Catskills, NY - Dry Brook Ridge

ABOUT THE PARK:

Dry Brook Ridge Wild Forest - New York Department of Environmental Conservation

DIRECTIONS: 

GPS Coordinates 42.07044, -74.57362

Dry Brook Ridge Trailhead Parking - I was the only one actually hiking the ridge.  Everyone else was going the opposite way to the Balsam Lake Mountain fire tower.

TRAIL MAP: 

Dry Brook Ridge Wild Forest Trail Map - New York Department of Environmental Conservation

Central Catksills Trail Map 142 - New York New Jersey Trail Conference

HIKE DISTANCE:  9.9 miles

THE HIKE: 

This hike is two weeks after chemo round 2.  The oncologist was very pleased that I worked my way to hiking in the Catskills after round 1 and encouraged me to continue that so I decided to bump the distance up a bit this time.

Trail access to the ridge is to the right of the kiosk.

Signing in at the register.

Seems a lot of people come this way in error.  There are more notes than what is shown here.

We did the fire tower the last time.  This time it's the ridge and we ran into nobody else the entire hike. The fire tower is the main attraction but I prefer the solitude of the ridge.

Up and down a small mountain.

Dry Brook Ridge Shelter

Now ascending the ridge, steeply at times but never any scrambles.

At the top it's a combination of level and rolling terrain with more mud, some overgrowth and some blow downs but everything still defined, marked and passable.

Passing the Huckleberry Loop which I heard can be quite overgrown - it was at this intersection.

Continuing on the Dry Brook Ridge Trail.

Coming up on the first overlook.

Continuing on to the second overlook, the trail becomes more rugged.

Second overlook, 5 miles out from the parking lot.

Heading back.

Stopping at the shelter to take a break.

Looks like a whole family took shelter here.

Passing back by the trail register.

All those other cars were for the fire tower since I had seen nobody else on the trail at all.

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