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[at-l] weekend hiking






I headed for Kaaterskill High Peak with my buddy Ralph yesterday. Kind of
on the cool side, but I don't really know what the temperture was. We
waited (waded?) until Sunday hoping that the cooler temps would freeze up
some of the rain and thawing from last week. It turned out to be more early
winter conditions than mid-January; not enough snow for snowshoes, not
enough ice for crampons, but just enough ice and snow (not to mention some
thin ice and running water in the trail) to make bare-booting it awkward.
The first three and a half miles was mostly gentle climbing through mixed
forest, with some really nice spruce stands along the trail. It was
overcast, just thin enough to be able to tell where the sun was, and the
cold kept up moving. Two hours or so to the point where the Long Path and
the snowmobile trail diverged and we picked up the bootleg trail to the
summit. The rain and the thaw had turned the ledges we needed to climb up
into some interesting ice sculptures, and it was time to put crampons on.
The climb up went surpriseingly quickly, and we stopped at the treed-in
summit for a quick snack break. Supposedly there are some really good views
if you do some hunting around, but we were both a little chilled from out
short stop and the best way to warm up was to start moving down again. Some
of the ice sculpture was pretty interesting to descend, but not difficult,
just requiring some care. On the way back out the sun managed to break
through, and we met a good crowd of people walking up to one of the
overlooks. Even got back to the car pretty early...

skeeter