Hike #1087; Finger Lakes Trail; Alder Lake to Berry Brook

Hike #1087; Catskills/Finger Lakes Trail; Alder Lake to Berry Brook

11/5/17 Alder Lake to Holiday Brook Catskills with San Westermann and Timothy Kovich

This next trip would be the next leg of the Finger Lakes Trail in the Catskill Mountains of New York.
I had really been loving the sections of this trail I’d done in the past. My first time on it was years ago, where it broke away from the Long Path below Slide Mountain, in the valley of the Neversink River.
Jillane and I backpacked in to the site, and we were walking the Phoenicia-East Branch Trail section, which comes out to Denning Road. We camped along the Neversink and were picked up there by our friend Craig Nunn. I waited a little while, then did another Long Path and Finger Lakes Trail section that included the Denning Road section for another trip, followed by a 2016 trip between Red Hill and Willowemec, which included more of the trail, and then finally the section from near Round Pond to Alder Lake also last year.
These sections were getting really far out of the way to be doing as a day hike, so I’ve not been keen on posting them very often, but I really liked the area and the seclusion of the trail, so at the last Metrotrails meeting it was decided I’d post something there.
It was a surprise when only Tim and Sandy wanted to come along. Sure it was out of the way, but it was really an awesome workout and experience.

Craig-E-Clair Castle

On the way up, we got to see the Craig-E-Clair Castle, which is along the Beaver Kill and completely abandoned. I’d been wanting to see that for some time.
We shuttled from our end point at Berry Brook/Holiday Brook Road to the starting point at Alder Lake. These are among the most difficult spots to get to on these trips. The back roads are crazy and winding, and when we used the Cross Mountain Road it could have been somewhat tough for a car without four wheel drive. It has some steep cliff sections and no guide rails whatsoever.
Still, we arrived at Alder Lake alright, and there was only one other car there, a group of hunters from Indiana or something I think it was.

Coykendall Lodge before demolition

We walked from the parking area just up the road to Alder Lake, Hardenburg NY in the Balsam Lake Forest Preserve of the Catskill Forest Preserve.

Coykendall Lodge now

The stone ruins of porches and stanchions are all that remain of the once magnificent Coykendall Lodge, which overlooked the lake in this bucolic setting.

Coykendall Lodge before demolition

The lodge was built in 1899 in the Shingle Style, which has components of Queen Anne, Eastlake, and Colonia American architectural styles. It was a large, rambling 2 1⁄2-story half-timber lodge of balloon frame home built by Samuel Coykendall, a railroad entrepeneur.

Coykendall Lodge today

The family sold the home in 1948, and the state demolished it in 2008, save for the stone framework. Historic preservation is not written into the Catskill Forest Preserve plans, unfortunately, and so more and more of these things go in favor of it being just “wild”.

Coykendall Lodge before demolition

It was kind of a somber note to start the hike on, but the lake is very pretty. I still want to do the trail that goes all the way around the lake, and I considered tacking it onto this one, but now in retrospect I’m glad we didn’t try to do anything extra.

We had to backtrack for just a little bit along the driveway of the Coykendall Lodge, and of course we walked through the old building ruin to check out the old fire place, which is still in there.
We then followed the drive back te way we rode in. On the left, there was a stone gateway to more of the Coykendall estate, but not sure what it led to.
The trail continued down the access road to the intersection with Cross Mountain Road, which in the other direction is known as Alder Lake Road, and continued directly across.
The Finger Lakes Trail when it is a stand-alone trail is blazed white, but where it follows these roads and goes through NY state lands, it has only discs with the Finger Lakes Trail emblem on them, and the trail sections are blazed the same as the rest of the Catskill Trails.
Catskills have this thing where they want all east/west trails to be blazed red, all north/south to be blue, and so on. It doesn’t really work at all because they go all over.

Coykendall Lodge

Regardless, the majority of what we would be following on this hike would be red blazed. The trail sections change names, but the entire trip would be part of the Finger Lakes Trail.
We left Alder Lake Road and cut into the wood son a foot path, which immediately crossed over a west fork of Alder Creek, which parallels the private Edwards Road that goes off to the north where Alder Lake and Cross Mountain Roads go northeast.
This section is known as Touch-Me-Not Trail. We turned left then right and started ascending pretty soon after crossing the brook.

