2023-12-31: Henry Hill

Henry Hill, elevation 2165'. Solo ascent via Boys Camp Road. 1.19 mi, 117' gain, 21m RT. Berne town highpoint; Albany County municipal highpoints 5/13.

On the last day of the year, I set out after church to bag some town highpoints on a snowy afternoon. After easily successful climbs of Cotton Hill and Cannady Hill, I drove over the border into Albany County for my final goal of the day, a town highpoint with some interesting history.

For a long time, Henry Hill was believed to be the highest point in Albany County, and thus was a major destination for county highpointers. Its initial summit, to the north of Pinnacle Road in western Berne, was lowered by years of mining, so its southern summit became the highpoint. However, in 2020, LIDAR analysis discovered that another spot to the south, known as Pond Hill, is the actual highpoint, topping out five feet above Henry Hill. As a result, Henry Hill has seen significantly less traffic in the past few years.

However, Pond Hill is located in the neighboring town of Rensselaerville, meaning Henry Hill remains the highest elevation in the town of Berne, and as such was a target for my town highpointing ambitions. After finishing the town highpoints of Greene County over the summer, I was now working on Schoharie and Albany counties over the interterm break, hoping to complete at least one of them before returning to college in mid-January.

Henry Hill's summit is just to the north of a small dirt road known as Boys Camp Road, which itself forms a loop south of the dirt Peasley Road in the Partridge Run Wildlife Management Area. However, on this cold, snow day in December, Boys Camp Road wasn't drivable with my passenger car, being covered in snow and ice. Thankfully, a parking area at the eastern intersection of the two roads was safely traversable, so I parked here and headed up on foot.

A stream flows through the woods down Henry Hill.

Looking up Boys Camp Road along the way.

As I hiked up towards the upper trailhead, a big truck passed by me on the road. I found the upper trailhead packed with hunters, many with dogs. I had never seen so many people with rifles on a hike before, and I didn't have any bright colors on me, so I would have to make things quick. The summit area has been substantially developed in the past few years, with a series of under-construction trails that run extremely close to the highpoint, along with an observation tower a little bit to its east. It's a shame that this work wasn't done when it was still thought to be the county highpoint.

Orange electrical tape at the summit.

Lovely snowy woods on a crowded Henry Hill.

Just north of the trail at what seemed like the highest spot was some orange electrical tape. Many county highpoints are marked by such tape, but this tape was in good condition, making me doubt that it had been here for over four years. To be safe, I tromped around the area for awhile before returning to the upper trailhead. I was cold and the highpoint was bagged, but I couldn't help myself from climbing the observation tower. Officially made for birdwatching, the newly-built structure provides excellent views of the Hill Country in the north of Berne and beyond into Knox.

A view of the wooden observation deck.

A (somewhat oblique) view of the western Helderbergs from the summit of Berne.

After a brief chat with one of the hunters on the mountain, I headed back down towards the car. The road was icy enough that I couldn't rush the descent, as much as I was ready to be back home. It was getting cloudier and darker with each minute, and I wanted to be able to enjoy most of New Years with my family.

Looking down Boys Camp Road on descent.

Soon I was back at the car, and after a little fight with the ice in the trailhead, back on the road. I headed home after an eventful and chilly afternoon with a lot of new memories, nice pictures, and, most importantly, four new town highpoints in the bag. I think that's a pretty good way to send off the year.