Tom Rankin
Well-known member
We met an aspirant, Doreen, at 8:30 and did a quick car spot, starting at Notch Lake, where the Devil's Path crosses 214. We headed up the steep cliff. All the streams were almost completely empty. 
The weather however, was almost perfect. It was about 50 when we started hiking, and the sky was a nice dark blue.
We passed thru various forest types, and saw quite a few flowers, for so late in the season. Here is a Cone Flower.
At abut 10:15, we were at the first lookout. We could see for miles and miles and miles! We could also see some fireweed right in front of us.
Speaking of fires, we saw numerous fire rings well above 3500' today, one just 3 feet off the trail and right in a clump of vegetation! May 10,000 black files swarm into your tent!
At this point, the path is almost level for about 2 miles. Glancing to the left and right you can see that the top is not very large, maybe only 100 yards across before it drops steeply away. We traversed the top, said hi to the Old Man of Plateau, passed the new Daley Ridge Trail, and soon were at the non-inspiring summit. But the best was yet to come!
Retracing our steps, we started back down the DRT. There are at least 7 view points along the way, and at least 5 of them are great, and 2 are spectacular! Unfortunately, we didn't get any good pics of these views, but we did see this little guy. The whole trail is soft under foot and nicely graded. We also found some delicious blueberries! Mmmmmmmm!
But the best was yet to come! A little while later, Doreen was leading and she stopped short and stepped back a few steps. Laurie saw why and stopped short too. It was this guy!
I started a separate thread, because I'm not a snake expert, but it was about 4-5' long and about 2" thick. (I later received an email that it was a Timber Rattler in a Black Morph phase). It was a hasty picture, as I did not want to get too close. Laurie wanted to turn around, but I convinced the women that I would lead them on a short bushwhack around the snake to a point farther down the trail, which I did. We had already seen 3 garter snakes during the day, so Laurie's Snake Magnetism was working overtime today!
The rest of the trip was uneventful. We headed back down to Silver Hollow and walked out the old road to Doreen's car, and back to Notch Lake. We chatted briefly with the DEC employee on duty and he said he would not be surprised if it was a rattler.
We slithered off to Cave Mountain and had some delicious wraps and beer!
The weather however, was almost perfect. It was about 50 when we started hiking, and the sky was a nice dark blue. We passed thru various forest types, and saw quite a few flowers, for so late in the season. Here is a Cone Flower.
At abut 10:15, we were at the first lookout. We could see for miles and miles and miles!
We could also see some fireweed right in front of us.Speaking of fires, we saw numerous fire rings well above 3500' today, one just 3 feet off the trail and right in a clump of vegetation!
May 10,000 black files swarm into your tent!At this point, the path is almost level for about 2 miles. Glancing to the left and right you can see that the top is not very large, maybe only 100 yards across before it drops steeply away. We traversed the top, said hi to the Old Man of Plateau, passed the new Daley Ridge Trail, and soon were at the non-inspiring summit. But the best was yet to come!
Retracing our steps, we started back down the DRT. There are at least 7 view points along the way, and at least 5 of them are great, and 2 are spectacular!
Unfortunately, we didn't get any good pics of these views, but we did see this little guy. The whole trail is soft under foot and nicely graded. We also found some delicious blueberries! Mmmmmmmm! But the best was yet to come! A little while later, Doreen was leading and she stopped short and stepped back a few steps. Laurie saw why and stopped short too. It was this guy!
I started a separate thread, because I'm not a snake expert, but it was about 4-5' long and about 2" thick. (I later received an email that it was a Timber Rattler in a Black Morph phase). It was a hasty picture, as I did not want to get too close. Laurie wanted to turn around, but I convinced the women that I would lead them on a short bushwhack around the snake to a point farther down the trail, which I did. We had already seen 3 garter snakes during the day, so Laurie's Snake Magnetism was working overtime today!
The rest of the trip was uneventful. We headed back down to Silver Hollow and walked out the old road to Doreen's car, and back to Notch Lake. We chatted briefly with the DEC employee on duty and he said he would not be surprised if it was a rattler.
We slithered off to Cave Mountain and had some delicious wraps and beer!
