una_dogger
Well-known member
The "gamers":
Craig/Electicman: Organizer (Adkhighpeaks.com, RocksonTop,VfTT)
Marchowes: Resident Bushwacker
Doodles:Happiest Guy on Earth (Adkhighpeaks.com)
Una_dogger: along for the ride
Marc and Heather: The Happy Couple (good friends of Craig's, AT thruhikers, All season and Winter 48ers)
Stats:
8265 ft gain
24.75 miles
12 hours to 13 hours, all six "gamers" became "finishers"!
Note: I've used mileages and gain/loss data from the ADK Catskill Region Guide, 2nd Ed. to describe our hike. Mileage data from our track log indicates longer overall mileages, which may be attributed to reroutes. Thanks to Doodles for bringing his GPS
Back in December, Craig posted an open call for a Devil's Path Traverse on Rocks. I've done all sections of the path many times over, and have always wanted to do it as a full traverse. I was *delighted* when Craig was game for doing it as a one day hike.
I pined the winter away, waiting for May 17th to arrive. Having the Devil's Path penciled in fairly early in my fair weather hiking itinerary seemed daunting, but having some other very big one day traverses planned for June, having the Devil as a pre-season warm up seemed a sensible training plan. Knowing ahead of time what each section would be like also added to my comfort level.
Marchowes and I arrived at the Devil's Tombstone Camground about 9pm friday night in a driving rain. After brief introductions, Marc and Heather jumped eagerly to the task of helping me set up my tent. Into our tents we scrambled and nestled down for a rainy night that was punctuated by some very beautiful yet erie hooting owls that seemed to go on for hours.
At four am Craig's alarm went off. The owls were still hooting and Craig joined in. I felt as though I had 2 hours sleep. Wearily I dragged myself out of the tent after Craig's wake up call. We all piled into cars and headed to Spruceton Rd, where we left two cars, then all piled into mine and headed for Prediger Rd where we met up with Doodles.
Craig handed out photocopied maps in ziplock bags to each of us, and we set off. We began hiking the Devil's Path at 6:40 am. The sun was shining brightly, the skies a baby blue, a light breeze was blowing, and there were zero bugs. Couldn't ask for a better day to hike and we were grateful the rain was forecast to hold off until later in the afternoon, and be scattered throughout the region.
Indian Head, Gain 1573 ft, 4.4 miles
We remained as a group until the first summit, Indian Head, 3573ft. Here we sifted out into smaller groups according to rate of travel, with Craig and Marc taking the lead. Doodles hung back and we chatted about peakbagging in the Northeast, backpacking on the AT, beautiful places in the world we've visited, the type of things hikers generally chat about.
Indian Head to Twin, Loss 475 ft, gain 640 ft, 5.7 miles from start
After a steep drop down into the Jimmy Dolan Notch, we very quickly gained elevation to the lower summit of Twin Mountain, climbing over several jumbles of house sized boulders and squeezing through crevices. The Devil's Path is very rugged, challenging, and a lot of fun for those who like hand over foot climbing. The views from the south summit of Twin were breath taking. We headed through a pretty green spruce tunnel to the true summit of Twin Mountain, 3640 ft, at 6.65 miles from the start. The map shows a cave at this end of the mountain, but I didn't see one. More amazing views.
Twin to Sugarloaf, Loss 810 ft, Gain 822 feet, 6.7 miles from start:
Twin to Sugarloaf is an extremely steep and rugged section. Dropping down from Twin we snaked our way down through steep, slotted ledges. There are no ladders here and the boulders are blocky. Roots and crevices offer handholds and toe rests. This was a very fun section! I really enjoy this type of trail. It was good to be back in NY and climbing in the mountains where I had my start to hiking back in 1989. To this day, whenever someone says "steep", this is where my mind drifts. The Eastern Section of the Devil's Path has always been my frame of reference for "steep". Shortly before we reached the Pecoy Notch that separates these two peaks, we crossed paths with Val and Stoopid from Adkhighpeaks.com. We were booking pretty fast down the mountain, full of steam and stoked for the long haul, I said a quick hello and we kept on hikin'. At the col, we caught up with Marc who let us know that Craig was going for time and would see us at the end. Go Craig! Marc was going to try to catch up with him. The climb up to Sugarloaf from Pecoy Notch is my favorite hike in the Catskills. From the notch, the climb looks imposing. Long stretches of cliff bands encircle the mountain. The trail climbs quickly up through steep ledges, under overhanging cliffs, and through lemon squeezers. More full body climbing. I've done this trail more times than I can count but never have I gotten up it so quickly! What a rush...
