2022-05-27: Berlin Mountain, Barberville Falls

Rensselaer County: New York County High Point 10/62

Berlin Mountain has been on my radar for quite some time. It has a lot going for it as a mountain; it's a county high point, it's on public land, it has a trail to the summit, and it's relatively close (less than two hours by car). I had planned to climb it via snowshoe back in January, but car problems, and later returning to school, prevented me. Finally, with the day off work, a functioning vehicle, and clear weather (for the morning at least), I was on my way to the peak.

Until today, Rensselaer County held the distinction of being the closest county I had never really been to. I've driven through it countless times, but I've never stopped, hiked, or seen anything. Because of that, I wanted to make a bigger trip out of the day and visit another attraction nearby. Berlin Mountain is located in the northern Taconics, near the NY-MA-VT tripoint, but visiting the marker would make my hike unreasonably long. However, I found that my route would pass near Barberville Falls, the highest waterfall in the county, so I added it to my itinerary for the day.

I parked at the trailhead along Route 2 just before the Massachusetts border and headed immediately up a trail that I thought was the Taconic Crest trail (spoiler alert: it wasn't). This trail was narrow and very steep, and headed through several clearings before plunging into thick birch forest. Soon the trail began to level out, and I began to become confused.

Mountains to the east, visible through trees at the trailhead.

Looking up the steep unmarked trail.

Open fields along the way up, near the edge of the forest.

The trail widens as it heads up through countless paper birch (Betula papyrifera).

Like most of my recent hikes, things on Berlin Mountain went sideways almost immediately. You see, between the Taconic Crest trailhead and Berlin's summit is a sub-peak, Mount Raimer. Once home to a ski resort, the peak is covered in countless old trails. Some are listed on maps, some aren't, all seem well-trafficked, and none are marked. Most of them dead-end. I ended up at the summit, totally lost and confused, and tired myself out even more by backtracking and searching for other trails to no avail.

It turned out that the trail I had started on wasn't the Taconic Crest Trail at all, but rather an unnamed path to the top of Mount Raimer. Now I was some distance from the path to Berlin Mountain, exhausted, and annoyed that I couldn't stop getting lost on mountains. I decided to just bushwhack down to the col between Raimer and Berlin and try to link up with the trail I actually wanted, and after a few minutes fighting dense beech saplings, I was finally on the right path.

Looking east from the summit of Mount Raimer.

Back on the blazed, easy-to-follow Taconic Crest Trail, where I always should have been.

The rest of the way up was pretty easy going, a lot of elevation gain and loss along the top of the ridge. Normally I hate going downhill on my way up a mountain, but I went into this prepared for the changes so it was no big deal. The trail wasn't very steep and I spent a lot of the ascent in prayer, which distracted me from any complaints. I did take note of the rocks here; the geology in the Taconics is distinctly different from the Catskills and Adirondacks, and it always catches me off-guard (but in a good way).

Before I knew it, I crested the final length of the trail, right when spruce trees were starting to show up scattered in the forest. The summit is a bald, a wide open space with no trees or bushes, and a few rocks and a small cairn mark the highest point of Rensselaer County. I stopped for water before taking many pictures of the surrounding area; I hadn't drank anything on the way up.

The wide grassy summit clearing on the final approach.

The clearest view at the summit was towards Mount Greylock, its summit shrouded in clouds.

Berlin Mountain: Rensselaer County HP, elevation 2818 ft.
I figured out how to use the delay setting on my camera to take a proper summit picture.

After a few minutes' rest, I walked around to see what good pictures I could take. Unfortunately, the clearing was incredibly level, which meant that there were no clear views, just glimpses of distant mountains through the reddened treetops. With the high humidity and threat of rain later in the day, that wasn't great. After a few pictures and a little more resting (in which I might have accidentally broken a large chunk off the summit rock), I headed back down.

Looking north towards foothills in southwestern Vermont.

Subpeaks along the Mount Greylock mastiff remained below the clouds.

These hills may be in MA's Hoosac Range but it's hard to tell with the lack of detail.

I swear, all I did was touch the smaller rock and it fell out. Conglomerate is annoying.

The descent went fairly quickly, and I passed a handful of other hikers on the way up. The uphill parts weren't too steep, and I soon found myself near the top of a little subpeak between Berlin and Raimer. A pink ribbon marked a herdpath on the side and, thinking it might be a named peak (again: it wasn't), I decided to take a side-trip.

The little path was marked inconsistently with pink ribbons the whole way to the highest point, but was very difficult to follow. It was overgrown with bushes and saplings, but clearly someone had been using it recently. The summit of the subpeak was covered in blowdown and I lost the rubber tip to one of my poles in the thick underbrush. Soon the trail started descending towards Massachusetts, so I returned to the main trail. Looking back at the maps, the subpeak straddles the border of state land, and it may have been someone's private trail.

One of the pink ribbons, hanging from an eye-level sea of beech leaves.

A mid-sized toad at the summit, possibly Fowler's Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri).

Descending the Taconic Crest Trail proper was much more enjoyable than my confusing ascent. The trail bypassed Mount Raimer entirely, descending around its eastern flank. Parts of the trail here were incredibly steep, more so even than the footpaths up Raimer. Soon I returned to the trailhead on the opposite side from where I started and signed the register just to say I had been there.

From here, it was off to Barberville Falls. Located a short drive away in the town of Poestenkill, this sizeable waterfall is owned by a local conservation organization, and a number of very recent trails have been built on land surrounding it. The trailhead was built so recently it doesn't show up in Google Earth pictures or street view, so I was a little concerned about getting there. Soon, however, I pulled into the very new parking lot and descended the steep ~170 feet to the bottom of the falls.

Information and maps at the trailhead.

The 92-foot falls seen from a wooden viewing platform at their base.

A front-facing view from dry rocks along the Poesten Kill.

I was honestly surprised by just how impressive the waterfall was. I had expected a quick side-trip to a small attraction, and was instead greeted by a nine-story cascade of jet-black water and dark, jagged rocks. The pool at the bottom smelled of damp evergreens, and I watched tiny waves - or, more accurately, ripples from the falls - crash on the rocky shore. With only a handful of other visitors there, it was a beautiful moment to behold.

The largest cascade collides violently with the rippling waters below at the foot of the falls.

Chaotic beauty at the top of the falls, where the ground beneath the Poesten Kill suddenly disappears.

One of a number of side falls feeds back into the wide main waterfall at its base.

The yellowish color here may be due to minerals in the water, reflection of the forest, or a camera artifact.

I stuck around at the bottom for awhile to play around with my camera, since I had the time. I tried to get a long-exposure picture to make the waterfall look 'smooth'. These are usually accomplished via photo stacking, but I wanted to see what I could do without any post-processing. I took a video and messed around with the settings before returning to the car and heading home. A new high point, and fantastic waterfall, and a day full of adventure, all at the cost of a mere $13 in gas.

My long-exposure shot of the falls. It isn't exactly 'smooth' but it definitely looks different than normal.

The steep trail to the parking lot winds through young hemlock forest.