Sunday September 26th (Day 12)Because of it's prominent view from the Hudson Valley, Kaaterskill High Peak was once believed to be the highest mountain in the Catskills. At 3655 ft., however it is actually only 22nd. Since there is no maintained trail to the summit, I chose to join in with another group hike. It also gave the guys a chance to see some of the eclectic group of people who climb these mountains.
The group leader for this one was Romanian and not quite as attentive to the weaker hikers in the group as the leader from last week. Unfortunately, right from the start I had a feeling of deja vu because there was one individual in the group who probably didn't need to be climbing mountains. She fell behind early on even though the trail towards the summit was just a moderate grade. The initial trail eventually meets up with a snowmobile trail that literally circles the summit on a flat ridge. The final push to the summit is a steep climb with several rock scrambles. Since I didn't want a repeat of last week's group hike and the drama of getting an injured member back down off the mountain, I asked the guys to help make sure that "Betsy" made it up and down safely. From that point on, the team work of four cops made that happen and we have forever coined the phrase "Betsying" a person or their equipment.
Plane crash on the side of the mountain. The official cause of the crash... "failure to maintain altitude" (isn't that the primary cause of every crash?)
Adam 3 at the summit.
A stone cairn, just in case you might miss the turn.
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