Bad soo Sorry Scorchie that will teach you to make non-backpacking plans!
Where are you going skiing?”

“Would like to come, but seeing as I know nothing about the Cat’s and the fact that I can get to the ADK High Peaks in half the time, I think I’ll wait until warmer weather before I hike in the area.”

“Diamond notch road parking lot is also not ploughed in Winter, and the road has 'Do not even think of Parking' signs every 10 feet. Pretty obnoxious actually.

Planned to go in Diamond notch last Dec, ended up on 214. It is steep, but snowshoes not crampons.
Sugarbush from Mink hollow is crampons.”

“Hmm well that might be a problem for Diamond nothc rd. hunter Mtn is looking like it might be hard to get to.”

“I just spoke to the NYDEC and they said that Spruceton rd is plowed up to the end parking lot. This would be the easiest way to get into the DN lean to in the evening on Friday.”

“Lt- Just going up to the Poconos, Jack Frost. We rented a cabin for the weekend. Should be fun :)”

“I used to ski at Jack frost alot. It always freaked me out that the lodge and parking area were at the top.
Haven't been there in many years.”

“4" maybe @ 1700'. It rained today & will probably freeze tonight. I have 2 weeks off in the beginning of Jan, so will probably spend a little time there.”

“I didn't realize that the last part of Diamond Notch Rd isn't maintained in winter. I know it's unpaved, and you sure can't miss those obnoxious no parking signs at the end of the paved section.

Lt - They said Spruceton Rd is plowed all the way in? If that's the case, it should work out perfect. You might want to edit the description on the trips page because we wouldn't be taking the DP in.”

“Diamond notch has a lot of broken rubble rock which is a haven for the rattlers in summer. I like that area much better in the cooler weather. The porcupines are a bother there in summer too liking almost anything you touch from the (sweaty) salt on your hands.”

“Can a homie get some links showing the trailhead parking and/or the trail locations withing the Cats???”

“http://www.catskillguide.com/hike-3.htm

Sorry I don't do links. you will notice Spruceton to the left of this map. look where the road ends at a blue circle trail. I am planning to follow this trail up to about where it says Diamond notch, this is approxximately where the leanto is. Saturday we will backtrack a little to the red circle trail. This will take us up to the Hunter lean to where we can drop packs and hike to the Summit. Depending upon the time of day I would also like to tag SW Hunter which is a short bushwack to the south of the lean to. Sunday we can hike back to the cars and then bushwack up Ruck if you are interested. Rusk is about a 3hr rt bushwack north of the parking area. If anybody wants a map of the area it is Map # 41 of the Catskill forest Preserve. If you want a copy e-mail me and I can e-mail it to you.”

“This isn't going to be some kinda candy-ass walk-in-the-park, is it?”

“I did the hike from Spruceton Rd. to Hunter summit with Msilver in 2002. I remember that most of the climbing was to get to the lean-to and from there it didn't seem to steep or far to the summit. There was nice firetower at the top that we climbed. The lean-to was pretty well chewed up from porcupines from what I could remember. Amazing what they can do.”

“It is not going to be a high mileage hike since I expext that there will be some snowshoing involved. It also will not be a "candy-ass walk-in-the-park". Hunter Mtn is the second highest mtn in the catskills at 4040'. SW Hunter is 3740' Rusk if we can squeeze it in is 3680'.
I don't think any mountain of this hieght in the winter can be called Candy Ass.”

“I am very disappointed that I did not climb SW Hunter when I was up there last year but did not realize at the time that it was one of the 3500's.

View from the fire tower is terrific (not you Tom).”

“Rich we slept in that lean to this past summer on the Devils path hike and the porcupines were just obnoxious. Adventurist stayed up all night chasing them away from the lean to. One of them almost licked sirpete on the head. Of course with Sirpetes hair it might have been love at first site.”

“Count me as a "Partial Probably" ...ie., depending on the weather, I may join youans for some day hiking.”

“Cool Msilver it would be nice to see you and sparky there.”

“LTHiker,

Yeah, Sparky hasn't pee'd on anyone's water bottle lately.

Actually, the Sparkster will not be attending anymore relatively rigorous trips/hikes. His arthritis is getting the better of him now in his old age (he's almost 14).”

“The Mighty_M!!!
- Are you back from some far out intergalactic journey?

I too have a Catskills-porcupine horror story. We were staying at a leanto near Blackhead mtn. The leanto appeared to be vandalized but on second look it was the work of some varmit. We awoke to sounds in the camp and I threw my cookpot at the porcupine and wacked him in the head. He went away. An hour later, we were again awoken... this time by the sound of metal being scratched. The four of us turned on our flashlights to find the porc' had returned and was sitting on his butt, holding my cookpot with his evil little fungers and munching away on my cooking pot! Evil Bastard!”

“I've heard of them eating the steering wheels of cars. Apparently they like the salt from your sweat that gets into the steering wheel.”

“Got back to the car after a weekend hike on the AT and found a puddle on the front tire. Closer inspection revealed the break line was chewed through. A Cop came upon us and said it was porcupines and that his uncle had a gas station down the road. "Deliverance!" we suspected. Driving down the mountain road, there was the porcupine staggering like he was drunk, in the middle of the road and he had an oily stain down the front of him. I kinda felt sorry for him, but it sure did suck having to drive all the way home on half a master cylinder!”

“When I lived in Vermont I killed a few of those prickly bastards.

After spending $45 for each dog in its turn at the vet to get quills out of its nose it was kill on sight.”

“Cut the quills & pull them out. I had an excellant sheppard/coyote mix. Hated porcupines though.”

“Ok anymore People signing up?”

“with Stratusloop, We took the double black diamond trail that was closed and I hit the lip of the hill and soared over it and when I landed I hit a slick patch of ice and the skis went out and I slid down on my side for 300 yards, loosing one ski as I was careening down the mtn...it was fun...

dang porkypine...

Hunter is COOL!!! kicked my @ss when I skid it, never hiked it.”

“Yeah it is a good ski area as long as there are not too many New Yorkers there. I almost got arrested there once for skiing a closed trail.”

“Im pretty sure I can make this one. I'll have to check my work.....oops, nevermind, Im unemployed. I should make it.”

“Cool Dare it will be good to see you again. What about your better half?”

“yeah your much better half.......”

“Not sure yet, She'll have to see if work is going to be a problem or not.”

“Work is always a problem to be solved.”

“Guess someone in that family has to work.”

“Great the more the merrier!”

“If there is no snow on the mtn so we want ot change the location?”