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January 15, 2003 |
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Samson Mountain
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Over two feet of fresh snow on Christmas Day! Yahoooo! What a great gift, and a great reason to get out snowshoeing. The weekend after Christmas we went to an area with our favorite Catskill placenames - the Sundown Wild Forest in the Peekamoose Valley. We drove through the Town of Olive and into the Town of Denning, on the magnificent Peekamoose Road, along the Rondout Creek where several lovely waterfalls spill from the sides of the valley. At a little spot on the map called Bull Run there are several parking and camping areas on State land. We parked at the trailhead for the Long Path, where we would hike south and east up out of the Peekamoose Valley.
We shouldered our backpacks, buckled our snowshoes, and got on the trail about 11:30am on this mostly overcast day with some wind gusts and a few breaks of sunshine. The trail here has blue DEC disc markers, as well as turquoise Long Path paint blazes. A huge, yacht-sized sandstone boulder, raised up on a pedestal above the forest floor, marks the beginning of the trail. The trail starts south, climbing the mountainside and paralleling a small stream coursing down through a side valley. The powdery snow here turned out to be much less deep than other areas further into the Catskills with only 6-8", but our snowshoes were still much appreciated.
Breaking trail through the fresh snow was not too difficult, but trudging straight up the mountain was tiring, climbing 1,150' in 0.8 mile. The highlight on this section was seeing a barred owl fly out of a hemlock tree, and enjoying some very cool views west through the leafless, mixed hardwood forest, beyond the valley to the sun-dappled summits of Van Wyck, Peekamoose, and Table Mountains. There was a lot of blow-down in the woods, and several trees had fallen over the trail. There were tons of deer tracks all along and across the trail (hunters take note for next year).
At the head of the side valley we encountered some red spruce trees, surprising us at this low elevation. Here the trail turned east for a short distance, following the contour, and then took a quick jog south again for the last short, steep climb up onto the top of Bangle Hill, elevation 2,350', just short of a mile from the trailhead. We continued on the trail, dipping down the other side of Bangle Hill and traveling east along a flat plateau. We traveled a mile and a half further, passing by two trickling headwater streams emanating from beautiful hemlock stands. When we encountered some cut logs from previous trail work, we rested on the convenient seats and ate lunch. The best part about lunch was indulging in some smoked salmon purchased earlier at the general store in West Shokan.
Just past our lunch spot, we turned off of the trail and bushwhacked northeast through the open woods. We went another mile or so, climbing very gradually to the summit of Samson Mountain, elevation 2,812'. On the way we came across a small, tucked away cave where we hoped to catch a glimpse of a slumbering bear, but no such luck. There were not any open views on the mountaintop, but through the trees we could see Little Rocky Mountain further east, and a wide-open horizon to the north and west. We changed into dry shirts after sweating our way to the top, and headed back down in our tracks. Of course it only took half the time to get back to the bottom of Peekamoose Valley than it did to climb up (one and a half hours down, three going up). A very nice first snowshoe hike of the season!
- Aaron and Chris
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