Alder Lake

We didn’t have to climb up too far. The ascent was really pretty easy. I was hopeful that this section of the FLT would be as easy as the previous one. That last section barely had any ups and downs really, save for Balsam Lake Mountain, which is one of the 3,500 plus peaks, and the highest point on the entire FLT.
Other than that, the previous section went through a lot of pleasant lower lands and along streams. It was seeming like that would be the case with this first section, because it was so gentle.

Wetlands

The first mountain was Barkaboom Mountain, but we didn’t go to the top of it. The trail went most the way up, then skirted around the same elevation to the south of it.
We crossed over a beautiful stream at the outlet of one meadow to the other, and then picked up a section of old woods road. We headed slightly up and passed by old stone rows separating pastures, and there were some stone ruins to the left. One of the ruins in particular appeared to be that of an old homestead site.

Old farm ruins

I wondered if this is what more of the Finger Lakes Trail would be like as I continue to explore it north and west. It leaves the Catskills and certainly goes to areas where there was easier agriculture and industry.
We reached the crest of another little hill section, and we could see ahead to the next mountain coming up, Touchmenot Mountain, for which the trail takes it’s name. I’m not sure where the name came from.
The trail began to descend here, which really wasn’t tough except for some slippage on the plentiful fallen leaves. It looked more like Winter up here than back home.

View to Touchmenot Mountain

As we descended we could start to see Big Pond to the right through the trees. The trail leveled off and passed through what looked like a former field, and then came to a very nice camp site in the foundation of an old barn, with a nice big fire ring.
We continued on the trail from here out to a parking area where there was a sign in trail log box.
The Catskills are great with these trail registers everywhere. It helps to show use on the trail, and if anyone was in trouble, it’d be easy to figure out where they had most recently been.

Old Big Pond dam

The trail had a side path to camp grounds, which we walked briefly with hopes of seeing the pond, but it wasn’t visible there. We followed the FLT down hill, then to the right for a brief time on Barkaboom Road to cross the outflow of Big Pond on the road bridge.
From the road, we could see the remnants of the dam that at one time made Big Pond much bigger. The dam had been purged, but the narrow outflow was so tight that the lake, despite having a more natural looking cascading release, still holds in a good amount of water.

Ruins at Big Pond

Just on the downstream side of the dam ruin was a foundation, which was probably some kind of mill. It would be interesting to know what kind of history the site has, but I couldn’t find anything on it on the trail guides on line.
We had a nice little break on the shore here, where there was just one guy out on Big Pond in a boat. This was one of the few times during the entire day that we saw another person at all. Other than the hunters at Alder Lake and one lady walking the road later, we did not see another person.

Big Pond

We crossed Barkaboom Road and began ascending Touchmenot Mountain on the other side. There was another trail register there, which I signed and powered my way up.
This was more the type of mountain I was expecting from the Catskills. It started out really easy at first, but then got really steep. Much of the Catskills I have come to know for being hand hold climbing to get to the peaks, and that’s what some of this one turned into.
On a previous trip, a lady we met described this section ahead as being very steep.

On Touchmenot Mountain

The first bit wasn’t too bad. I pushed my way to the top, and when it looked like it started to level out I waited a bit. I then chose to power ahead a bit more to the intersection with the blue blazed Campground Trail. This trail leads just over a mile down to Little Pond, where there is a state camp ground.
After the time it took to get up Touchmenot Mountain, I figured it’s probably not wise to do any extra miles down and up the same mountain. We continued ahead, and then reached the intersection with Little Pond Trail, which was the route we would have taken back up. The Finger Lakes Trail route is only 0.4 mile between the two, so I was thinking to skip that one for the loop for one mountain view and one view of the lake. I’m rather glad we didn’t go for it because of how tough the route was.
We descended from the intersection with Little Pond Trail, and could see Cabot Mountain ahead, which looked a bit tougher than it was looking from the countors on my trail conference map.
The ascent here was tougher than the previous one, with more hand hold climbing. Unlike other Catskills high peaks I’d done, this one was far less worn in. It was not one of the popular peaks, because it sits at 2,970 feet above sea level, and the trendy thing is to do the ones that are above 3,500 feet only.

