Timeline:

  • Day 1 (Fri 8/5): hiked ~1mi on the Escarpment trail and made camp
  • Day 2 (Sat 8/6)
    • 9:30 AM Start hiking
    • 11:00 AM Summit Windham
    • 3:30 PM Summit Acra Point
    • 5:00 PM Make camp at Batavia Kill
  • Day 3 (Sun 8/7)
    • 9:30 AM Start hiking
    • 11:00 AM Summit Blackhead
    • 1:00 PM? Back to the road

GPS Track of the hike

This was another overnight camping trip with Max (we’d done another in May). This time our friend Gabe joined us. We took the train up from the city after work on Friday, borrowed Max’s parents’ car in Poughkeepsie, got some supplies and made our way to the Escarpment Trail near Windham High Peak. We must have arrived quite late. I remember hiking in just a little bit (it looks like a mile from the map) and making camp.

After breaking camp on day 2, we made our way up towards Windham High Peak.

In the woods

It looks like it was very misty weather that morning. This may explain why, when I hiked Windham again four years later, I had no recollection of the summit.

Misty weather at Windham High Peak

We continued along the Escarpment Trail towards Acra point. It looks like we lounged at the viewpoint near Burnt Knob and had lunch.

Dan with view

I’m not sure whether it was here or on Blackhead, but I distinctly remember seeing a trail runner who looked extremely fit and extremely happy. We chatted with her a bit and offered her some of our snacks. She eventually accepted one gummy bear. I think she was training for some sort of trail running race later in the fall.

Lounging near Burnt Knob

By the evening we were just below Blackhead, on the Batavia Kill trail. We made camp there. The wet morning made it very hard for us to get a fire going. We kept failing. Looking around, we saw that every other group had a roaring fire. Eventually Gabe worked up the courage to ask someone what their fire magic was. They handed him a fire starter. I still remember watching every stick steam for ten minutes before it would catch fire!

Making a fire

The campsite was quite beautiful in the morning, with rays of light shining down through the forest. I was smitten enough that I posted this view on Instagram that morning:

Second campsite in the morning

We made our way up to the summit of Blackhead:

Group shot on Blackhead

It’s a bit of a mystery to me how we ended this hike. This is my last photo from the hike. Possibly my phone ran out of batteries? Blackhead summit is quite far from where we would have left our car by Windham. Gabe and Max don’t have photos or tracks of their own. Maybe Max’s dad came to pick us up in a different car? Did we do another high peak?