West Cave Mountain: Catskill Hundred Highest 44/100
Cave Mountain: Catskill Hundred Highest 45/100
Work let out early on a Thursday in early July, and I, naturally, was on the hunt for something to climb. I didn't want to go too far; with the high price of gas, I'm saving money for more strategic climbs, such as in the Adirondacks. But I wanted to do something important, something on a list, something that would add to one of my many peakbagging totals.
I've been working more or less haphazardly on the Catskill Hundred Highest, the natural next step after completing the 3500 peaks back in January. For close, relatively short, on-the-fly hikes, they're perfect, so I identified the two nearest peaks that I hadn't yet climbed: Cave and West Cave. In the neighboring town of Windham, Cave Mountain and its prominent sub-peak host a popular winter resort known as Ski Windham, which draws sportsmen from around the country. However, I myself had never actually been up there, so what better way was there to see it than sneaking up in the middle of the summer?
The trails at Ski Windham are open for hiking during the off-season, but I wasn't sure how to access them, and if a resort would make me pay money simply to walk their grounds. However, the back side of Cave Mountain is home to a sliver of state-owned land, complete with an unmarked trail that stops just short of West Cave's summit. I planned to take this trail up, a unique means of ascent given the trip reports I'd read, and then bushwhack over the col to Cave Mountain proper.
I had come up to Cave Mountain a few weeks earlier seeking to climb it, but poor weather in the mountains forced me back. However, it did serve as decent reconnaissance, as I was able to locate the difficult-to-find trail and the grassy 'parking area' at its base, a bit off of Goshen Street in Jewett, near a driveway. I parked my car and found the trail roped off with yellow rope, meant to keep cars off the trail.
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| Parked in the lot at the base of the trail. Note the yellow rope at the edges of the parking area. |
Ascending via this trail was almost by definition a grind. The narrow, little-used (yet easy to follow) path ascends nearly a thousand feet in just over a mile, which wouldn't be unusual on a large hike, but on a small afternoon excursion like this it was rather exhausting. There are no switchbacks, no turns at all really, it just runs straight up the side of the mountain. The trail runs through mostly young forests of all types, with a few small clearings, and evidence of infrastructure along its sides that suggests it follows an old road.
About 250' below the top of West Cave Mountain, the trail runs through a lengthy portion of open meadow. Tall grass and abundant wildflowers accompany nice views of the mountains in Jewett and Hunter to the south, including many of the Catskill High Peaks. I didn't stay here long, as I was still in a summit-oriented mindset and being out in the sun was dehydrating, but it was a nice change of pace, and a sign that I was fast approaching the ridgeline.
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| A somewhat limited southeast view towards Plateau (L) and Hunter (R) mountains. |
After leaving the clearing, the trail headed into some woods and then abruptly stopped. This was only a few hundred feet from the top of West Cave Mountain, so it was an easy bushwhack up to the highest point. State lands end maybe a hundred feet from the treeline, and a ski lift is located at the top of the mountain, just beyond the trees. There were workers doing some sort of maintenance on the ski lift, so I stopped in the woods just by the treeline for the summit picture. There were also some odd items here, including a rusted chair and some ropes, presumably left by resort workers over the years.
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| Shots of ski infrastructure in the brightness beyond the treeline. |
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| West Cave Mountain, elevation 3039'. Catskill Hundred Highest 44/100. |
Now came the interesting part of the hike. In order to stay incognito, I had planned to scale the ridge just inside the edge of the treeline and work my way over to Cave Mountain proper. However, the ridgeline here is very steep, with a lot of loose rocks and roots, and the 250' col between the two peaks meant I was in for a loud and complicated bushwhack. Additionally, the ridge is criss-crossed by enigmatic trails, too narrow and steep for vehicles but with odd embankments and turns. Uncertain of what these were, I tried to avoid them, but it soon became evident that they were the easiest way to hike east, at least for now.
