2023-05-28: Sisson Hill

Otsego County: NY County HP 14/62. Elevation 2425'. Solo bushwhack from Sisson Road; 1.14 mi, 95', 26m RT.

Officially, the Otsego County Highpoint has no official name. It's not some towering mountain or local monument, but rather a small rise at high elevation just over the Schoharie County line. Due to its location in Lutheranville State Forest, just off the edge of the rough, seasonal Sisson Road, it makes sense (to me at least) to call it Sisson Hill. It's certainly much shorter than saying "Otsego County Highpoint" every time.

Sisson Hill has been on my radar for a very long time. It's close enough to church to grab after a service, it's on public land, and it's a fairly short bushwhack. Timing, weather, and energy never lined up the past two summers, and an attempt in January was thwarted by ice on the unmaintained road. However, nearing the end of May I saw an opportunity to bag another county highpoint after church and I leapt at the chance.

The first problem was getting there; this took three attempts. Google Maps tried taking me up Caskey Mountain Road, which in theory was the most direct way there. However, like many of the roads in Luthernville State Forest, this road is unmaintained and very rocky, and soon degraded to a point where my car was unable to get enough traction to keep climbing, something that had never happened before. A second attempt via a different road had the same result. Finally I headed up Sisson Road, which was a very roundabout way of getting there, and parked on the side of the slightly more navigable road at the closest point to the summit.

Caskey Mountain Road starts out as a beautiful drive just inside Lutheranville State Forest in the town of Summit.

A view from above a clearing on the road at the spot where I turned around after losing traction.

Sisson Road from my parking spot. The highpoint is off to the left in this shot.

The hike started out as a fairly easy bushwhack up some very steep - and very promising - grassy hillsides to the west of the road. Soon, however, I found myself in very dense spruce forest, which is always the most difficult to bushwhack through. The highpoint, according to my maps, was directly through this forest, reminiscent of the notorious Rocky Mountain in the Catkills. It seemed like this wouldn't be the quick, easy mile-long bushwhack I had anticipated.

Underbrush in a region of young forest atop the steep hillside.

One of the dense section of spruce forest, seen past a fern-covered clearing by an old rock wall.

Soon the forest opened up into an old spruce plantation. Many state forests contain these abandoned plantations, generally using red or Norway spruce due to their fast rates of growth. However, spruce plantations tend to be very damaging to biodiversity and soil acidity, and the state allows clear-cutting of the plantations to help the forests return to normal, such as recently happened at North Richtmyer Peak. Still, the forests are quite beautiful, and tend to have little understory, which made this one a glad respite from the more difficult bushwhacking I had been at for awhile now.

Walking through the flat, grassy spruce plantation. Note the lack of understory, despite its long-term abandonment.

I was just about to call this area the highpoint when I realized the map showed the actual highest point farther to the southwest, beyond what seemed like a wall of some of the densest brush I had ever seen. I seriously considered calling it good but I had my GPS tracker on to keep me honest so I pushed forward. This area was marked by sections of incredibly dense young growth, mostly (native) spruce and birch, interspersed with small open tracts of dead grass. Despite the apparent remoteness of this spot, bits of odd unidentifiable debris was scattered all over, and the ground was covered in deep tire track ruts, although it seemed like it had been at least a decade before any vehicle could have gotten up here.

The whole area was silent and strange and gave me the creeps, and I was eager to call a highpoint and head back to the car, or at least the more familiar spruce forest. Due to the density of the brush it wasn't really possible to tell long-range if any area was higher than any other, but I found a spot that seemed decently high and close to the online coordinates so I snapped a quick summit photo, called it bagged, and rushed back to the forest.

One of the pieces of debris. Dozens of almost identical objects, with no evidence of decay, were scattered around the area.

Sisson Hill, Otsego County High Point, elevation 2425'. New York county highpoint 14/62.

Descending through the spruce plantation seemed far more pleasant after the uncomfortable summit area. I tried to take a somewhat more direct route back to the car, staying in the open grassy forest and hoping to avoid the dense underbrush I had dealt with on the way up. I ran into an old 4x4 trail, which made descent very fast and easy, leading almost directly to where I had parked; I had seen this on the way up, but I didn't take it, not knowing for sure where it would lead.

Descending through a younger portion of the old plantation.

Sunlight turned the carpet of ferns and moss a brilliant bright green in the late afternoon.

On the way out I stopped by a lake on Sisson Road I had spotted on the drive up. It looked like there was a little camping spot on its shores, and it seemed like a very pleasant, remote place to spend a night. It was too late to make it back to church in time for the evening service so I headed home, another county conquered.

Spring colors still line the small lake with its dark, evergreen-rich waters.