2023-06-15: Stahl Hill

Stahl Hill, elevation 990'. New Baltimore high point. Greene County Town High Point 12/14. 0.98 mi, 79' gain, 19m round-trip.

Town highpoints, as far as I'm aware, aren't usually a major peakbagging goal. However, in an attempt to reach more unusual spots (and save gas money), I've been working on climbing the highest points of the 14 towns in Greene County NY. In the northeast, there's no such thing as unincorporated land; every acre of ground is part of a municipality, which means my county is divided into fourteen distinct towns, with fourteen distinct townships.

Due to the county's situation in the Catskill Mountains, ten of these highpoints are located on publicly-owned, trailed, and frequently climbed peaks. The four that aren't tend to be minor local maxima with little prominence buried in private land. Last year I reached Sligo Hill, the Greenville highpoint, and High Hill, the Athens highpoint (both informally named after local roads by me). Of the private peaks, however, Stahl Hill is by far the most difficult to discreetly access.

The route I took overlaid on OSM, USGS, and satellite maps. Note the proximity of the highpoint to the trailer on Stahl Road. Overlay courtesy of AllTrails and CalTopo.

While several of the smaller peaks are private bushwhacks, which always carry a bit of risk and excitement, Stahl Hill's highpoint is located about 250' behind a trailer at the end of a private, dirt dead-end road. I figured there was a good chance that the highpoint was within sight of the trailer, and if not it was at least close enough to hear footsteps. I planned to walk under power lines nearby to circumnavigate the trailer, then jump into the woods, bag the highpoint, and get out as fast as I could. It was the riskiest highpoint in the county, which meant I wanted to get it out of the way.

An aside about town boundaries: Unlike countries or states, township and county boundaries can be fairly muddy in rural areas like this. Some maps show the highpoint I reached to be beyond the town/county line, in the town of Coeymans in Albany County to the north. However, the border seems to be delineated by an old rock wall visible in winter satellite imagery, which is slightly to the north of the line on the maps. I went as far as the rock wall, but in any case passed over the highest point of the ridge below the town line, in the 990' elevation contour (as opposed to the 1000' contour at the stone wall). Wherever the true town line lies, I consider this peak bagged.

I parked at the end of the power lines at Alcove Road and began heading up with some sense of urgency. The clearings under the power lines were well-kept, with a navigable 4x4 trail that my car probably could have driven the first thousand feet or so of. Apparently a second path diverges at that point to meet up with Stahl Road, and there's some junk and a camper set up at the junction. I prayed that the camper was empty and continued on my way.

Walking under the cleared power lines, seen from my parking spot on Alcove Road.

Accumulated junk near where the trail splits to meet Stahl Road.

After this was a series of little rocky ridges that headed up towards an obvious highpoint under the power lines. I was surprised by how much elevation I was clearly gaining on what I had expected to be a relatively flat hike. Near the top was a stone wall delineating a property line, both present and historical, the runs along the ridge. There were actually some impressive views from here under the lines, and I wished I had brought my narrow-angle lens for some long-range shots. Still, moving quick and quiet was important, and I quickly split off here to follow the wall.

The view west under the lines, towards the hills of Schoharie County twenty miles distant. This spot is only about three feet lower in elevation than the highpoint itself.

Upstate New York is covered in stone walls, many in this area dating back over three hundred years. These tend to run in straight lines, outlining ancient property boundaries and corralling livestock. Strangely, the walls here are much more jagged, forming tetris-shaped boundaries and making them almost useless for navigation. I tried to stay on the east side of the main wall, so I didn't have to noisily hop over anything, and headed towards the highpoint with speed and silence.

Grassy forest characterized the small hills on Stahl Hill, while the valleys between them were grass-free.

Soon I crested the summit ridge a bit to the south of the highpoint, but headed back down when I realized how close the trailer was. The woods blocked a lot of the visibility but a great white square shone through the trees on the east side of the ridge. I stayed on the west side, hidden behind the grassy summit hill, until I was near the rock wall outlining the county line, at which point I quickly ascended. I was decently loud walking on leaves and sticks, trying to hop on rocks whenever possible and hoping that anybody who heard me assumed I was a deer. I was a little less stressed at the highpoint, stopping for pictures to document the ascent before running back down into the woods and out of danger.

The highest point along the stone wall at the county line.

Stahl Hill, elevation 990'. New Baltimore High Point, Greene County Town High Points 12/14.

I left the summit ridge quickly and ran out of sight of the trailer as quickly as possible. Soon, however, I reached the more distant woods and walked with a little less urgency. The summit was reached, the town conquered, and now I could enjoy exploring the area with slightly less risk. The rock walls here were in remarkably good condition given their presumed age (definitely over a century, most likely over two) and led me right back to the power lines.

One of the surprisingly intact stone walls. Standing roughly five feet high, it was taller and better constructed than most walls in the area.

The descent under the power lines provided some excellent views towards the east, and again I wished I had brought the telescopic lens with me. Glimpses of a large quarry were visible nearby in the northwestern highland region of New Baltimore. Soon I was back at the car, having reached the sketchiest town highpoint in the county. Only two towns remain.

Looking east down the power lines, with the quarry in the background.