2023-06-23: North Mountain

North Mountain, elevation 3189'. Catskill highpoint, Greene County town highpoints 14/14. Solo ascent via Escarpment Trail. 6.38 mi, 1043' gain, 2h11m RT.

Since last year I've been working in earnest on climbing all 14 of the Greene County town highpoints. At that point I had reached the top of nine in the course of climbing the Catskill 3500 and NY county highpoints. Four of those fourteen are private bushwhack peaks with high risk and low reward, so I decided to save for my final climb North Mountain, a peak with popular trails almost all the way to the summit and a fantastic overlook from North Point. From everything I can tell, I am the first and only person to have reached the top of all 14 towns.

North Mountain is located on the Catskill-Hunter border high above the rest of the fairly low-lying town (central Catskill is located along the Hudson River estuary at sea level). The Escarpment Trail, a long path that runs the impressive Catskill Escarpment, climbs North Mountain from North-South Lake, a popular campground and state park. However, access to the state park costs a parking fee, so I parked a little farther away at the Scutt Road parking area and took the mile round-trip addition to my hike.

The ascent as far as North Point was a lot of fun, it reminded me of climbing the Catskill High Peaks in past years. The first mile and a half was pretty level ground alternating between grassy forests and more swampy, evergreen-dominated areas. Then the trail steepened significantly with a number of boulder fields and some small scrambles that were a lot of fun. I haven't really done any scrambling this summer and I forgot how much I had missed it.

One of the smaller, less scrambly boulder fields.

Soon I arrived at North Point, a well-known overlook that's been famous with hikers and artists alike for centuries. North Point consists of a series of ledges with excellent overlooks into the mountains to the south and the open Hudson Valley to the east. I stayed here for some time, taking pictures and wandering around the area looking for the best overlooks. I didn't stop long enough to take off my pack, however, as I was still very summit-oriented.

Kaaterskill High Peak dominates the glimpses of the mountains to the southwest from North Point.

Looking towards the southeast. The Hudson River appears like a very long lake and humidity obscures the southern Taconics beyond.

The ledges on North Point are accompanied by wide open rocky area. Forests here resemble high-elevation environments due to the thin soil and quick runoff.

Looking northeast across the forests of Cairo towards Columbia County beyond the river.

Shortly beyond North Point I cut off the trail and started the bushwhack portion of the hike up towards the proper summit. A couple was hiking near me as I left the trail and gave me a strange look; I suppose most people aren't used to seeing that so suddenly. The summit area is mostly spruce forests, not as dense as Sisson or East Jewett but not super easy to bush through either. It's a very gradual slope from here to the highpoint, which is in a very level section of fairly open forest. I chose my clear highest point on a very obvious mound that appears to be a long-decayed tree stump, but decaying wood turns into dirt so it counts as far as I'm concerned.

North Mountain, elevation 3189'. The dirt in the summit mound was unexpectedly loose and I tripped climbing up in a whimsical moment of triumph.

I got a little lost bushwhacking back to the trail, heading too far to the south at first, and ended up hiking along the top of a cliff above Mary's Glen. I thought it was an interesting hike since probably very few people end up on this part of the mountain. Eventually I found an old campsite at a makeshift overlook, and from here followed very overgrown remnants of a herd path uphill back to the trail.

South Mountain and the Escarpment holds the high-altitude waters of North-South Lake; beyond and two thousand feet below stretches the Hudson Valley.

Looking northeast towards the Hudson River. The city of Hudson is visible on its far bank.

Pretty soon I made my way back to North Point and stopped for more pictures, feeling a little less rushed now that the summit was mine and the highpointing challenge was complete. There was a group of older hikers up there I talked with a bit about the view. They pointed out that Albany was visible in the distance, over thirty miles to the north. I stayed for awhile appreciating the views, which are some of the best in the area.

Eastward view of the Hudson River beyond a dead pine tree at North Point.

Downtown Catskill, visible below the Rip Van Winkle Bridge on the Hudson River. I thought it was appropriate to see the center of town from its highest point.

Seward's Island, a protected area in the Hudson, holds one of only two land boundaries between Greene and Columbia Counties.

Cauterskill Farms beyond the Escarpment's limb, surrounded by forests cut only by power lines my crew worked on last week.

At one point, one of the older hikers pointed something out that everyone rushed to see. There was an airship floating out of the mountains, well above our elevation and to the south. They asked what kind it was so I zoomed in with my telelens and determined it was the Goodyear Blimp, headed eastwards on its was to a golf tournament in Connecticut. It passed over the Hudson and, after a few more minutes to enjoy the scenery, I headed back down. I had only brought one water bottle and no food for this climb and I knew I would start running out of energy fairly quick.

While the skyscrapers of Albany are impressively visible in the distance, the even more distant hills still tower over them putting man's best work in perspective.

The blimp floating over the limb of South Mountain.

Kayakers enjoy the warm weather, preparing to launch from the beach at South Lake.

Kaaterskill presides over the forested cloves and valleys of Hunter.

The descent seemed to rush past almost instantaneously, as they often do. The scrambles weren't difficult or long enough to slow down descent and many of the steep boulder fields were perfect for fun trailrunning. Soon I found myself back at the car thirsty and tired but accomplished with a truly unique accolade to my name.

Afternoon sunlight in the mossy forest on the way back down.