Hike #717; Catskills; Red Hill to Rondhout Creek/Peekamoose

 Hike #717; Catskills; Red Hill to Rondhout Creek/Peekamoose

8/11/13 Catskills; Red Hill to Rondhout Creek/Peekamoose with Jillane Becker, Stephen Argentina, Michele Valerio, David "Captain Soup" Campbell, Dr. Jenn Redmond, Julie Valasquez, Daniel Yu, Irina Kulikovskaya, Terri Allen, Tamara Sapilak, Seth Golldhart, Theodore Wright, ?, Tim ??, Sally ??, Melanie Doulton, Vishal ?, Mona ??, Raj ?, Michael S., Chris ?, Jeff ?, Tiberius (Mike), Bollywood

In Red Hill Tower

Our next hike would be one in an effort to connect the Catskills region trip I had done backpacking with Jillane down to the Shawangunks. We had started at the far north end of the Catskills and made it as far as the Neversink River near Denning, but I had not yet done the Long Path to the south of there. The route included two of the 3500 plus foot peaks, Table and Peekamoose Mountains. I decided to arrange a group hike to cover this. Jillane and I went up the night before and camped along the Rondhout Creek near the end point.

In the morning, we met the group at the lower lot along the Rondhout, and Jillane took off to meet us later and get a head start on the peaks. The rest of us shuttled to Red Hill, on Old Dinch Road, which is an out and back trail. I wanted to incorporate this into the hikes for some time, and this was a good opportunity.

It was absolutely amazing that I had such a big group for a Catskills trip. The furthest north I'd ever organized one of the group trips and still so many people. There were even a lot of newcomers, and Dr. Jenn who hadn't been out with us in a while, though I had seen her because I finally just started visiting her chiropractic practice. I was concerned leading into this hike because I'd been having so many lower back pains, and I was hoping that Jillane and I would go backpacking again soon. I was told to see a chiropractor so many years ago, and I just ignored it. When I was working at Taylor Rental and had no insurance, and horrible pain, Dr. Jenn offered to help me out, even if we had to barter or something. I never took her up on it, but I never forgot that caring offer, so of course now that I have insurance, I would naturally prefer to go to her over anyone else; she's a caring person, and the only one I'd ever talked to about my back pain before. Doctors naturally repel me, so it seemed like the best thing. I'd never known whether to believe in holistic treatments and such, but have always been open to trying, and Dr. Jenn has been involved for some time (her first hike with me was June 15, 2005. Hard to believe).

We started walking from the trail head steeply up Red Hill. Captain Soup and I took the lead, and I practically ran the entire thing to the top for a good workout. To my surprise, the tower was manned by a guy and a girl as volunteers. Very cool, because we would have the opportunity to go up into it! Captain Soup was soon behind me followed closely by Raj. Dr. Jenn was pretty close behind from there and others made their way up after. About seven or so of us were allowed up at a time, so we hurried to the top.

The view was outstanding, all the way west to the Neversink Reservoir, of Table and Peekamoose Mountains, and other peaks like Slide, Double Top and many more. It was outstanding. There were diagrams below the windows that told of what exactly we were seeing.

We took a long break here to check everything out, then headed back down along the trail. Ironically, I talked to Michele a bit about that same day when I first met Dr. Jenn. That hike was also Fred Hafele's first hike with me, among others. She was just at a party with Fred, and he had told her that when he read my trip posting, he was certain I was some old guy, but that when he showed up he was surprised to see a young guy with long hair, a Hawaiian shirt, and atrocious sneakers. He apparently said we all looked very strange and that he almost got back in his car and drove home! Well, I'm glad he didn't because we walked hundreds, probably thousands of miles together in the following years.

At the bottom of Red Hill, we turned left on Old Dinch Road. It was shown as a through road on my map, and so I figured we'd be fine. Tim pointed out to me that on both his and Michele's maps, the road was no longer shown at all. I didn't think much of it, because the road was still drivable to an all wheel drive vehicle. We followed it down to the East Branch of the Neversink River only to find that the bridge was long gone. Only the short spans of it from the south and north sides were still in place. I walked across the I-beams to the abutment on the south side. The bridge must have at one time been very long. It didn't look like there'd been one there in forever.

I went back out and let everyone know we'd have to wade across, but that we'd find a better spot down stream.

When we got to where there was a cliff to the right, we opted to cross. The water was freezing cold, but I layed in it anyway.

Some of the group tried to cross on fallen trees, only to find that these fallen trees led only to an island and they had to wade across anyway. On the other side, we bushwhacked for a little bit out to Denning Road, the route of the Finger Lakes Trail, and turned right.