Near the summit of Sugarloaf, 3800 ft, Heather, Doodles and I rejoined Marchowes. At this point I needed to take a quick break, and I told Doodles not to wait up for me. He grinned and I knew he was going to try to catch up to Craig and Marc. Go Doodles! What a pleasure to be in such a motivated group! From here on it was Marchowes, Heather and myself, separated by about five to ten minutes from one another. Heather and I spent a fair amount of time chatting and getting to know eachother. Marchowes was always waiting for us on summits, and we'd know he'd reached them by the happy Woot! we'd hear through the woods.
Sugarloaf to Plateau, Loss 1200ft, Gain 1240 ft, 8.85 miles from start
The Devil's Path now drops and insane 1200 ft in 0.95 mile! Over, around and through slotted ledges and cliffs we made our way down to the Mink Hollow Notch, 2600 ft. To date, the longest continuous hike I have done in on The Devil's Path consisted of Indian Head, Twin and Sugarloaf, with a bike spot. I felt a tremendous rush of excitement as we began climbing up Plateau. I knew the ascents and descents from this point onward would be less steep, on more foregiving terrain, and the elongated ridgeline of Plateau runs 2.5 miles on a gentle and shaded footpath through deep spruce, offering much needed shade and respite after such a tough section. Near the eastern end of the mountain, we passed a large group of older women and men out for a hike. They were in great spirits and it was so inspiring to see them out there climbing big mountains. The weather was still picture perfect, sunny yet cool and breezy. I felt a bit of a bonk here, having drank about two liters of water but only ingesting two hundred calorie Pria bars since the start of the day. I munched on a small bag of cashews and cranberries as Heather and I walked and talked. We reached the western end of Plateau mountain and rejoined Marchowes at 12:30, at 11.5 miles, 4725 gain and and just under 6 hours from our start! Woot! We were just about halfway in our distance and overall gain for the hike! The views from the large ledge were incredible. I gazed across to the hulking mass of Hunter Mntn that lay ahead. Now the steep drop to Stony Clove Notch, where we'd pass our campsite and resupply point. On our way down we passed a dramatic view where all of the white birch on the entire flank were snapped off at the tops by an ice storm in 2007. We arrived at Stony Clove Notch at 1:20pm, 12:05 miles and just over 6.5 hours from the start. Very pleased that we tackled the toughest section full on, the rest of the day will be a beautiful walk!
Craig/Electicman: Organizer (Adkhighpeaks.com, RocksonTop,VfTT)
Marchowes: Resident Bushwacker
Doodles:Happiest Guy on Earth (Adkhighpeaks.com)
Una_dogger: along for the ride
Marc and Heather: The Happy Couple (good friends of Craig's, AT thruhikers, All season and Winter 48ers)
Stats:
8265 ft gain
24.75 miles
12 hours to 13 hours, all six "gamers" became "finishers"!
Note: I've used mileages and gain/loss data from the ADK Catskill Region Guide, 2nd Ed. to describe our hike. Mileage data from our track log indicates longer overall mileages, which may be attributed to reroutes. Thanks to Doodles for bringing his GPS
Back in December, Craig posted an open call for a Devil's Path Traverse on Rocks. I've done all sections of the path many times over, and have always wanted to do it as a full traverse. I was *delighted* when Craig was game for doing it as a one day hike.
I pined the winter away, waiting for May 17th to arrive. Having the Devil's Path penciled in fairly early in my fair weather hiking itinerary seemed daunting, but having some other very big one day traverses planned for June, having the Devil as a pre-season warm up seemed a sensible training plan. Knowing ahead of time what each section would be like also added to my comfort level.
Marchowes and I arrived at the Devil's Tombstone Camground about 9pm friday night in a driving rain. After brief introductions, Marc and Heather jumped eagerly to the task of helping me set up my tent. Into our tents we scrambled and nestled down for a rainy night that was punctuated by some very beautiful yet erie hooting owls that seemed to go on for hours.
At four am Craig's alarm went off. The owls were still hooting and Craig joined in. I felt as though I had 2 hours sleep. Wearily I dragged myself out of the tent after Craig's wake up call. We all piled into cars and headed to Spruceton Rd, where we left two cars, then all piled into mine and headed for Prediger Rd where we met up with Doodles.
Craig handed out photocopied maps in ziplock bags to each of us, and we set off. We began hiking the Devil's Path at 6:40 am. The sun was shining brightly, the skies a baby blue, a light breeze was blowing, and there were zero bugs. Couldn't ask for a better day to hike and we were grateful the rain was forecast to hold off until later in the afternoon, and be scattered throughout the region.