Climbing Cabot Mountain

Regardless of elevation of this mountain, it was still a good one to climb. The rock outcroppings were really beautiful, and I felt like I was seeing something that all of the other trendy peak baggers don’t normally see.
Sandy stayed caught up with me more on this one than the previous one, but I still powered ahead a bit. Her and Tim lost the trail a couple of times on the up hills, because they are not worn in and the red blazes are not really easy to see. They also tend to pop off of the trees often, so they’re often gone.

Cabot Mountain

The ascent had some nice rock overhangs along the way, which were awesome. It was a good workout for me to get to the tops of these.
It was really the first hike of the year for me to be wearing one of my suits or blazers. I wore a brutally ugly yellow shirt with brown plaid jacket that I’d found in the abandoned house in Ewing.
It wasn’t too terribly cold out, but it was enough for me to keep my jacket on most the entire day for the first time since the early Spring.
When I reached the end of the ascent, the trail took me to the left to a great overlook.

Little Pond view

We had a nice break at the top, and I had the one drink I’d brought on this one because it was a nice, gradual down hill from this point to the saddle between Cabot Mountain and Beech Hill. We started to descend pretty soon after we got moving.

View to Beech Hill

Like the previous one, we could see the next climb we had on our way down. Beech Hill came into view rather clearly as we followed the slope down and across a small spring.
The trail emerged from the woods to a small parking area with a trail register at Beech Hill Road. I signed in, and we turned right on the road for a bit.
The trail only followed the road shortly, and we passed one woman walking here. We then turned left up a gravel road heading gradually up Beech Hill. There was a parking area and a nice little view over the valley from a meadow.
There was no real view from the top of Beech Hill other than through the trees. That was the great thing about doing this hike this time of year; we had a lot of views actually because the steep slopes and leafless trees gave us views pretty much everywhere.
We could see after the ascent of Beech, just before we started descending again, out to the next peak: Middle Mountain.

View from Middle Mountain

The down didn’t seem as bad, and looking at the maps it looked as though we would have a very easy ascent of Middle Mountain. Such ended up not being the case; these climbs all felt pretty tough because it was one after the other. They weren’t too long, but definitely gave us a workout.
At the top of the ascent, like the previous one, the trail turned left and then came to a lovely view of the valley to the southeast. We took another little break before moving on. At 2,970 feet above sea level, Middle Mountain would be the tallest peak we’d do for the day.

Heading down Middle Mountain

Descending from Middle Mountain, we had some nice seasonal views to the west. There were some impressive rock outcroppings as we made our way down hill. I love how these trails weave between rocks in a well planned route.
The trail had a flat rocky base that was slippery with the leaves here, and it looked as though the treadway was laid intentionally with broken up pieces of flat rock. It made it easier to see where we were supposed to be going.
It was really particularly slow going through this section, but at the bottom of the hill where it got more gradual, we passed more old farmer’s stone rows.

Steep slope from Middle Mountain

There were lovely little springs cascading almost the entire way, and in this area they were more prevalent than in the sections before, cascading over ridged rocks.
The trail descended a bit more through some wet lands, and then emerged on Mary Smith Hill Road with yet another trail register for me to sign in on. I didn’t know if I should immediately sign out since we would not be going back to the same spot, so that’s what I did. This road was dirt surface and didn’t really even feel like a road crossing.

Stone rows below Middle Mountain

The trail went directly across this one. The Touch-Me-Not Trail section ended at this road, and it’s known as Mary Smith Trail on the opposite side. We passed immediately by a small camp site, and then climbed steeply on Mary Smith Hill.
The climb up Mary Smith was again pretty steep, but it didn’t get as rocky and require the hand holds so much as the previous ones had. Just like the others, the trail took us to the top and then turned left along the slope before reaching the view, which again faced southeast.

