Open field of summit of Panther? (Catskills)

[Fu Jow Pai]

I had heard mention of open field off the ridge from the summit of Panther, and I'm sure I spotted it from Giant's ledge a couple of weeks ago. I believe I can even see it on Google earth (anybody play around with that yet, amazing!) I printed a topo pic from google earth and theres clearly a brown spot on an otherwise totally green ridge. Anybody been know about this/been there/have insight?. I'm thinking of trying find it on Sunday....

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Beech Flat open areas - near Panther

I believe you are talking about the two Beech Flat open areas. The larger is at this 2848 knob, the smaller just a short distance to the east at 2740'. The best view of the open areas are from the northernmost of the two Panther summit viewpoints. I have seen them many times, but have never bushwhacked to them. They have been investigated. From The Catskill Forest, A History by Michael Kudish:

Chapter 27: Panther Mountain Range
p. 113 Beech Flat Open Areas
When I first climbed Panther Mountain and looked at the spur projecting to the east, I noted two areas on Beech Flat which were open. Several years later a field trip to investigate these treeless areas was planned, led by Ed West. The open areas were found to be totally natural, with first growth forest surrounding them. Bedrock is exposed at the surface and no glacial till is available for soil formation. This is not unique in the Catskills; there are many others, notably the one on the West Spur of Thomas Cole (a.k.a. Camel's Hump).

The size of the Beech Flat open areas is about two acres on top of the lower 2740-foot knob, and four to five acres atop the 2848-foot knob. Vegetation, instead of forest, consists of blueberries, clubmosses, mosses, lichens, herbs, and some tree seedlings which will probably not survive.

 

[Jay H]

MCorsar, FunkyFreddy, Hermit and I did bushwack once from Slide Mountain Road up Hatchery Hollow to Panther in search of a plane crash but didn't find the plane, but looking at Mark's link, we 'whacked up the west face of Panther and not the east....

Jay

 

[Fu Jow Pai]

Hey Mark

Hey Mark thanx for the awesome info, I'm intrigued, the views have to great from those two spots!

 

[Mark Schaefer]

At the very least there should be good views of the surrounding higher peaks (Panther, Giant Ledge, Slide, Cornell, Wittenberg). When viewed from the northern Panther summit they appear to be in the center of the flat knobs, and perhaps completely surrounded by forest essentially at the same elevation. This might limit the views into the valleys below. But like the lower/eastern knob of Ashokan High Peak (which is a similar, but burned over open area) there may be some views into the valleys.

I agree with your original post that these areas are visible with Google Earth. If you plug these coordinates into Google Earth you will see brown areas, the first is the larger/higher area:

42 03 26 N 74 22 31 W
42 03 28 N 74 22 20 W​

These agree with the topozone map when displayed in D/M/S (degree/minute/second) coordinate format. Google earth shows the elevations as 2751' and 2700' (vs. 2848' and 2740' shown on the topo). That is probably within the error limits of the software.

 

[Warren]

I've had this as a destination for sometime now. I have been warned by a 3500'er that the shoulder gets ATV or snowmobile activity around hunting winter seasons. Sorry I dont remember the exact beta, it's been a while.