01-09-2019 - CR-20 (4)

A combination of health, car, and weather issues has prevented me from doing much walking this month, much to my disappointment. I do plan on getting some hiking in this weekend, so in anticipation I'll upload the last batch of photos I have from the beginning of the month, when I hiked the penultimate section of Greene County's CR-20.

I initially parked at an overlook, where some logs border a parking area partway up the mountain along the side of the road. The temperature was about 20 F with some very strong winds, as there are always strong winds up the mountain, and mostly cloudy. Unlike most of my walks, in this instance I parked at the higher-elevation end of the road segment and hiked down, then up, as there was no place to park farther down the mountain.

View of Mount Pisgah, looking west from the overlook.

View south from the overlook. From left to right: Acra Point, Windham High Peak, Mount Zoar, Mount Ginseng, and Mount Hayden.

View east from the overlook, over the Durham Valley towards the Taconic Mountains. The cloud ceiling is quite visibly low here.

The hike down from the parking area, towards the outlet of Prink Hill Lane, was fairly straightforward. With the wind at my back I made excellent time, and the more forested areas on the north-facing side of the road precluded any significant views. Near the end of the day's segment I walked past a series of fields with an excellent view to the north.

View of the upper Catskill Valley towards Albany County. Scott Patent and Cook Hills are on the left.

A similar view to the one above, only from a lower elevation.

As I headed back up the mountain all went well at first. I had made fantastic time going down, but heading uphill, with the powerful wind in my face, proved harder than I had anticipated.

Evidently someone didn't get the message.

Climbing higher in elevation, it began to snow, which quickly turned to sleet. Balls of ice of a significant size were whipped to high speeds by the wind, drastically decreasing visibility and making the already notorious road even more dangerous. The weather hadn't been predicted, but wasn't entirely unexpected, and made it very unsafe to be on the road. My priority at this point was getting back to the car as quickly as possible, but the sunset over the mountains distracted me.

Orange lights of evening over Mounts Hayden and Nebo.

Windham's tall peak can be seen lit up by the last rays of sunlight, even through the snow.

Even over barren fields the Escarpment looked beautiful in the evening.

Another shot of Hayden and Nebo over a farm. The other mountains were obscured by snow.

'Positively' no trespassing. Rather unique verbiage for such a sign.

While heading up the road, Mount Pisgah becomes gradually more prominent as you go.

Eventually I did manage to return to the car, making it back before the snow became a major issue. Wiping the ice from my vehicle I got one last look at the mountains, or at least those that weren't hidden behind the storm, before heading home.

Hayden and Nebo beneath the snow.