2021-05-21: Leavitt Peak

Also known as Southwest Hunter, Leavitt Peak is a sub-peak of the more well-known Hunter Mountain in the town of Hunter NY. Topping out above 3740 feet, the mountain has no formal hiking trails and no views from the summit, and is climbed purely as a peakbagging endeavor. For this hike, I followed the red-blazed Devil's Path from the Devil's Tombstone parking area, then turned off onto an unmarked herdpath to the summit, making for a six mile round-trip hike.

A view of Notch Lake, located at the trailhead along Route 214 south of Hunter. This shot was taken at the trail register.

While I paused for a break along the trail, hundreds of these pollen-rich catkins rained down on me. This one was caught by a nearby stick moments before I photographed it.

Trees and greenery along the trail. Higher up on the mountain the trees were just budding, but on its lower slopes, they were rich with bright green new growth.

Pinecones littered the floor of a stand of red spruce (Picaea rubra) high up on the mountain's slopes.

Bushes covered in these bunches of flowers lined the trail higher on the mountain. There is a strange dimorphism here with larger white flowers on the outside and bunches of tiny white and yellow floers farther in.

Budding trees and tufts of grass along the Devil's Path.

At the col between Hunter and Leavitt Peaks is a spring known as Devil's Acre with a nearby lean-to and campsite. Unusually dry weather has kept the spring almost totally barren, with only a few pools of stagnant water to be found.

This odd flower was unlike any other along the trail; I noticed it on my way both up and down the mountain.

The dense, mossy fir forest atop Leavitt Peak has an almost creepy deep-woods feel to it.

Although unmarked, the herd path up Leavitt Peak is very easy to follow in most places.

This orange canister marks the summit of the mountain. I tried to find a way to register or mark that I had been there, but the canister doesn't appear to open.

A wider shot of the summit and its small clearing. Dense evergreen forest precludes the possibility of a view from anywhere near the mountain's top.

A mostly obscured view from the herdpath shows a limb of West Kill (L) and Hunter (R) mountains.

I was directed to this patch of trout lillies (Erythronium americanum) by a fellow hiker. Thousands of the small yellow flowers lined the whole length of the trail, but I could only find one spot where the downward-facing plants were at an angle good for photographing.

A shot of Plateau Mountain from along the Devil's Path on the way down the mountain.

I discovered a small patch of sizeable mushrooms, unusual for the spring, near the bottom of the mountain.

Moss-covered boulders sit precariously in a stand of hemlock trees just above the trailhead.