Friday, April 6, 2012

Vly and Bearpen, Catskills

April 6, 2012
Distance: 7.8 miles
Time: 5 hours 56 minutes
Map: Catskill Trails Map Set
Parking: See directions link
Restrooms: None
Notes: Catskill 3500 footer
Post hike dinner: Garden Cafe on the Green, Woodstock
Directions: Vly and Bearpen

Parking across from the snow plow turnaround.

Continuing 1 mile along Route 3 - which is basically an unpaved, unmaintained rocky woods road.

Approaching the hunters cabin. Ironically there are no hunting signs posted on it. Right to Vly, left to Bearpen.

The herd path to Vly is pretty easy to follow - just look for blue (and sometimes yellow) blazes.
They take you all the way to the summit. There is some whacking, but the navigation isn't difficult.

Glen opens the canister at the summit of Vly.

Moxie, Lynn, Trek - Vly summit

Trek, views in the background


Heading back down Vry

Heading towards Bearpen. You can reach the summit taking snowmobile paths the entire way.
The problem is figuring out which ones to take.

This was NOT the planned route. We got lost on the way up. Followed the wrong trail quite early on.
But I found this snowmobile path name amusing :)


The remains of a really old car

Trek and Glen, view near Bearpen summit




Remains of another old car.


Heading back down - hey...I think we were supposed to look out for this sign on the way up.
But, we took a wrong turn way before it.


Heading back down.


Year to date miles: 105.9

1 comment:

  1. Hey, just for your info, those aren't just old cars. They are trucks that were rejiggered to run the tow ropes when Bearpen was a ski hill back in the 50s. If you look you can see a wheel mounted off the ground, which acted as a pulley.

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