Indian Head, Gain 1573 ft, 4.4 miles
We remained as a group until the first summit, Indian Head, 3573ft. Here we sifted out into smaller groups according to rate of travel, with Craig and Marc taking the lead. Doodles hung back and we chatted about peakbagging in the Northeast, backpacking on the AT, beautiful places in the world we've visited, the type of things hikers generally chat about.
Indian Head to Twin, Loss 475 ft, gain 640 ft, 5.7 miles from start
After a steep drop down into the Jimmy Dolan Notch, we very quickly gained elevation to the lower summit of Twin Mountain, climbing over several jumbles of house sized boulders and squeezing through crevices. The Devil's Path is very rugged, challenging, and a lot of fun for those who like hand over foot climbing. The views from the south summit of Twin were breath taking. We headed through a pretty green spruce tunnel to the true summit of Twin Mountain, 3640 ft, at 6.65 miles from the start. The map shows a cave at this end of the mountain, but I didn't see one. More amazing views.
Twin to Sugarloaf, Loss 810 ft, Gain 822 feet, 6.7 miles from start:
Twin to Sugarloaf is an extremely steep and rugged section. Dropping down from Twin we snaked our way down through steep, slotted ledges. There are no ladders here and the boulders are blocky. Roots and crevices offer handholds and toe rests. This was a very fun section! I really enjoy this type of trail. It was good to be back in NY and climbing in the mountains where I had my start to hiking back in 1989. To this day, whenever someone says "steep", this is where my mind drifts. The Eastern Section of the Devil's Path has always been my frame of reference for "steep". Shortly before we reached the Pecoy Notch that separates these two peaks, we crossed paths with Val and Stoopid from Adkhighpeaks.com. We were booking pretty fast down the mountain, full of steam and stoked for the long haul, I said a quick hello and we kept on hikin'. At the col, we caught up with Marc who let us know that Craig was going for time and would see us at the end. Go Craig! Marc was going to try to catch up with him. The climb up to Sugarloaf from Pecoy Notch is my favorite hike in the Catskills. From the notch, the climb looks imposing. Long stretches of cliff bands encircle the mountain. The trail climbs quickly up through steep ledges, under overhanging cliffs, and through lemon squeezers. More full body climbing. I've done this trail more times than I can count but never have I gotten up it so quickly! What a rush...
Near the summit of Sugarloaf, 3800 ft, Heather, Doodles and I rejoined Marchowes. At this point I needed to take a quick break, and I told Doodles not to wait up for me. He grinned and I knew he was going to try to catch up to Craig and Marc. Go Doodles! What a pleasure to be in such a motivated group! From here on it was Marchowes, Heather and myself, separated by about five to ten minutes from one another. Heather and I spent a fair amount of time chatting and getting to know eachother. Marchowes was always waiting for us on summits, and we'd know he'd reached them by the happy Woot! we'd hear through the woods.
Sugarloaf to Plateau, Loss 1200ft, Gain 1240 ft, 8.85 miles from start
The Devil's Path now drops and insane 1200 ft in 0.95 mile! Over, around and through slotted ledges and cliffs we made our way down to the Mink Hollow Notch, 2600 ft. To date, the longest continuous hike I have done in on The Devil's Path consisted of Indian Head, Twin and Sugarloaf, with a bike spot. I felt a tremendous rush of excitement as we began climbing up Plateau. I knew the ascents and descents from this point onward would be less steep, on more foregiving terrain, and the elongated ridgeline of Plateau runs 2.5 miles on a gentle and shaded footpath through deep spruce, offering much needed shade and respite after such a tough section. Near the eastern end of the mountain, we passed a large group of older women and men out for a hike. They were in great spirits and it was so inspiring to see them out there climbing big mountains. The weather was still picture perfect, sunny yet cool and breezy. I felt a bit of a bonk here, having drank about two liters of water but only ingesting two hundred calorie Pria bars since the start of the day. I munched on a small bag of cashews and cranberries as Heather and I walked and talked. We reached the western end of Plateau mountain and rejoined Marchowes at 12:30, at 11.5 miles, 4725 gain and and just under 6 hours from our start! Woot! We were just about halfway in our distance and overall gain for the hike! The views from the large ledge were incredible. I gazed across to the hulking mass of Hunter Mntn that lay ahead. Now the steep drop to Stony Clove Notch, where we'd pass our campsite and resupply point. On our way down we passed a dramatic view where all of the white birch on the entire flank were snapped off at the tops by an ice storm in 2007. We arrived at Stony Clove Notch at 1:20pm, 12:05 miles and just over 6.5 hours from the start.
Very pleased that we tackled the toughest section full on, the rest of the day will be a beautiful walk!
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