04-13-2019: Two Mountains

In mid-April I embarked on my first mountain climb of the month. Parking atop the seasonal unmaintained Turnwood Road, I hiked to the summit of Balsam Lake Mountain, and seeing I had abundant time and supplies continued to the neighboring Graham Mountain. Both are considered Catskill High Peaks (summits over 3500'), and Graham Mountain is the seventh-highest summit in the Catskills. The weather was very warm and sunny, enough to give me a slight sunburn, but the snow and ice on the mountains kept me from becoming too overheated.

I do apologize for the amount of images in this post, it's significantly more than I usually put up. Since this was a very long hike (almost nine miles), there were a lot of interesting things to photograph that I can't bear not to share.

View north from the village of Fleischmanns on my way to the trailhead. Looks much clearer without fog.

A straight shot looking north on NY-30 as it crosses the Pepacton Reservoir in Andes NY.

I got out at the reservoir and walked across the bridge. This is a shot looking east from its center. 

Morning clouds over the west half of the Pepacton.

A southward view from low along the trail reveals some of the western Catskills' ridges.

The trail crosses a tributary of the Black Brook before rapidly steepening up Balsam Lake Mountain.

A spring bursts out from a boulder known as 'Moses Rock' on Balsam Lake Mountain.

Moss-covered boulders provided the only greenery on Balsam Lake's lower slopes.

Near the mountain's summit, dense fir trees rose up through deep snow and thick ice.

View of the fire tower on Balsam Lake Mountain. It is one of only two surviving fire towers on the Catskill High Peaks; several others remain on shorter mountains in the region.

View east from the fire tower, looking over the seasonal ranger's cabin. The prominent peak to the right is Graham Mountain.

Although the tower's cabin was locked, its upper steps still provided spectacular views, such as this northward vista.

Looking southwest, the Catskills could be seen to gradually drop off to lowlands past Sullivan County in the distance.

The trails near the summit were very dangerous, with thick, slick ice covering very steep slopes. The forest was too thick in many places to find a different way around.

The trail up Graham Mountain is unmarked and unmaintained, but was easy to follow because it apparently becomes a river in the springtime.

Bare trees and snow at the col between Balsam Lake and Graham.

This overgrown northward view below the summit of Graham Mountain looks towards the distant Bearpen Mountain, which I had climbed two weeks prior.

At the summit of Graham Mountain were the ruins of an old relay station, abandoned after a helicopter crash in the 1960s.

A more open view northwest is available from the summit, looking over much of the western Catskills.

A look inside the abandoned station. The rusted metal and broken concrete made the area seem like a nasty infection waiting to happen.

The walls of the structure are very unstable, but offer excellent views. This northeastern shot shows mountains as distant as the Blackhead Range.

A view east through the structure's remnants offers limited views of Big Indian, Doubletop, and the Burroughs Range.

This northward lookout is found near the proper summit, on higher ground several hundred feet from the station surrounded by dense pygmy forest.

On my descent from the mountain, I took a less-popular, but marked, trail, which was also overrun by meltwater.