A Beautiful Winter Day and Two Spectacular Views

Timeline:

• 9:30 AM Start
• 12:15 PM Summit Sherrill
• 1:30 PM Summit North Dome
• 3:20 PM Back at Sherrill viewpoint

• 5:30 PM Back at car

• Tracks: AllTrails
• Conditions: Sunny, 30s, slushy down low, deep (2+ ft) snow at the summits. Almost no wind.

Just five peaks and three hikes left for my Winter 3500 Club list! My friend Max said that he was available for a hike today (Wednesday) and the weather looked good. Max still needed Westkill, North Dome and Sherrill for his 3500 club list. Alex has felt uncomfortable about my doing bushwhacks solo in the winter, so it seemed like a good opportunity to knock out North Dome and Sherrill, my last two bushwhacks. (The other two peaks I need are Cornell and Wittenberg, which are trailed.)

I’d hiked North Dome and Sherrill once before in the spring two years ago with John. We’d been in a rush that day since we were also hiking Westkill, so we hadn’t had time to check out the viewpoints. I hoped to fix that today.

Max and I met at the New Paltz Park & Ride and made our way up to the Catskills. The shorter route would be to hike North Dome first from Spruceton Road. But this would have been another 25 minutes of driving, and I knew from my last hike that the cliffs here were extremely steep. After Max and my adventure at Hurricane Ledge earlier this month, I was wary about navigating them in icy, possibly slushy conditions. Instead, we’d do the long out and back from Shaft Rd.

We were the only car in the lot at 9:30. There was some slush at first. We started in our spikes but switched to snowshoes within 30 minutes and never switched back. This hike starts with a stream crossing and then a long, straight trail up parallel to the river. The trail was well-defined and easy to follow. The Hemlock forest here is very distinctive. There must be a story behind it.

It was pretty warm! I went down to my sweater within the first hour and then decided to go all the way to my t-shirt for the last bit up Sherrill. I felt great about this decision, it helped me stay cool for some steep climbing. Finally, a true snowshoes and a t-shirt day! Conversation topics included Max’s home renovation and work, and my ongoing Boggle project.

We got the canister a little after noon. We were the first visitors to sign it in three days. We thought about stopping for lunch and checking out the viewpoint, but this ascent had taken quite a while and I wanted to keep moving. We might have time for the viewpoint on the way back.

I wrote last time that I thought the descent from Sherrill and ascent back up to North Dome were easy, but they felt harder today! It is a 500+ ft drop and 1.5mi. I remained happy to be in my t-shirt. After a little over an hour, we were relieved to see the North Dome canister.

Max has gotten into ham radio and he wanted to do Summits on the Air at North Dome. This takes some time and isn’t that interesting for spectators, so I decided to try and find the viewpoint east that was marked on the map. I wisely put on my jacket first! This was more of a hike than I expected, and I got pulled in the wrong direction by a herd path going south towards the Timber Lake campground.

Some true bushwhacking reminded me how deep the snow was and how dense the forest could be. But soon I broke through and recovered the herd path to the viewpoint. I’d only expected a partial view, but thanks to the sheer cliffs, it was a full one. In retrospect, John and I were appallingly close to this on our last hike, just a few hundred feet off! All in all this was maybe a 1/2 mile, 25 minute detour.

When I got back, Max had made his radio contacts, including someone else at Bramley Mountain in the western Catskills and another person in Indiana.

It felt nice to be hiking down, but the re-ascent to Sherrill was tough with tired legs. We checked out the viewpoint, which was also a full one. A second spectacular view that I’d missed in my haste two years ago! This one was close enough to the summit that it counted for SOTA, so Max set up his radio again here. This time he got a contact from France!

The hike back down wasn’t that memorable. As often happens, the long downhill was tough on my knees. I think the snow softens the impact, but this was a just a long hike. My left IT band felt pretty sore by the end.

We’d hoped to get burgers but, as always, the Phoenicia Diner is closed on Wednesdays. The one flaw with Wednesday hiking! After some scrambling, we wound up getting Pho Tibet in New Paltz.

Just three peaks and two hikes left for my winter 35ers. I think I’m going to get it!