2 catskill questions?

First question: Is the road to kaaterskill high peak open yet? I was told route 23A was under contruction. I was looking to do this or Poets Ledge.

second question: The trail to SW Hunter starts at the lean-to, am I correct? also, how do you know that you have arrived at the summit? Is there a marker?

I asked last week about 23A & was told 23A is closed in the section near the falls.

1: It's still closed.

2: There are several ways to climb SW Hunter. There is a herd path that starts near the lean to, but not exactly at it. It is an old railroad bed. Sometimes the turn off from the trail is marked with a cairn, sometimes it is not. The trick is knowing when to leave the rail bed and strike up the mountain. Yes, there is a canister at the summit. Good luck! I'm 2/3 so far!

The Catskill 3500 Club leads hikes to this and every other mountain on their list each quarter, or at least that is the goal. If you want to go with an experienced leader, consider joining the club...

1. There was an update in the local paper 2 days ago. The short story is it will not be open any time soon. November 1 is still the target date.

2. Probably the easier route (YMMV) to SW Hunter is the old railroad grade (a horse-drawn railroad built by the Fenwick Lumber Company, 1903-1917). Some clues to finding the herd path: The start is from the Devil's Path at the height of land (3540'), though it is rather flat here. It is about 0.2 miles west of the Devil's Acre Lean-to and about 0.3 miles east of the Geiger Point lookout. The Devil's Path has red DEC markers. Immediately west of the herd path junction there is a tree on which the red markers on both sides have faded to near yellow (that was as of 2004 and the faded markers may have been replaced by now). There are at least two other short paths in the area. These head off the Devil's Path west of the railroad grade and dead end at some campsites of marginal legality (3500'). If you find yourself on one of these head back to the Devil's Path and look again to the east on the Devil's Path.

The herd path follows the narrow, at times overgrown, level, railroad grade. After about 0.5 mile on the grade there is a small drainage, turn uphill and climb about 200' elevation up the drainage. Above that the herd path meanders a bit on the flat summit but leads to the canister.

As mentioned cairns are sometimes present at the two junctions, although they are not really needed. Occasionally hikers use brush to block the continuation of the railroad bed at the drainage, which is not good as the railroad beds are historical artifacts and should not be unnecessarily blocked.

ADKJeff said:

The coordinates of the start of the herd path to SW Hunter are: N42.16702, W74.23378 -- this will help if you have a GPS.

When my wife and I did this hike last spring, we bushwhacked from just beyond the lean-to, not knowing the location of the start of the HP, and intersected the HP after about 20 min. It wasn't terrible, but the HP is a lot nicer.

Enjoy the hike

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Oh! Trust me! There is some class 4 or maybe even 5 (the worst) bushwhacking on LEAVITT! Oh! I mean SW Hunter!

Tom Rankin said:

Oh! Trust me! There is some class 4 or maybe even 5 (the worst) bushwhacking on LEAVITT! Oh! I mean SW Hunter!

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Oh, YES, YES, YES -
When I first did SW Hunter, I bushwhacked straight from the Lean-to, a B-Line to the summit.
It was a very intense - thick - slow going buswhack.
At the time I did not know of the herd path.

A VERY EXPERIENCED friend, an Authority if you will, one of the people mentioned on the Catskill Map set told me the approach I took was the absolute worst approach and at least I could be proud and tell my friends that I bushwhacked one of the most dificult bushwhacks in the Cats.

Rankin' Tom

Tom Rankin said:

Oh! Trust me! There is some class 4 or maybe even 5 (the worst) bushwhacking on LEAVITT! Oh! I mean SW Hunter!

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I assume you refer to these "Rankins"
Brush and Bushwhack ratings

skidoc22 said:

I assume you refer to these "Rankins"
Brush and Bushwhack ratings

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GREAT! Absolutely Great ....