01-01-2019 - Rossman Hill

Today I decided to usher in the new year with another long drive, analogous to the one I took the yesterday, only going farther west. I made it as far at Davenport NY before heading back east, driving around the north for some time, all on twisty backroads that took me far from any major towns. For the first three hours of the drive I encountered no gas stations, but ended up in the middle of quite a few tiny dirt-road villages.

Towards the final leg of my voyage, I stopped to rest near the northern edge of Burnt-Rossman Hills State Forest, just over the Fulton town line. After a few minutes I decided to hike the portion of trail that was there, towards the summit of Rossman Hill. The first section of the trail traversed the area in the forested lowlands along the Panther Creek.

View in a spruce stand near the trailhead, warning of an upcoming bridge.

Looking down the Panther Creek from near the trailhead.

The steep sections of the trail afforded some vaguely aerial views of the area.

This moss-covered picnic area had signs indicating its status as a designated campsite.

Downstream on the Panther, from the iced-over bridge.

Looking upstream from the same bridge. The water was moving very quickly.

The small wooden trail bridge that crossed the swollen Panther Creek was covered in an inches-thick layer of ice, clearly snow that had melted and refrozen several times before. Once crossing over, the trail ascended incredibly steeply, climbing the steep slope of Rossman Hill in a lengthy zig-zag formation similar to the trails on Mount Hayden and Mount Pisgah farther south.

Despite the cold weather, the moss on these rockfaces remained a lush green.

High winds made these old pine plantations a little dangerous, but failed to diminish their barren beauty.

Near the Rossman Hill summit, patches of snow were more common as the trail leveled out.

The trail finally leveled out after about half a mile of constant and steep uphill. I had resolved to continue down this trail until it became level, but little hills and divots in the land led me to continue on, just to see what was beyond the next corner or rise. At this point it began to ice fairly heavily, an unexpected development. Continuing onwards despite this, I arrived at the endpoint of an iced-over seasonal highway, evidently the end of the trail.

Faded sign pointing to the parking lot where I had hiked from.

The iced-over end of Rossman Hill Road.

Looking down Rossman Hill Road, rendered impassable by ice.

Area near the hill's summit, where fairly recent logging has left a clearing.

Descending the hill was a little shaky at times, as I wasn't well dressed for the unexpected cold, and didn't have my usual walking stick with me. The little balls of ice covered most of the trail by the time I headed back to the car.

Ice-brightened trail through a stand of Eastern Hemlock.

The inner portion of the trail was waterlogged, so the ice melted there. Here the hill's steep incline can be seen.

It was an enjoyable, if short, little hike, and rather unexpected. After searching for a place to pull over to no avail for well over two hours, it was nice to find a forest to stop and explore for a little bit. I tend to overplan my hikes, so the mystery as to this unknown trail was unusual, but enjoyable.