Saturday, September 11, 2021

Catskills, NY - Table-Peekamoose-Lone-Fisherman's Path

The sign was missing so this picture was borrowed from Google Maps.

ABOUT THE PARK: 
Slide Mountain Wilderness - New York Department of Environmental Conservation

DIRECTIONS: 
GPS Coordinates 41.96525, -74.45259
Denning Trailhead Parking

TRAIL MAP: 
Catskills Trail Map 143 - NYNJ Trail Conference


HIKE DISTANCE:  10.8 miles

THE HIKE: 
It is important to sign the register at the trailhead, especially for this hike that involves off the beaten path hiking.  (Which I should add, should not be attempted if  you are not prepared and confident in your ability to navigate without a visible trail.)  This hike can also be done as an out and back to Table and /or Peekamoose to keep with marked trails.
Starting on the yellow trail which is a woods road.
With all of the recent rain, some parts of the trail were flooded.
The Finger Lakes Trail ends ...
... at the intersection with the blue trail.
Right on blue towards Table Mountain.
This bridge ...
... is crumbling.
East Branch Neversink River
Another bridge crossing shortly after the last one.
Ascending Table Mountain
Lower Table Mountain View via a short side trail to the right.
I missed this and had to backtrack.  At the top of the climb where the trail levels out, a side trail to the right where Brodie is facing leads to ...
Upper Table Mountain Overlook
Crossing Table Mountain, the trail is flat and pleasant, hence the name of the mountain.
Chickadees liked this trail, too, and they were everywhere at the summit.
Table Mountain Summit
Continuing on to Peekamoose Mountain.
The summit of Peekamoose Mountain at the huge glacial erratic.
To the left is a not so easy to find side trail that leads to ...
... an overlook of the high peaks and Ashokan Reservoir.
Heading back to Table.
At the top of the steep climb up Table ...
... a right on the herd path to Lone Mountain.  This path is not blazed, it merely exists from people having used it and can be difficult to follow at times.  I had loaded some track from Gaia on to my phone so I had something to follow and I did refer to it very often from this point forward.
There is a footpath and it is pretty easy to follow but it is not maintained so there are blowdowns and overgrowth.
At this rock wall I did not know which way to go.
I ended up turning right and going through this crevice because I could see ...
... a footpath coming out of the crevice.  This, however, fizzled out and I had to bushwhack around to regain the trail which I did just before ...
... the summit canister on Lone Mountain.
A path from the summit leads to an overlook.
Returning to the summit to find the herd path down.
It is there and it was pretty easy to follow about 2/3 of the way down until I lost it completely and had to bushwhack the rest of the way.
Coming out at the Fisherman's Path which is also an unmaintained, unmarked path which comes and goes so there was a lot of hunting around for the continuation of the path along this stretch.
Crossing Donovan Brook.
Back at the blue trail and the bridge crossings.
Left on  yellow to retrace back to the parking lot.
The sun was starting to set and it gets dark quickly in the forest.
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5 comments:

  1. JeffSeptember 13, 2021 at 9:22 AM

    This looks like a great hike. I am always wary of leaving marked trails because I get lost easily. I use Avenza app on my phone. Maybe bushwacking would be easier once the leaves fall.

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    Replies
    1. Gone Hikin'September 13, 2021 at 10:02 AM

      The bushwhacking part can be very frustrating. Seems straightforward when going downhill towards the river but there are so many obstacles to get around and it is easy to start heading the wrong way. I have absolutely no sense of direction so that is why I downloaded some known tracks from Gaia first. (But be sure you have a backup power bank for your phone!) Even if I tried to get back to those known tracks I would encounter obstacles right on those tracks but at least it kept me heading in the right direction. I kept wanting to go to the right, the tracks headed to the left. In one sense it is easier when the leaves fall but on the other hand, it might obscure what herd path there is if there is thick leaf drop and you might be bushwhacking more. The first bushwhack I ever did was from Ashokan High Point to Little High Point when the leaves were down and it was very easy to see where to go. That might be a good starting point to try it out. https://gonehikin.blogspot.com/2012/04/catskill-forest-preserve-ny-kanape.html

      Delete
  2. Frances MoonSeptember 13, 2021 at 2:25 PM

    So I signed up for this Follow it thing and now I get two emails of the hike, one from this site and one from Follow.

    "Google FeedBurner is being discontinued. Please sign up on Follow.It below to continue to receive e-mail notifications when new hikes are posted."

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    Replies
    1. Gone Hikin'September 13, 2021 at 2:33 PM

      I don't know what is going on. For months I had been getting notices from Feedburner that it is discontinuing but I still get the email notifications, too.

      This is what they were saying:
      Starting in July, we are transitioning FeedBurner onto a more stable, modern infrastructure. This will keep the product up and running for all users, but it also means that we will be turning down most non-core feed management features, including email subscriptions, at that time. For those who use FeedBurner to manage email subscriptions, we recommend downloading your email subscribers so that you can migrate to a new email subscription service. This data will also still be available for download after July.

      Delete
  3. Gone Hikin'September 23, 2021 at 8:23 AM

    The Catskills never disappoint!

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