ABOUT THE PARK:
Catskill Forest Preserve - New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Elm Ridge Wild Forest - New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Elm Ridge Trail System - Windham Area Recreation Foundation
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 42.312664, -74.190430
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| Escarpment Trail Trailhead Parking |
TRAIL MAP:
Northeastern Catskill Trails Map #141 - NY/NJ Trail Conference
Elm Ridge Wild Forest Trail Map* - New York Department of Environmental Conservation
Elm Ridge Trail System* - Windham Area Recreation Foundation
* There are new trails not currently shown on these maps.
HIKE DISTANCE: 12 miles
THE HIKE:
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| The Escarpment Trail starts directly across Route 23 from the parking lot. |
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| I had read where this area can be under 3 feet of water so I assume that is what the construction is all about ... |
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| ... this new bridge over ... |
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| Windham Kill |
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| Some more boardwalks over what would probably be swampy. |
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| But today everything was mostly bone dry. |
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| We stopped to sign in at the trail register but the door was very hard to get open. |
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| I decided to divert to the Gold Mine Trail first since I would probably be too hot and tired to do it at the end of the hike. |
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| It's a pretty loop and was a nice warmup before climbing to Windham High Peak. |
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| A very old tree. |
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| Right on the Escarpment Trail leaving the Gold Mine Trail. |
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| There are many more bike trails but we would be hiking more of those later. |
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| First up to Windham High Peak. |
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| At this intersection the Escarpment Trail continues as foot traffic only. We'd be taking the Elm Ridge Trail from here on the way back. |
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| Elm Ridge Shelter on the right. |
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| It's like walking through a portal from green into ... |
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| ... pines with lots of roots to walk on. |
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| It gets steeper higher up but there are never any scrambles. |
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| Almost at the top, to the right ... |
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| ... a view of the Blackhead Range. (Photobombed by a gnat.) |
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| A short distance farther on the left ... |
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| ... views to the north. |
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| A little farther ahead, smack in the middle of the trail, the Windham High Peak benchmark. |
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| But you want to keep going downhill a bit to another overlook on the left ... |
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| ... of the Hudson Valley. I had been at this overlook with Shawnee in 2011 having come from the opposite direction. |
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| The obligatory snack at the overlook. |
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| The Hudson was barely visible in the distance on this hazy day. |
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| Heading back down the Escarpment Trail the way we came. It's all downhill now. |
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| Back at that intersection, we turned left on the yellow Elm Ridge Trail for a short distance... |
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| ... then right on the red Mid Mountain Trail. |
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| It was very peaceful here. Where the Escarpment Trail was getting crowded with groups of people heading up to the overlooks, I ran into just a few bikers the whole time we were on these biking trails. |
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| Definitely for mountain biking. |
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| Coming off of Mid Mountain and turning left on blue Black Bear Hideout. |
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| Black Bear Hideout apparently turns into Big T which is also blue. |
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| Levitate is the trail I wanted so we stayed right on blue but we would be seeing this intersection again in a bit. |
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| This is where things got confusing. There were trails here that were not on the map. The sign said Big T was left but blue continued right. Turns out I should have turned right but I turned left to stay on Big T thinking that would be the way. It was not. |
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| Sign says Big T but I didn't know until I got all the way down to the bottom that I had been on a new trail called Uphill. (Or maybe I just misinterpreted the signs?) |
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| Down at the bottom is where I saw I was not on Big T after all but I recalled seeing a sign for Berm Out previously so instead of retracing, uphill on Berm Out it was. |
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| Back to that intersection where I had been previously at the top ... |
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| ... and back on the blue Big T Trail. |
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| Now back at the intersection where I went wrong we stayed right on blue regardless of what the signs said. |
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| Yay, a sign for Levitate. We were definitely back on track. |
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| It was the red Levitate Trail on a very gradual downhill all the way back to the Escarpment Trail. |
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| Left on the Escarpment Trail. |
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| Passing by the trail register which I now could not get open at all, it was completely jammed shut, so I never signed out. |
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| Back across Route 23 ... |
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| ... to the parking lot. |
