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March 8, 2004 |
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Long Pond
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Last weekend we wanted to meet up with a couple friends to do a short, relaxing snowshoe hike in the western Catskills. There are several trails in the western Catskill towns of Colchester, Rockland, Andes, and Neversink that we have yet to explore, and one of these leads to Long Pond. The trail we took leads in from Flugertown Road in the Town of Neversink, which is a dead-end road along the upper reaches of the Willowemoc Creek, lying between Frost Valley Road and the Willowemoc/Debruce Road leading to Livingston Manor. From here it is only a one-mile hike in to Long Pond. This piece of State land is part of the Willowemoc-Long Pond Wild Forest.
The trail to Long Pond from Flugertown Road is wide and is marked as a designated snowmobile trail. In the Catskill Park, there are approximately 76 miles of designated snowmobile trails in Wild Forest and Intensive Use Areas, most in the western Catskills. We knew that it would be a little bit risky taking the dogs out onto an active snowmobile trail on a sunny Saturday afternoon when the fast machines were sure to be out cruising around, but we’d only be going a short distance and knew we’d be able to hear them coming and be able to get out of the way in time. There was only one truck with a snowmobile trailer parked at the parking area, but there were many others parked just down the road at private cabins and at a private campground. There was no telling how many snowmobilers we might encounter.
We started in around 2:30pm, enjoying pleasant weather. The trail starts off up a gradual hill, through a mixed hemlock and northern hardwood forest. The snowshoeing was easy on the wide trail because the snow was hard-packed from the traffic of many heavy snowmobiles. This was especially good for the dogs, who of course were not wearing any snowshoes. The trail leads up over a ridge and down the other side to the pond. It is only a rise of about 350 feet in elevation before dropping back down a hundred feet or so to the pond. The trail passes along the west edge of the pond and continues another two tenths of a mile north to a trail junction. When we neared the edge of the pond we left the trail and walked out to the edge to take a look. It was frozen over solid with snowmobile tracks leading out onto the ice. Long Pond was not as large as we had envisioned, or as long as the name would imply, but it was quite pretty. The north end had a large exposed wetland area, with sedge hummocks covered in snow.
Our map showed a lean-to at the north end of the pond, but we bushwhacked all around through a dark hemlock stand and couldn’t find it. Later, back at the trailhead kiosk, we saw that the lean-to was crossed off on the map and a there was a new one on the east side of the lake. After checking out the pond, we found our way back to the trail and continued the short distance to the junction, then turned back toward Flugertown Road. We only went a little way before we heard the noise of high-revving engines gradually getting louder and louder. As they approached, we all moved safely off the trail, and waited until five or six snowmobilers passed by. They turned off the trail and out onto the lake, where they stopped and shut off there machines for a rest at the far end. We hiked back to the parking area and didn’t encounter any other snowmobiles. It was a nice hike in a pretty place; just the kind of easy outing we were looking for.
- Aaron and Chris
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