Ashokan High Point
Saturday, September 6, 2003

I've been meaning to do two things: one, get back to the Catskills after a too many year hiatus and two, climb Ashokan High Point. Today I did both. This is a brief (for me) trip report so if you care, read on, otherwise send this message to the great bit bucket in the sky or to the FBI to include in my file there.

What a great day for a hike! Beautiful weather, crystal clear blue skies, a cool breeze and a warm sun. Trying to leave the house by 0700 proved impossible since the raccoon kept me up all night raiding the compost bin so it wasn't until about 9AM I finally left my place here in the Highlands.

Street Atlas (DeLorme) tells me to go through New Paltz and Kerhonkson and so I head off in that direction. On 299 I get stuck behind someone doing 40 mph, though she'd hit her breaks at odd moments. When this driver finally turned off at Minnewaska SP I had the road ahead to myself and relaxed into the trip when, just past Jenny Lane(?) a black bear ran across Route 44/55 from north to south! He was dragging a picnic basket behind him and a red and white gingham tablecloth was stuck in his breeches! <I made that part up, but there was a bear.>

On county route 3 the Town of Rochester is crowded but once you cross into the Town of Olive the zoning changed and everything got very pretty. Along somewhere there is a sharp left jog in the road and you can look right up to Ashokan High Point (AHP) and see people sitting on the ledges of the lower peak. Onto Route 28A turning left then turning left again a few miles down on County 43? (Peekamoose road?) I was met by a huge crowd celebrating Olive Day! When I came up the road they cheered and celebrated and applauded and the Band Played Waltzing Matilda. It was very moving and gratefully appreciated! <I made that part up too>

Finding the trail head 3.3 miles down the road (exactly as Street Atlas said it would be) and getting my day pack in order I was on the trail by 10:50 AM.

Kanape Brook is beautiful. Let me say that again, Kanape Brook is beautiful.

Now, I'm a flatlander (do the Highlands count?), 220 lbs about 40 of those excess, my knees are bad and I've got asthma so hikes like this are special for me. If I don't 'bag the peak' I don't get upset I just find other aspects of the hike that satisfy and if one only walks to the col between AHP and Mombaccus on this hike, they should be filled with satisfaction. Kanape Brook is beautiful. Stunning. Incredible. Fantabulous.

And, with all the rain we've been having it's especially spectacular. Did I say that?

Anyway, I start walking and it's really nice there's oxygen in the air and the trail isn't too steep or rocky though it does get wet a lot and when I start to huff and puff I just look into the chasm and admire the rushing brook. At some point you pass a stone 'well' whose water looks potable. Does anyone know?

At just over two and a half miles and at about one hour of walking/climbing I reach the grassy col between Mombaccus and AHP where some people ask me if I thought the loop would be a better ascent then directly up the mountain. Loop? There's a loop? No one's ever mentioned a loop before. Not here, not in Peggy's book or that other book I have and my 1996 Fifth edition maps only have a broken black line going up the mountain at all. What loop?

I tell them that slow and steady is my motto so I'll be going straight up - and off I go.

Slow and steady. Slow and steady. Up and Up and Up. It's not bad, the 6 ledges are well marked and easily within the skills of most any hiker. To prove it, I pass a couple with two 5 year old kids from Poughkeepsie hopping up the trail.

I am sweating. I am breathing really hard. So, slow and steady. I stop, breathe, take a bunch of steps, repeat.

It's a mile climb with an elevation gain of 1000' and I make reach the top ledge at about 12:45 which is just under an hour.

It's amazing how you can crawl on your hands and knees to a mountaintop and the very second you get there all this energy flows from somewhere and you're on your feet, looking around and feel no weariness at least for a few minutes.

So, this herd path to a better view I've heard so much about? Herd path? I scramble down the mountain thinking I'm on a path but there's so much debris and downed trees that I can't tell but, what? there! yes, I'm on it and, um, where'd it go? and it goes down, down, down and reaches a ledge where you think, "how can I get down there?" and you see a tree laying on its side which you follow and then pass under and you're at the bottom in a col between AHP and AH-mini-P at a large stone monument. Bushwhack up the other side and at about .34 miles the trees break and the world opens up beneath your feet. Schunnemunk(sp?), Nimham, Alandar right into the Gap, and more, a great view. If the leaves were down all the Catskills would show to the north but the oaks block the view this time of year.

