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June 28, 2004 |
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The Beaverkill Range
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We wrote a couple weeks ago about hiking to a bog in Maplecrest with our friend Dr. Mike Kudish, where he could gather data to further piece together the forest history of the Catskills. He doesn't just sample bogs though. We were lucky enough to go into the field again with him one last time before he departs for the year. This time our destination was a portion of the Beaverkill Range, to fill in a gap on the ridge where Mike had never been.
The Beaverkill Range, in the westernmost portion of Ulster County, is a large, wonderfully un-spoiled and little-used area. It is part of the Big Indian-Beaverkill Range Wilderness Area and includes Mongaup Mountain as one of its eight summits. Four summits in this remote area are traversed by the Mongaup-Hardenburgh Trail that connects Mongaup Pond to the Beaverkill River. The Neversink-Hardenburgh Trail (including Black Bear Road) gives the public access to the eastern fringes of the range. The southern slopes spawn the headwaters of the Willowemoc Creek, and the north-facing ones produce the headwaters of the Beaverkill. Our destination was two of the eastern summits and the saddle between them.
We began by parking the vehicle along Black Bear Road at a small pull-off on State land. Much of the land along the road is owned by hunting camps: Red Horse, Black Bear, and Raccoon to name a few. We walked up the road a quarter-mile (2,600') turned west, entered the forest, and started the bushwhack. We climbed up to a southern spur of the Range (2,800') and began heading north on contour.
As we walked we studied the forest, which Dr. Kudish believed was all first growth. Some of the signs he looks for are lack of old roads (logging, tanning), lack of pioneer tree species (aspen, white birch) and the presence of large trees of more than one species. We found huge yellow birch, sugar maple, and black cherry over 33" in diameter. We even found a Catskills rarity - a pure stand of black cherry.
As we circled around the headwaters of the Willowemoc, we gradually climbed until reaching the highest point on the Beaverkill Range (3,3,77'). This summit is not your typical Catskill Mountain summit. It is very small and abrupt. It was fairly open with scattered cherry and birch, and a carpet of ferns. We ate lunch on the northern side, looking at the blue gem that is Balsam Lake, and Graham (pictured) and Balsam Lake Mountains.
After lunch we descended due west for a half-mile into the saddle and then back up to the next summit (3,310'). On this summit the forest was extremely dense and American beech were much more prevalent.
To complete the loop back to the car, we descended south (mostly using the sun to guide us) for nearly a mile (to 2,700'). We figured our car was now 1.5-miles due east. Here we left the spur and began descending until what we thought (and hoped) was Bishop's Cabin Brook. Instead it was a gorgeous spring emanating from moss-covered boulders on the steep slope. We took the pH (5.2) and the water temperature (48 degrees). We walked a bit further and came to the brook, then over another ridge and crossed the Willowemoc again.
Unfortunately we did find what looked like a hunting camp on the State land, complete with metal chairs, an old satellite dish turned into a sign that was mounted on a hemlock, and a small road with evidence of trees being cut on the edge of the creek. Of course this is not permitted in the Forest Preserve. It was here where a massive sugar maple had recently blown over and Dr. Kudish counted the rings to determine its age - 225 years!
It was up and over (to 2,800') one more time for us to get back to Black Bear Road and the car. We didn't quite navigate as accurately as we had thought, resulting in a longer walk along the road. After the completion of this 5-mile loop hike, Dr. Kudish will be expanding his estimate of virgin forest in the Catskill Mountains to nearly 100 square miles.
- Aaron and Chris
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