The road was nice, but it seemed to go on forever. We continued on through some nice farm areas, then eventually came to the camp site where Jillane and I had finished our backpacking trip. We continued on from there until the road became dirt, then headed through the Tison property before reaching the woods. I saw that Jillane had signed our names with a heart in the trail register, which was nice.

We continued on the co-aligned Finger Lakes and Phoenicia-East Branch Trail out to the Long Path, where Finger Lakes Trail ends, and turned right. We then descended to the East Branch once again. It was in two branches down there, the first one crossed on a new, long wooden bridge, and the second one on cut logs with a guide wire. Beyond, the Long Path began to ascend Table Mountain.

Captain Soup, Seth, and I were in the front of the pack heading up Table. There was one good view to the east side of the trail. Apparently there was another good view off to the right somewhere, but we unfortunately missed it. Jillane got to see it. There was also a shelter that we skipped.

There was no view at the very top of Table, and we descended between the two peaks, then climbed Peekamoose. From the top if it there was a great view to the east toward the Ashokan Reservoir. We ended up waiting on the top of Peekamoose for well over an hour for the rest of the group who was behind. Jillane ended up waiting while we passed on Table, thinking that it was Peekamoose, and we ended up passing her. The rest of the group went ahead while Stephen and I waited behind for the last couple people to come up.

When they got there, we began making our way steeply down hill on the Long Path. There was another view to the southeast I guess it was as we continued, and the trail switched back and forth through woods. We eventually caught up with Jillane and stayed close to her for the remainder of the descent. It was rough on my knees going down. Before we reached the bottom, the trail began to follow an old woods road. We used it to descend to the Rondhout Creek. Some went to swim in the creek ahead, but I guess I just wasn't that into it for some reason.

We turned right, where the trail followed the creek, and walked by where Jillane and I had camped the night before. There were ruins of an old dam across the street from there. We then passed where the Long Path heads into the woods on the other side, but continued along the roadway. A lot of the group hurried ahead. Captain Soup had nearly the longest drive (except for Irina, she had to go to Camden).

We walked through some of the parallel camp ground paths, which were nice, and stopped to eat some apples off of the apple trees growing in the area. They were so good and juicy...

We then continued to parallel the road for a bit, but the path didn't go through and we had to walk through a mucky lawn and climb off trail steeply to the road to get back to the next lot. That was a little rough. By the time we reached the lot, there was hardly anyone else there. A lot of the group was having a really hard time, so drivers headed back on the road toward the trail head to pick up the hikers that'd otherwise have a long road walk ahead of them.

We got to the point where the only ones up on the ridge remaining were Ted and the friend he brought with him. She was not really ready for this hike, and was going very slowly. It was getting pretty dark, and Michele kept driving back to check the trail head and see where they might be, to no avail.

While we were standing around talking, a young guy came up to us and started chatting. He had a black tee shirt that read "Raw Levy" on it. He said he was hanging out to watch the meteor shower that was to go on that night (Jillane and I saw a fireball meteor on the way home that was amazing, going through one of the Jewish areas along the way where they all walk in the street. That was amazing too, that they were dressed so bundled up in the heat, and with bigger hats than I'm used to seeing that looked like small cat trees).

The guy asked us if we would listen to some of his "rhymes" he had written. We reluctantly said "ok", not knowing what to expect. He was a rapper, but didn't like to use that term because people get turned off by it. After a few rhymes, the messages he was trying to spread seemed clearer. He definitely had a talent, and could easily go somewhere with it. He remembered all of his words and was well in time. He was indeed "raw", with no accompaniment, and a couple of them in particular were actually very good. It's interesting who we meet along the way, and how they turn out to be not what one might expect. We checked out his website, www.rawlevy.com where he had some of his stuff posted. Very interesting.

After several times of Michele going back and forth looking for the last two, we decided I'd go with her, take a flash light, and begin running back up the mountain. Just as I got out of the car and was ready to head up, there was Ted, and his friend was heading back down not so far off with a flashlight. What a relief, both that they were alright and that I didn't have to run back up toward the peak. We took them back to the cars, and both were great sports about the whole thing. Everybody went home happy.

I'm overwhelmed by how people are still willing to drive so far to do my hikes. It's a great feeling to know that I never have to do these things alone any more if I don't want to. I'm making my own dreams come true, and everyone who participates in my hike are a part of the ideal life I'm creating for myself. I'm so thankful for the experiences I have and the amazing people I continue to meet.