The fire tower on top of Hunter Mountain - 4th highest county peak in New York State.
American hikers are goal driven. It's evident in the thousands each year who start a trek on the Appalachian Trail with the intent of walking 2,200 miles to a mountaintop in Maine. It's evident in the 1,600 people attempting to reach the highest point of each state in the US-members of the Highpointers Club. And, in the hundreds of people who have become 46ers by hiking the 46 highest peaks in New York State's Adirondack Mountains.
Now there's a new quest available for the goal driven hiker-become a 62er by hiking to the highest point in each county of New York State. To date the New York County Summit Club has only its charter member. Gary Fallesen, the outdoor writer for Rochester's Democrat and Chronicle newspaper, earned his Summit Club patch and wants to recruit others to join his quest. His guidebook Peak Experience-Hiking the Highest Summits of New York, County by County (published by Footprint Press, www.footprintpress.com) shows would-be 62ers how.
Start with Hunter Mountain, the high point of Greene County. Here's how Fallesen describes it:
Elevation: 4,040 feet, 4th highest peak in New York State
Map: USGS 7 ½-minute Hunter Mountain quadrangle
Distance: 7.5 miles round trip
Elevation gain: 2,080 feet
Hiking time: 5 hours
Darkness moved in and the gloom of a rainy autumn day made the air heavy and cold as I descended the Spruceton Trail from the summit of Hunter Mountain, the second-highest point in the Catskill Mountains. When I reached a wide bridge crossing Hunter Brook, 0.4 miles from the trailhead, I noticed something I had not seen on my way up the backside of this peak. Candles had been burned along the side of the bridge. I hadn't seen a human soul on my 6.8-mile hike, but my solitary walk no longer seemed so lonely. I could feel evil around me. I picked up my pace, stopping only long enough to sign out at the trail register-below, it should be noted, the name of a man who had signed in but not out four days earlier.
The chill I'd experienced near the foot of Hunter was still with me three months later when I was researching this mountain. In a book by Alf Evers, The Catskills: From Wilderness to Woodstock (Doubleday, 1972), I discovered a chapter entitled, "When the Devil Was Romping in the Catskills." There is a legend that the Catskills were actually made by the Devil; that he was flying around with a big bag of rocks on his back when the bag ripped open and the rocks fell to form these mountains. The Devil, it is said, was often seen in these parts. In fact, as you approach Hunter Mountain, driving south along New York Route 214, the face of the Devil is visible in the stone cliff. New York 214 runs between Hunter and 3,840-foot Plateau Mountain (12th highest among Catskill peaks). Evers wrote, ". . . as the daylight dims . . . Hunter and Plateau mountains assume threatening postures, seem to grow in bulk, and move closer together. Lightning and thunder will be tossed back and forth from one mountain to the other. And it will not be hard for a man with a normal amount of imagination to put himself in the place of his ancestors and see the Stony Clove transformed into the very gates of Hell."
Welcome to a place that 19th-century painter Charles Lanman called "the loneliest and most awful corner of the world that I have even seen-none other, I fancy, could make a man feel more utterly desolate. It is the type of valley of the shadow of death; in single file did we pass through it and in single file must we pass to the grave." Stony Clove Notch is a narrow valley between these two mountains. A clove is formed by the erosion of flowing water or the displacement of ice, but lore has it the cloves in the Catskills were caused by the slap of God's hand or the swish of the Devil's tail.
After reading about the Devil's escapades in and around Hunter Mountain, I went back. This time, I took the aptly named Devil's Path, a trail that climbs up the southeast side of Hunter. To reach the top, 3.75 miles away, you must cross the outlet to Notch Lake, formerly known as Stygian Lake (mythical source of the River Styx across which the souls of the dead are ferried in Hades) and then ascend through the Devil's Portal. The Portal is a vertical zone that once led above some rock cliffs to the Devil's Pulpit. The Devil, it is said, was very active here-appearing before pioneers and bargaining for their souls. He supposedly left his footprints on rocks. All I see on a beautiful, clear winter day are footprints of animals in the fresh snowfall. There is no evil in the air, only the breath of a lone hiker making his way back from a climb into the heart of the Devil's territory.
Approach
There are four major trails on Hunter: Spruceton, Becker Hollow, Devil's
Path, and the Colonel's Chair (or Shanty Hollow). Spruceton is an easy walk
that starts off on a four-wheel drive road that is marked by the DEC as a
horse trail. It is located in a desolate area, 6.7 miles from West Kill on
Spruceton Road. Becker Hollow and Devil's Path begin on New York 214, the
former 1.3 miles south of New York 23A and the latter 2.9 miles south of
23A. Both of these trails are steep- Becker Hollow climbs 2,200 feet in 2.05
miles and the Devil's Path ascends 1,500 feet in 2.15 miles before meeting
the yellow-marked Hunter Mountain Spur Trail. The Colonel's Chair is unique
because it requires hikers to take a Hunter Mountain Ski Resort chairlift
before walking 1.1 miles to join up with Spruceton Trail.
