ABOUT THE PARK:
Delaware Wild Forest - New York DEC
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 42.04379, -74.72748
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| Parking on Barkaboom Road at Big Pond. |
TRAIL MAP:
Delaware Wild Forest - New York DEC
Catskill Trails-Western Trails Map 144 - New York New Jersey Trail Conference
Western Catskills, NY - Touchmenot and Cabot Mountains at EveryTrail
HIKE DISTANCE - 7.8 miles
THE HIKE:
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| A couple of mom/toddler duos crossed the road on the way in. |
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| At this bridge just before the Big Pond parking lot, an osprey was sitting on the railing where the arrow is pointing. I stopped, he stayed. By the time I got the camera turned on and snapped the picture, he took off and all I got was his tail. |
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| Big Pond |
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| On the opposite side of the street from Big Pond, access to the red-blazed Touch-Me-Not/Finger Lakes Trail. |
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| A few steps in, a trail register. There will be two more along this route. Be sure to sign in. |
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| And off we go. |
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| What struck me immediately about this trail at 7:30 AM was the total peace and quiet. Not another sound, no traffic, nothing. |
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| A rooted trail section. |
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| Almost stepped on this little guy. |
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| The only time Shawnee goes ahead of me any more is when I tell her to so I can get her in a picture, then she is right behind me again. Not on this hike! She was in her element and forged on ahead. |
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| The mileages are off on the signs. Based on my pedometer, the GPS and the trail conference map, the distance is 1.2 miles instead of .8 |
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| We turned left on blue only intending to reach the true summit of Touch-Me-Not Mountain. The plan was to retrace to avoid a steep section thinking it would be too much for Shawnee. |
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| Off to the summit. |
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| Here we are, the summit of Touch-Me-Not Mountain. No views or anything but it's a pretty trail. |
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| We came this far so how about we go on and just "see" how steep the descent is? |
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| It was pretty steep but Shawnee was handling it well so we forged on. |
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| I thought this was a jumping red eft until he stopped and I could see it was a jumping red frog. |
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| Being watched by an oven bird. |
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| The trail levels off then it is easy sailing all the way to... |
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| ... Little Pond Campground with another register to sign. |
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| We headed left towards the bridge because ... |
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| ... to the right are picnic areas and a beach where dogs are not allowed. Maybe walking by on the pavement would be OK but just easier to go the other way given the option. |
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| Crossing the bridge at the dam. |
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| Little Pond with Cabot Mountain in the distance. |
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| There aren't any blazes here, just follow the gravel path. |
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| Turn right on the paved camp road at the yellow square ADA Trail marker. |
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| Cooling off. |
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| The paved park road goes by all of the campsites. |
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| Boat Launch |
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| Touch-Me-Not Mountain |
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| Continuing on through walk-in campsites to... |
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| ... the yellow-blazed Little Pond Trail. |
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| Trail Register #3 |
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| Word must gave gotten out to the eft community that I almost squished one of their own so every one I saw after that was safely tucked away. |
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| Turning leaves... already. |
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| Sometimes quite a few fallen leaves. |
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| A beaver dam off to the right. |
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| Outhouse ruins on the left complete with... |
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| ... toilet lid. |
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| Old farm walls. |
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| A group of campers passed us and turned left at the small homestead pond. With the overgrowth, I didn't want to crowd in behind them to see the pond so we just continued on to ... |
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| ... the old farmstead ruins. |
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| Nicole Curtis would love this. |
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| Forging on to... |
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| Views! |
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| A short distance ahead, this large, flat boulder made a great break spot. |
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| Back at the red-blazed Touch-Me-Not./Finger Lakes Trail I had intended to turn right to head back. But the Beaverkill Vista on Cabot Mountain was "only" half a mile away. I was worried about Shawnee on the scrambles to the top because it looked steep on the map but we could just to and see for ourselves, couldn't we? |
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| Things started getting pretty steep. Shawnee was getting tired and she did fall on her rear end a couple of times. But we were almost there at that point. |
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| To keep her close enough to me so I could help her with the harness, I had to leash her up. It was exhausting getting her up then getting myself up but we made it to ... |
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| ... Beaverkill Vista with Little Pond down below. |
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| Zooming in to the beach and the bridge we cross earlier over the dam. |
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| This was a fantastic break spot so we spread out and stayed until other hikers came along not wanting to hog the space. |
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| Watching the clouds overhead. |
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| There was a nice breeze and it was very peaceful. |
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| Tired dog. |
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| So when other hikers came along, we moved on a short distance to the summit of Cabot Mountain. |
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| Retracing back on red. |
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| The Touch-Me-Not flowers that the trail is named after. |
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| Although this trail is also the Finger Lakes Trail, this is the only such marker I saw. |
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| Back at the first trail register. |
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| You see this sign as you are leaving. That's not much help. |
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| Back down to Barkaboom Road and Big Pond. |
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| Big Pond was a lot busier at 2:30 PM than at was at 7:30 AM but I had promised Shawnee she could go in. |
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| I had changed into water shoes and walked in too, and it was heavenly! |
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| Schmoozing with some admirers. |
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| A happy dog, but ... |
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| ... an exhausted dog. She rarely sleeps in the car but slept the whole 2.5 hour drive home. |
HIKE SUMMARY:
[ 0.00] Cross Barkaboom Road from Big Pond to access the red-blazed Finger Lakes Trail
[ 1.20] Left on blue
[ 2.50] Left over bridge/dam at campground; continue right on yellow square ADA Trail
[ 3.05] Left on yellow leaving ADA Trail
[ 3.85] Farmstead ruins
[ 3.95] Views
[ 4.20] Left on red
[ 4.80] Beaverkill Vista; continue on to Cabot Mountain summit, retrace
[ 5.90] Straight on red when yellow starts to the right
[ 6.45] Straight on red when blue starts to the right
[ 7.80] End at Big Pond
