2023-05-24: Cohotate Peak

Cohotate Peak, Cohotate Preserve Highpoint. Elevation 202'. 0.22 mi, 20' gain, 4m RT.

Adapting to a new work schedule is often difficult to balance with staying active, especially when that schedule involves ten hours a day of manual labor. It took less than a week for me to start to feel off from the lack of hiking. Thankfully, an incredible opportunity presented itself when my crew was working on Route 385 in Athens NY, just outside the Cohotate Preserve. 

The Cohotate Preserve runs along the Hudson River and is home to a number of hiking trails, and it had always been on (albeit low) my list of places to eventually visit one day. The highest point in this preserve has been logged on Peakbagger and several other summit-oriented websites as a prospective peak, so I decided to run off on my lunch break and tag it. The highest point is almost directly behind the parking area on Route 385, through decently dense forest with a lot of vines and some rock walls near the top. There are two summit candidate areas; I think the area to the north is higher, and it's much less overgrown, but I tagged both just to be sure.

Information kiosk at the trailhead. I turned to the right to climb into the woods behind it.

Decently clear forest covers the ridge-like north summit.

Denser, younger growth covers the (probably) shorter south summit.

Cohotate Peak, elevation 202'. Cohotate Preserve highpoint. Taken at the north summit.