Trail markings
The section of the Devil's Path on Hunter Mountain was built in 1935. It is
part of a 23.2-mile trail that runs from Platte Clove in the east to
Spruceton Road in the west. For the Hunter Mountain section of Devil's Path,
you register 0.1 miles from the trailhead, then follow the appropriately
colored red DEC markers. The register is on the other side of a bridge
crossing the outlet to Notch Lake. The ascent begins immediately. At 0.3
miles, you reach the base of a rock bluff. You continue straight up another
300 feet to a second bluff. After following the base, you climb a steep (but
short) vertical zone known as the Devil's Portal. After this, the trail
climbs at varying steepness (from severe to gradual to moderate) to 1.8
miles, where it levels. At 2.15 miles, the trail intersects with the
yellow-marked Hunter Mountain Spur Trail. You are at 3,500 feet in
elevation. The Spur Trail climbs gradually for one mile, then steepens
briefly before leveling and hooking up with the blue-marked Becker Hollow
Trail. The remains of the mountain's original fire tower-steel rods
protruding from the bedrock-are found at this junction. It was built in
1909. From here, it's another 0.25 miles to the summit.
The view from here
There is a large summit clearing where another fire tower stands,
yielding-weather and stairs permitting-a panoramic view of Catskill
mountains (including 3,940-foot Blackhead to the northeast, 3,880-foot West
Kill to the west and 3,655-foot Kaaterskill High Peak to the east).
What's in a name
Hunter was named for a reputedly despicable landlord from the mid-1800s,
John Hunter. There once was a movement afoot to rename the peak Mount Guyot
for Arnold Guyot, whose 1870 ascent proved that Kaaterskill High Peak was
not the highest in the Catskills. Guyot later learned that Slide was even
higher than Hunter.
Accommodating visitors
The Devil's Tombstone Campground is located 0.2 miles south of Devil's Path
on New York 214. Backcountry camping is permitted year-round below the
3,500-foot elevation and above that point from Sept. 21 to March 21. The
Devil's Path lean-to is located 300 feet from the junction of Devil's Path
and Hunter Mountain Spur Trail. The John Robb lean-to is located 2.3 miles
up the Spruceton Trail.
Gear guide
Bring an appreciation for history. The lookout on Hunter is one of five
remaining steel towers in the Catskills. "Observers once watched the forests
of New York State and the Catskill Mountains from 108 fire towers," the
Catskill Fire Tower Rest-oration Project reports. "Only five steel towers
built from 1917 to 1927 remain." From west to east in the Catskills those
towers are:
. Balsam Lake Mountain, Town of Hardenbergh, elevation 3,723'
. Red Hill, Denning, 2,990'
. Tremper Mountain-Phoenicia, Shandaken, 2,740'
. Hunter Mountain, Hunter, 4,040'
. Overlook Mountain, Woodstock, 3,140'
Hunter is the only mountain of the five that you must visit to stand on the
top of a county. For more on the Catskill Fire Tower Restoration Project,
call (914) 586-2611.
Trip planner
The Adirondack Mountain Club has published a Guide to Catskill Trails, which
can be ordered by calling (800) 395-8080. Copies of Catskill maps can be
purchased from the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, 232 Madison Ave.,
New York, N.Y. 10016.
ADK 46ers: http://www.adk46r.org
Appalachian Trail: http://www.atconf.org
Highpointers Club: http://www.highpointers.org
NY County Summit Club: http://www.footprintpress.com
Excerpted from the book "Peak Experiences - Hiking the Highest Summits of new York, County by County" by Gary Fallesen. See more about this and other Footprint Press guidebooks at http://www.footprintpress.com
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Picture Captions:
The fire tower on top of Hunter Mountain - 4th highest county peak
in New York State.
Gary Fallesen at the base of Hunter Mountain, ready for a winter
climb.
Gary Fallesen, author of "Peak Experiences" checks a topo map as he
explores the highest point in each county of New York State.
Greene County: Topo map and profile of Hunter Mountain.
Sue Freeman, Footprint Press, PO Box 645, Fishers NY 14453
freeman1@frontiernet.net http://www.footprintpress.com
FAX and Phone 716-421-9383
Find me and other travel experts at www.guidebookwriters.com
Most Recent Books:
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Peak Experiences - Hiking the Highest Summits in New York, County by County