My good buddy TBPDPTI and I enjoyed an excellent adventure in the southwestern Catskills today. Five peaks - four of them Catskill hundred highest peaks - 13 miles on foot, 6 miles on bike, 3+ miles off-trail. This hike had it all!
We parked at the Hardenburgh Trailhead on Beaverkill Road and jumped on our bikes right around 8am. It was a leisurely and scenic bike along Beaverkill Road. I knew the day was going to be a great one when I saw a massive bald eagle patrolling the Beaverkill Creek, no doubt looking for breakfast. Great warm-up to start the day.
It took us about 35-40 minutes to reach Shin Creek Road, where we would continue our day on foot. This road climbs steeply to a height-of-land before descending and then re-climbing a bit. We left the road once we hit state land and from there began our ~1 mile bushwhack to the summit of Hodge Pond Mountain. Gloriously open woods the whole way. So many trout lily leaves on the forest floor it was unbelievable. We crossed the trail very close to the 3-way intersection and continued on toward the summit. Just a little bit of thick stuff near the top (which by Catskill standards just means it was a minor hindrance) but otherwise smooth sailing.
Back down to the three-way intersection, we followed the trail to Hodge Pond. This brief stretch of trail was a muddy disaster but at least it was short-lived. From the pond we followed the old road up to near the summit of Beech Mountain, the high point of Sullivan County. The roads got us to within a few hundred feet of the summit, so it was a very easy bushwhack.
For our first extended break of the day we decided to continue pushing northward to Mongaup Mountain. Once we found the extremely narrow ridge (few dozen feet across) with steep drop-offs on either side, we stopped to enjoy the scenery and views. Look at a top map - this ridge is super cool. There was a faint herd path extending along this ridge - which makes sense because there’s not really anywhere else to funnel people - which extended to just below the summit of Mongaup. It was quick work making it to the summit of Mongaup. More open woods and quick travel. It was around 11:30am when we hit the summit. Three peaks before noon, not bad we thought.
From Mongaup, we continued to the east toward our final targets of the day: Sand Pond Mountain & Willowemoc Mountain. Along the way, we had to climb the various sub-summits of Mongaup. Extremely steep and unstable woods coming down from Mongaup but then more open and easy woods along an intermediate bump and up to the summit of “Middle Mongaup” Mountain. It here that we finally hit the “trail” and that term is used extremely loosely here. Plenty of blue markers but virtually no tread underfoot to follow and a thick layer of leaves covering everything. It felt like bushwhacking. Oh well.
It was pretty easy going to Sand Pond Mountain. We were slowing down a bit on the ascents after a day of countless up-and-downs but we kept trudging along. Same deal for Willowemoc. In fact, our pace may have increased a bit on the uphill knowing it was our last climb of the day. We hit Willowemoc around 1:30pm. From there it was a steep 2 mile descent back to the Beaverkill. Knees were definitely creaking by this point, but we made it out issue. It sure felt good to sit down in the car! It was just about 2:30pm when we finished up, so a hair over 6h30m car-to-car. Not bad!
Wildflower Report:
buttercups & yellow violets are out, though not in huge numbers. We saw zillions of trout lily leaves and saw a few flowers opening up once we got down low enough on the trail down from Willowemoc. Lots of spring beauties but most were barely opened. Found a lone trillium with a flower but it wasn’t open.
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