Huntersfield Mountain 12/14/18 (tGD 03/13/81)

I didn't miss hiking for a long time. I nearly overdid it in the years leading up to Hunter and Rider being born. Then we went on some really lovely hikes once Hunter was of the backpack age (Plateau, Moxam and Peaked mountains). Little hikes and nature walks have really been scratching my itch for immersion in nature. I've also found myself seeing more live music than I had in years. Its a lot easier to get away for a few hours after the boys were in bed than it was to spend 12-14 hours driving to and hiking in the Adirondack high peaks. It's been really nice to shift gears. It was also really nice to evaluate a part of my life that had come to define it in some ways. Hiking is obviously very healthy but there are aspects of the compulsion to climb, to check off goals on a list, that isn't always healthy for me.

As the fall slipped into winter I noticed a funk. Life was good and rich and satisfying but I wasn't as Happy as I should've been. I mentioned it to Jeanette one day during our lunch chat and she said "You should go on a hike". It all clicked and I was super grateful for the push. I wanted to sink my teeth into something, to plan and execute a plan. Really hike! I didn't want to spend all day in a car so that meant picking a Catskill hike. Halcott, as well as the Bearpen and Vly hike for the Cat 3500 list were early possibilities but I really wanted to make sure the day was about being in the woods and connecting with it. I'd likely have to rush to make either of those climbs happen so I could get back to Albany to get the kids from daycare.

 This brought Huntersfield back into my mind. It's one of kicked around for a while, was a shorter hike and closer to home (only an hour from Albany!). This peak is on the Catskill 67 list. These peaks plus the peaks for the Cat 3500 list make up the Catskill Hundred highest, for which there is a patch :). Alan Via, author of the incredible Catskill 67 guidebook (purchase here!) has been recommending Huntersfield to me for many years and I was excited to finally give it a go. We chatted about it a bit leading up and I got some valuable information: Jim Cleveland road to the highest trail head would be impassable or dangerous in the winter. I made plans to park at the bottom and hike up.

I dropped the boys off at daycare and hopped on 85 on down to 32 south. I enjoyed a visit to the newly renovated Greenville Stewart's before embarking on the scenic drive that would take me to Huntersfield state forest. Listening to the Grateful Dead on the way to a hike has been an integral part of the experience for me for many years. It calms and focuses my mind. I realized another aspect of what I valued about these Dead listening sessions on this trip: I don't tend to look at the a set list of the performance I'm going to listen to ahead of time. So the sequence of songs and their content I almost treat as a reading of the tea leaves for the hike. What would it have in store for me? Would the show tell the tale? I chose 03/13/81 from the Utica Memorial Auditorium for this ride.

Fans showing off their banner before the 3/13/81 Utica show

The normally sweeping views from Greenville into West Durham were completely obscured at times while dramatically cloud-swept at other times. A  plaintive mid-set High Time gave way to a lovely pairing of Cassidy>Althea. The music Never Stopped ended set 1 with a bang and as I ascended County Rt. 20 through a cloud bank, the set 2 opener of Cold Rain and Snow set the tone for the day in the woods. I  made peace with the fact that I wouldn't have sweeping views but that I would have a lovely wintry day in the woods. No doubt. Driving through the pass between Mt Pisgah and Mount Nebo, Samson and Delilah was a perfectly placed parable to grant passage between these biblical mountains. The pass was in the process of being logged and a blazing slash pile made for a somewhat ominous sight.

As NY 10 ambled through rustic farmsteads, the charm of the back roads of the Catskills was on full display. Listening to It Must've been the Roses, one of my favorite lines from that song really jumped out at me as perfectly suiting the environs:

One pane of glass in the window

No one is complaining though, 

come in and shut the door

Shabby but warm and inviting.  Back on the biblical tip with a slinky Estimated Prophet (with notable analog synth work from Brent Mydland), I finally got to stop and check out the West Settlement M.E. Church I've appreciated driving by for many years as its located at the turn for the hike. Pulling off Schrader Road onto Jim Cleveland Road behind a lovely farmhouse, Eyes of the World continued the pastoral feel of the adventure thus far. There was a nice pull off under the Huntersfield Wild Forest sign to park at  before the road got too steep. I geared up while finishing Eyes and put on micro spikes to navigate the at times slick Jim Cleveland Road. 

I made every effort on this day to immerse and appreciate the forest. The environment. The weather. Since its not something I get to do every weekend any more, I really wanted to fill my heart and bring that feeling back to my day to day. The road was very steep and boy was I grateful to have Alan dissuade me from attempting it in my car. No way I would've gotten very far. Animal tracks criss-crossed the road with some human and tire tracks fading under the winter's snow. The roar of the wind was subtle at first but intensified as I climbed higher and higher. As I reached the height of land, snow began to clump under my micro spikes so I took them off. I chose my Danner Mountain 600's over my Asolo TPS 520's knowing the Danner's have more of a sticky sole and I might be bare-booting slick conditions at times. They worked great on the inch or two of greasy snow. 

