Beta on Friday BC and Rocky (Catskills)

[ajtiv]

I am planning this hike for this Saturday 3/20/05
Question is from Moonhaw road does anyone know the snow conditions and how bad it is going up BC and Rocky from this direction? Is there any remains of the herd path to Friday and BC or is it completely filled in with new snow. Trail conditions and trip reports lead me to believe there has not been anybody up since the end of February.
I know it is unusual to go to Rocky from Moonhaw and not from Lone or the north approach from the Neversink which is what I did in November.

Any help would be appreciated since I am hoping if all goes well on 3/19/05 this will be my final 3 for the winter patch.
Thanks in advance
Al

 

[Jay H]

Hey Al, can't tell you the current conditions but I'm told that the balsams between Rocky and Balsam Cap are thick, very thick, I would plan for a long day and perhaps go to Rocky first and then play it by ear to see how much time you have even though it's not much of a detour if you're on the herd path. The herd path is kind of obscure if its untracks and fresh snow once you start hitting the ledges. Ralph guided us on fresh snow and it was tough in a few spots to see where the path went.

Jay

 

[ajtiv]

Thanks Jay
When I finished my 35 I went in from Neversink and up Rocky which was open this was a path going south south west up to the summit.
when I came down still uneventful but going up the west side of BC from the col was really thick you could see 10 feet in front of you and on top of that an awful lot of blowdown. I felt like I was running into deadends for that whole way up.
I assume the path from the North heading South is not as bad (if that is the traditional path) but I have never been up that way.
My instinct was to take that route and then come back down and and contour around just above 3300 feet, hike into the col and go up Rocky circumventing the thick stuff.

How was your approach from Moonhaw with Ralph does it follow this direction?
I am wondering if it might be better to drop down from BC to the NS valley and come up from there to Rocky it was open on the north side.

I am trying to figure out the best route options becuase it will be a long day
Al

 

[Jay H]

Our approach from Moonhaw to BC/Friday was on an open woods road at first until it got steep. Then navigation was harder as the wide road ends and the small ox path starts. Ralph is awesome in that we were able to find the unbroken path that leads right to the solution to the 50ft headwall you have to scale to get to the canister. But once that solution is found, it's not hard at all to get and it leads you straight to the canister. The problem would be to find it if unbroken, then to get to BC, we descended on the same path to about 3200-3300' and then followed the headwall towards BC, finding a route to once again ascent the ledge (not as bad here as it is for Friday) and we found another herdpath through the forrest again, eventually finding the canister. A bit harder to find.

I did Rocky the same way you did, from the neversink, I probably should of followed the fisherman's path for another 1/4 mile but my friend and I decided to just make a beeline once we hit the steep ravine on the south side of the neversink that you hit as you get closer to rocky. We had to navigate through some thick spruce and once we cleared it, we saw the little summit hump on Rocky. I was afraid that we past it! But it was obvious once we saw the hump that it was the summit.

Jay