View on Mary Smith Hill

Mary Smith Hill had two peaks to it, and the first one, which was not designated with that name on the maps, was actually higher than the one given the designation.

View on Mary Smith Hill

I got to the top first, and Sandy was close behind me on this one. Tim was much slower than us, but not really slow by hiker standards at all. I’m sure it made him feel like he was slow the way Sandy and I sometimes powered along. He hadn’t been out hiking with us as much lately because he has so many more responsibilities at work as a new supervisor. I know it wasn’t for his lack of wanting to come out that he’d missed so much, but we were very glad he showed up for this one because if he hadn’t we’d have had to arrange a different loop route that wouldn’t have been nearly as substantial or interesting as this.

View below Mary Smith Hill

We all stayed a bit closer together from the overlook for a little while, because the terrain was much more level. These level sections on the tops and the more gradual sections down were very peaceful and relaxing. Sandy noted that it was deathly quiet on the mountain times. Barely did we hear a single bird or even a breeze and branches. This entire area was in it’s Winter season already, and although it wasn’t terribly cold, it felt like Winter.
We continued on the saddle between the two peaks of Mary Smith Hill. The second peak was only 2,767, so I figured we might not really have to go up at all any more.

The trail on Mary Smith Hill

We did end up having to go up just a little bit more, but it wasn’t too bad. At the other peak of Mary Smith Hill, we had somewhat obscured but nice views into the valley of Berry Brook and Holiday Brook where we would finish.

View from Mary Smith Hill to the next peak with Split Rock Lookout

We didn’t have a lot of day light left, and the sun was going down. At the north side of Mary Smith Hill, we could see the reflective waters of the Pepacton Reservoir to the north. I went off trail just a bit to a little outcrop for a better view.
The trail doubled back to the south a bit, and started to descend through more interesting rock formations. It was probably steeper in this section heading down than the previous ones. The steps over rocks weren’t so bad, but the slant of the trail itself was such that even I fell down on the slippery leaves at least three times. Sandy was falling about a hundred feet behind me, and Tim was taking it a bit slower up above us.

Descending Mary Smith Hill

It was a relief once the descent got a little easier. We were then to where we could see some fields and such through the trees to the east. The trail follows a narrow right of way on it’s way out to Berry Brook, and the parking area is on private land where the landowner allowed for it’s use.
I signed in at the parking area where we finished the hike. There was one other trail user signed in and another car in the parking area. It was someone heading to the Pelnor Hollow Shelter, which was on the next section across Berry Brook Road. I’m not sure the name of the mountain on the other side, but Split Rock Lookout is the name of the view from it’s top.

At the end!

The last of the daylight was leaving us while we were in the parking lot, and I was a bit concerned about Tim until I heard him call out. I yelled back and knew he wasn’t all that far off. He wasn’t all that far behind us until we got to the point where we were slipping so much.
The red blazes were not easy to see at all when the sun was going down, and so Tim lost the trail toward the end. Fortunately, the woods were not too rocky and had sparse if any undergrowth, so he was able to just come toward our voices to get to the parking area.
While we were waiting, coyotes were howling and yipping not too far from us to the south. We could hear the entire pack shift from the south to the southwest of us. They were definitely moving around us toward the west, which was a bit unnerving. I told Sandy to get ready to get on top of Tim’s jeep in case they came in close. I called out to Tim to make sure he was already, and got ready to head back into the woods if he needed guidance out. He was really close at this point, so we were alright. The coyotes very oddly went completely silent after they got pretty near to us, so I was concerned they were moving in closer. Fortunately, we were out of there before we had the chance to find out.
We stopped on the way back for some Mexican food at one of the little towns off Rt 17. We were definitely hungry after the mountainous workout.
It was really a great day, and a great workout that I needed. I only wish that more people would have come out for it, because it was one of those amazing secluded sections that almost no other group would ever post a hike on. It’s getting really far out there to be posting day hikes, but on the occasion that I do, it really is worth it. I hope to do at least one other section out there on Finger Lakes Trail within the year, which will cover Split Rock, Flat Rock, and the stretch all the way to Downsville. I think that one will be even better.