For some reason getting back to the main mountain seemed to take a lot less time than I thought it would though it does tower over you and you thinkt he climb will be considerable. I pass the couple with the kids wandering around the woods looking for the herd path and sent them the right way. I hope they made it! Now, this loop I've heard so much about...

I continue on the red trail now and pass a small view to the south with NJ's High Point in the center than pass a hand dug cistern, some blueberry patches and another hand dug cistern followed by a wide field with the higher mountains nicely lined up for our viewing pleasure. Peekamoose, Table, Friday, Lone, the Wittenberg and Slide standing above them all. Quite grand.

A couple is setting up a tent in the field and looking at all the gear they've got with them I ask how long they're going to be there... "oh, just for the night" the guy says. Just for the night? These folks brought a stereo. Okay?

It's hard to stay on the red trail here as it wanders among the blueberries and it isn't marked. At the western end of the fields I end up on a herd path and then backtracked to the tenting couple to try again, this time with success. This path needs work and goes through a forest devastated by a storm probably not to long ago. It stays to the ridge top then drops into a minor col and tops the ridge again, follows it to the end then turns south into the Kanape Brook valley where the forest changes and the road levels and becomes easier underfoot.

This trail follows along the side of the mountain when all-on-a-sudden it drops into a maple forest and becomes a rocky, watercourse with dangerous footing. After carefully navigating this for too long you start to hear the sound of rushing water off to your right. As it gets louder you look to the right but don't see any water flowing anywhere and then - there it is! - I must investigate...

There's no water and then there's a stream shooting out from some rocks. I walk up a bit, away from where the water is coming and listen to the ground but don't hear any gurgling or running yet there it is, 100' further down! This is where the Kanape begins so no wonder the place is so magical.

The creek quickly forms a deep ravine and the trail, still a dangerous and rocky (and now muddy) pathway begins to follow a contour around the slope of the mountain, enters a forest of hemlock, white pine and mountain laurel (an interesting mix) and the tread way becomes much better. This is a pretty forest and has a nice spicey odor to it.

(when I die, please sprinkle my ashes in a clearing of hay scented ferns)

I have noticed that the hemlocks in the Kanape valley are not yet infected with the woody adelgid. You'll find the same thing in Palmaghatt <sp?) Ravine where the hemlocks in the "Gallery of the Giants" (350 year old trees) are not infected but that trees at the foot of the ravine *are*. I suppose once the Awosting Reserve is built the adelgid will find its way into the deeper ravine and kill off those grand trees.

The loop trail finally meets the main trail just this side of the col at about 2 miles from the top of the mountain. This is *not* a shortcut nor do I think it's easier taking this to the top than the direct route.

As I'm heading back down the valley I am again stunned at the incredible beauty of this place and as the sun sets behind Mombaccus mountain yet the trees over my head are still in the sun I see a stream falling over dozens of cascades and falls into the main Kanape Brook and realize these are all over the place.

Walking further down the mountain the sun peaks out from behind the mountain throwing this red maple forest (huge trees!) into an orange and golden light that makes the world seem endless. I look over into the ravine again and see yet another rill falling and leaping and splashing down a ravine to meet the Kanape and can do nothing but applaud and say "bravo".

Still, I'm tired.

At about 6 PM I reach the car after hiking 9 miles and climbing the equivalent of a Mount Beacon twice. For me, this is a really good day. (I miss the days where a hike like this was a 'walk in the park'). I decide to drive back through Kingston because I can drive across the dam at the reservoir which has, as far as I'm concerned, one of the grandest views on the planet: looking into the roots of the high peaks and there... just as I come to the top of the ramp, is Ashokan High Point and it's H U G E! Imposing! Giant! And I climbed it.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Jeff Green