The parking area at the height of land is a beautifully desolate locale. I'm excited to drive all the way up there in good weather someday. The parking area is on the right at an old quarry site carved out of the mountain. The woods road/ trail  starts on the right of that cut. As I made my way up at a gradual pitch, the protection of the forest diminished the roar of the wind and I began to notice how beautiful the woods were. I used to get so disappointed when the mountains were clouded in and I wouldn't have a view from the summit. Now a days, I appreciate how it makes me look much more closely at the forest around me. There was a lovely fuzz of frost on the trees dazzling me as I was buffeted with ice crystals from the cloud I was walking through. 

As I gained elevation, the snow got deeper so I decided it was time for snowshoes. I wasn't sure if I was going to get a chance to use them since it was still early in the winter but I was so happy to have the opportunity. I love snowshoeing with all my heart and it really completed the winter feel for the day. I was on a winter hike! An adventure! I love the Adirondacks. Their beauty fills my heart. It's that clear and obvious big mountains, babble brooks kind of wilderness. While I've found some really beautiful places in the Catskills there's a very different feel in my opinion: the Catskills are downright spooky at times! The spooky feel of the drive and the hike really made the experience of adventure for this day memorable in a way I just wouldn't get from the Adirondacks. I was on the ridge for longer than I expected. I kept waiting to see the intersection that would mean I was at the summit. There was some rolling terrain and a section of down that had me believing I'd gone right past Huntersfield and down the trail towards Ashland Pinnacle. I eventually hit a steeper section that appeared to be the final push to the summit and my anxiety diminished. 

Yellow blazes now dotted the woods road indicating I was on the summit. Since I had added a nice chunk of elevation gain by hiking the road, this was a decently challenging climb! Well at least for an out of shape dad of two young kids. There is a lean to just off of Hunterfield's summit and it was a spooky sight after wandering around the land beyond the wall all morning. A view is cut/ maintained out the front of the lean to which I'm told is pretty incredible. I'll return some day to see it but again, I felt content to be immersed in this winter world. I signed into the register there and noted I was the first visitor in a week or so. There is very little traffic this way save the ranger patrol and a few souls pursing the Catskill hundred highest.

I had planned to make a loop of the day (heading down the northwest ridge) depending on how I felt. I still had gas and a desire to see more so off I went along the yellow trail. Almost as an afterthought I started idly looking for the metal pole in a tree that marks the summit and found it just before the intersection with the red trail. This is my second of the other 67 list, which I intend on completing as a very long-term goal. The intersection was a bit confusing and blazing was sparse on the first section of the red trail. The uncertainty of where the summit would be and the need for both map and compass work added to the feel of this being a full on adventure even though it isn't a big hike by comparison to many others I've been on in the past. I was really happy to have chosen Huntersfield for my rare day out. 

The northwest ridge trail had a very different character from the southwest ridge. The forest was much tighter and it was a trail vs a woods road. I had to be on my toes to navigate. While there was human foot prints on the SW ridge, there was only animal tracks on the NW. I think most folks climb Huntersfield as an out and back this time of year. Alan specifically recommended the loop (I prefer loops anyway) so I was happy to take the path less traveled for a while. 

The NW ridge was much shorter and I quickly descended off the plateau. Though the snow had thinned quite a bit, I kept my snowshoes on until it was only patchy. I really enjoyed the glide and the grip and wanted to prolong my day in my MSR's. As I lost elevation I got below the summit cloud cover and caught glimpses of the agricultural land in the valley below. There was an interesting ledge feature to navigate, another element of this hike I can't wait to come back and explore. 

Once below the ledge the forest transitioned to pine plantation which completely changed the feel of the hike. This hike offers a nice sampling of what the Catskills has to offer a hiker. The trail eventually dumped me off on a woods road that traversed south back towards Jim Cleveland road and my car. First though I'd have to regain the 250 ft or so I had lost by not heading back to the height of land trail head. It was a small price to pay for the satisfaction and enjoyment I found on the second half of my hike. 

For a lot of this hike I was able to forget that this isn't my every weekend life anymore. I felt pretty strong and prepared. This final push though was hard on my knees and my diminished endurance was noted. It still felt good though in the end. I just don't get much of an opportunity to push my body like this right now. I'm so happy with my life. I love raising my boys and sharing this incredible world with them. I have not one single pang of regret about how we've adjusted our lives to accommodate theirs. Challenging my mind and body like I did for so many years before Hunter and Rider joined us on this plain only deepened my gratitude for what I have now. It also reminded me I can sneak away every now and then for a few hours and receive the mental and physical health benefits of being in the woods. Of climbing and seeing.

 I got back to the car after about 3.5 hours in the woods and headed back to Albany for a quick shower and then to pick up the boys, not missing a beat. I picked the Utica Dead show back up during the drums>space segment. Space segued very uniquely into Lost Sailor as I made my way north. The lyrical content was just a little too perfect for my head space. I'd chalk it up to coincidence but Lost Sailor should not be in this part of the set. My tea leaves were still being read. 

Compass card is spinning

Helm is swinging to and fro

Oh, where is the dog star

Oh, where's the moon