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| Looking out over the red trails from near the top of West Cave. |
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| A closer view of the tight, steeply banked shale trails. |
The trails wandered in and out of the treeline for most of the descent, and after awhile, I was nearly run off the road by a group of angry people on mountain bikes. Of course! The trails were mountain bike trails, and I was probably breaking a lot of rules by hiking on them, but I didn't see any other clear way to Cave Mountain, so I continued, jogging a bit and staying parallel to but off of the trail as much as possible. Eventually I came to a steeply elevated wooden bridge which provided an excellent view of the mountains to the north, and stopped briefly to take some pictures.
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| Mount Hayden dominates the northern views from Cave Mountain's long ridgeline. |
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| Looking northeast, the view is cut off by ski infrastructure under summer maintenence. |
This mountain biking trail weaves in and out of the treeline along the top of the ridge, but soon I encountered something I hadn't expected: A designated hiking trail. A sign pointed to the green-blazed Peak to Peak Trail, which I curiously hadn't encountered on the entire descent from the first peak. This headed straight east towards Cave Mountain, away from the open country and into the woods, which I quite liked. It seemed rarely used, but was at no point difficult to follow.
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| Signage directing the official Peak to Peak trail. |
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| The wide trail wraps through maple forest near the summit of Cave Mountain. |
Like many hiking trails, and in spite of its name, the Peak to Peak trail doesn't actually climb to the summit of Cave Mountain, but veers north of the top to an area with better views. The ascent to this point was slow and gradual, with a lot of elevation gain that I didn't really notice too much. It was short bushwhack off the trail through easy, open woods to get to the top, an unsuspecting stand of maples with no markers or cairns. A search for such objects to mark the true summit came up empty.
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Cave Mountain, elevation 3099'. Catskill Hundred Highest 45/100.
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I started my descent pretty much as soon as I summitted, as there wasn't much to see up there and I wanted to be off of resort lands as quickly as possible. I accidentally took a more roundabout route back to the Peak to Peak trail, but once I returned to the open areas near the col, I lost the trail. I don't know if it doesn't actually stretch from 'peak to peak' or if it just descends into areas I wasn't comfortable going with all the work going on, but somehow I ended up back on the mountain bike trails, much to my dismay.
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| I'm far more accustomed to seeing Mount Hayden from the north, down in the valley in Durham and Greenville, so its southern side looked rather unfamiliar to me. |
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| Houses and forests in Mitchell Hollow, the col between Mount Pisgah (L) and Mount Hayden (R). The hill country of Albany County rises above the valley. |
It seemed that the mountain bike trails were significantly more crowded on the way back, and I crossed paths with a number of bikers. Many were moving very fast, and it became clear to me that hiking along these trails was a major safety hazard for both of us, and an annoyance. If I really wasn't supposed to be on resort property, hiking along bike trails would be the quickest way to attract attention. Therefore, I split off from the trails farther east than where I had joined them on ascent and bushwhacked a bit back to the clearing on the West Cave's south slope.
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| Plateau (L) and Hunter (R), with its famous ski slopes covering Colonel's Chair, add to the many High Peaks visible from West Cave's clearing. |
In addition to impressive views of the Catskill High Peaks to the south, the clearing's ground was covered in a wide variety of wildflowers. The waist-high grass and hay, certainly a haven for ticks and other bugs, concealed innumerable flowers, all dotted with bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects. I didn't worry too much about disturbing the bees, as they were clearly more interested in the flowers than they were in me, but I did take some time aside to take some pictures, as always.
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| Maiden pink (Dianthus deltoides), a naturalized wildflower native to Europe, dotted the tall grass with purple spots. |
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| A butterfly pauses atop a yarrow (Achillea millefolium) flower. |
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| From left to right: Twin, Sugarloaf, and Plateau - all High Peaks. |
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| Ski slopes at Hunter Mountain, clear and free of skiers during the off-season. |
Like most long, steep grind-like hikes, the descent from Cave Mountain went incredibly quickly. Although I was moving slow due to exhaustion (like many short hikes, I didn't bring any water or supplies), the elevation and mileage seemed to disappear into the monotonous forest. The lack of clear landmarks along the route kept me from keeping track of my pace, which in this case was a good thing as it came as a total surprise when I emerged from the dense young forest into the clearing at the trailhead.
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| Thick forest of beech and birch trees made a green tunnel along the old trail. |
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