Escarpment trail in june anyone? (catski lls, NY)

“been wanting to do this trail for a while now.

anybody up for it?”

“Hmmm, maybe. I've got a lot on my plate for June. I'll have to see how things work out.”

“That's a long weekend, doggo”

“are we doing a mile a day? :p

I might be up for this trip.

I want to head up to the skills sometime in June and do Balsam Lake, Graham, Double Top and Balsam, but the escarpment would be fun too. Supposed to be some sweet views on that trail.”

“anybody got a weekend in mind, or weekends that are no good?

my june is pretty open right now and i really wanna do this thing. i could prolly smush some things around to accommidate any weekend at this stage.”

“Escarpment is fairly easy and very pretty. Can get crowded in summer (but you guys like crowds) from North/South Lake Campground.”

“I ran into a group of hardened criminals at North/South Lake campground early one spring.

They wore masks & INVADED my wife's North /South Lake campsite at 2am. They raided my ice cooler with a STRAP around it & a working catch. They attempted to steal my CD player. They did get a camera strap, but luckily the camera was inside our pop-up tent camper. They were oblivious to my acts of aggression & warnings.

If I was deep in the woods, one of them would have made a tasty stew, but figured the retort from my handgun would upset the sparse paying customers. The Park employee's would probably get a little testy too. Would be hard to deny responsibility at the ravaged crime scene.

That large family of raccoons successfully pilaged me so bad, that I went out & bought a (silent) air pellet gun.

That warded off subsequent attacks.”

“June is open for me so far. Pick a date.”

“I've used my airmiles. DOOH! . . . . . . wish I had a mountain around. . . the highest thing we got around here is that dirt pile where they've pulled up the old local mall. . . guess I'll have to see if I can climb it :)

I wish I could go, sacco. But you guys take plenty of pics if you can. And have a blast. And Have a cold tiddy for me :) while you're there.”

“if I'm free the weekend you choose, I'd love to hike this trail. Everybody will probably have one weekend that doesn't work so pick one and go with it. As for me, the 17th-18th might be bad. There's this dork I know, who goes by the name of Artex, who is doing a RUNNING race up Mt Washington on the 17th. Running up ain't enough cuz after the race (same freaking day), he plans to come off the mountain by hiking the Northern Presidentials. Some friends of said dork might do a presi traverse that day and "pick him" up on Washington. I'm thinking about doing that traverse as well.”

“That said "dork" is a running machine!”

“A hard core running machine!”

“Mostly because the company threatens to be excellent.

One of my buddies ran that race June 16, 2000. We hiked up to meet him. The same guy had also done the bike race a few years before.”

“out#&%!$ingstanding!”

“#&%!$in' eh!!
last edited: 4/24/06 5:47:11 AM”

“so what's your beef marko? you to good for the catskills?”

“I'm a fine piece of leather and I'm well put together and I'll be goddamed if I cain't #&%!$ in any kinda weather.”

“(too) good”

“I got the beef, baby!”

“Are there any relatively easy but rewarding dayhikes from that campground, maybe 6 or 8 miles total without lots of ups and downs?”

“fritz, checkout this map/link

http://www.catskillguide.com/hike-2.htm”

“the hunter mtn festival is that weekend. I am going to the festival with my girlfriend, but I want to do the hike too. I just won't be able to hike with you guys.

also, campsites maybe high commodities due to the festival.”

“site 159 has been reserved for friday night through sunday morning.

there's still a few sites available.

my tentative plan is to get there friday late afternoon and hike into the K falls.

sat morn i might just skip the first few miles of the esarpment trail that loop around the campgrounds and start from mile 7 where the trail starts heading north away from the campground.

at the northern end i hope i'll have enough energy to include the side track over to the black heads.

ENS, hopefully you can pop into the campsite and visit.
promise we won't pick on you or pop your blow-up "girlfriend"”

“I like this plan.”

“anybody with a status update?

marko, you gonna sign up?”

“I'll be there for the dayhike on saturday.”

“my status is still a maybe, probably a weak maybe. If I go, it will probably be just for the day.”

“maybe it'd be better to start at the northern end and hike back south to the campsite. this would leave the 7 mile curly-Q around the campgrounds as an option at the end of the day, rather than making the choice in the begining.

anyone have thoughts on this?

CP, gremlin, you guys still in, right? ENS, you gonna meet up with us sat morning?”

“Have fun, boneheads!!”

“I'll be on a cruise from sat 5/27 to 6/3 so I cant make it. For some reason I though your trip was the weekend after I get back.
Rob is still going though, so you guys have fun and drink a beer or two for me.”

“with everybody else canceling and our trip to west virginia next weekend, i'm having second thoughts about this one.
if you're feelin gung-ho about this then we'll do it; i'm sure we'll have a good time. Otherwise, i'll postpone this trip for a later date.

well grem, what do you think?

BTW, if we do it this weekend, i can only stay over friday night. sat night after the hike i'll be heading home due to petsitting complications.
last edited: 5/30/06 7:36:49 AM”

“The one nice thing about the escarpment trail is that it can be as long (or short) as you want. Lots of shorter loops. Lots of scenery. Lot of famous painters came there to paint. Great views 150 yards in from the public campgrounds & a lake/beach to swim in (w/ lifeguard).

Trails North & South.”

“I'm going to be there either way this weekend and would like to do it. I'd like to get the peaks of Windham and Blackhead.”

“ENS, you lookin to do the whole escarpment trail, or more interested in the black heads?

from what i remember, blackhead was weak on the view scale, but black dome has a gorgeous view of the devil's path from a medium sized ledge.”

“There are no black flies in West Virginia.”

“Yea, I didn't like Windham or Blackhead much either.”

“I was actually going to just hike from the northern ES trailhead, over Windham and then to Blackhead and then finish at the trailhead below the lean-to there. Crazypace and I have been trying to get the 35ers done this year, but he's out for the trip. If you postpone it, that will be fine with me.”

“the forecast is not looking so hot.”

“no it's not...

friday nite thunderstorms and sat. rain showers.”

“looks like it'll be a wet outdoor weekend of concerts for me. :)”

“i just cancelled the campsite reservations.

i think this trip was just star crossed.
maybe later in the year towards the fall foliage time i'll try again.”