Agile Trekker: Mud Pond & Trout Pond, Catskills

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
11/12/2017	8.8 miles	3 hours 47 minutes	1,600'

Map: Catskills Map #144
Parking: Russel Brook Rd.
Directions: From parking area, continue down the road a short ways to the trailhead on the right. Where the trail splits, stay left. Note that the trail is marked with blue blazes both ways. Continue one mile. At the next intersection, stay straight - don't take trail to the right. Pass Mud Pond and ruins on the left. The trail will make a sharp left turn after Mud Pond - at this point the trail is less maintained. Continue downhill towards Russell Brook. Pass trail register and dead end at Russell Brook. Turn around and head back. Take a sharp right turn again at the north end of Mud Pond. At the intersection of the Mud Pond Trail, turn left to head to Trout Pond South shelter. After the shelter, turn right onto Trout Pond Trail to return to the parking area.

We only had 1 day for hiking this weekend. Saturday just looked too cold with wind chills in the single digits. Sunday turned out to be warmer and less windy. Now that daylight saving's time has ended, we need to choose shorter Catskill hikes. Glen really wanted to continue working on hiking sections of the Warner Creek trail, but it would be difficult with limited daylight hours (plus we don't get out there very early). We considered knocking off a section of the Diamond Creek trail that we haven't done, but the parking area said a high clearance vehicle is needed. So that one was out for now. I asked about it on a Catskill hiking facebook page, and learned I could park .4 miles away from the trailhead in a reasonable area. We ended up heading over to the western Catskills instead.

We have never hiked around Mud Pond or Trout Pond, and know that's a popular easier hiking area in the Catskills. There were various routes we could do based on how much time we ended up having. I woke up on Sunday morning, and did not want to get out of bed! Temps were still in the 20's outside. I just wanted to hibernate. I am having a hard time embracing winter this year, and it hasn't even really started! Ack. It took us 2 hours from when we woke up before we got out the door. I wasn't moving very fast.

The temps warmed up to 32 degrees as we got to the Catskills. That helps. We made sure to wear blaze orange/yellow - all 3 of us. Rifle season starts next weekend, but we have heard there are a lot of bow hunters out there now. The drive to the trailhead did involve a short stint on a dirt road, which was pretty rutted in spots, but we did fine. As we drove in, a guy asked us if we were rangers, as he said he needed a ranger. It looked kind of urgent, and he rushed off. Not sure what was up with that.

There were a half dozen cars in the parking lot. Not too bad. Excellent compared to Harriman. We knew there would be plenty of water on this hike, so we didn't carry any extra for Trek. Normally Trek carries a pack with his water, but today we wanted him to wear his blaze orange hiking vest instead. His pack is orange, but not nearly bright enough. I want to paint Trek's tail orange!

We headed out on a woods road. Some of the trails we did were snowmobile trails, so they are wide. We still had some gradual uphills. My hip pain started early. Ack. I just went slower. I keep wanting to start training again (cardio/strength) - but the idea also scares me. I really should. We walked by (not right next to) Mud Pond. There are some camping spots there which it would be fun to stay at. Trek made a beeline to the shore. I didn't want to encourage him to swim - but he went in anyways. The trail in this area is a bit wet. Some icy spots on the trail - not slippery, but if you fall through you end up in water.

Past Mud Pond, we made a left turn and at that point, the trail was less woods road like and more trail like. It was also rockier and less well maintained. We did throw some branches off the trail, but there were a lot. This part of the trail looks like no one ever hikes on it. At the end we reached a wide stream. On the map, it looked like there was an on again off again herdpath next to the stream that would take us directly back to our parking area. But the stream was very wide and would have involved wading - no way I wanted to do that with temps in the 30's. So we backtracked the way we came. There was a trail register at the stream - the last entry was from September. The prior entry was from July. So yeah - I don't think this trail gets much use. The flat sections of the trail were pretty nice actually.

We passed by Mud Pond again. We saw 3 men, 2 with rifles. Our first (and only) people we saw today. Glen said - I thought rifle season doesn't start until next week. They paused too long it seemed and said they were out for small game. Hmm. We continued on.

When we reached the spot where the trail splits - we could return back to our car or head over to Trout Pond. We decided we could squeeze in a visit to Trout Pond and still get back to our car before sunset. Trout Pond has a shelter and we saw a campsite as well. We saw a fish ladder and stopped to explore. All of a sudden we saw splashing, and saw a trout attempting to go upstream (not using the fish ladder). How cool! I couldn't get a good photo because he was moving too fast. We passed by Mud Pond - Trek again took a dip - but we didn't encourage him. I didn't bring extra stuff to dry him off with, and with temps around 32 degrees, I know he'd get too cold fast. This would be a fun spot to camp in. Trout Pond is 1.4 miles away from the parking area, and the remaining hike was really easy walking that even Moxie might still be able to do if we were careful with her.

This is a nice easier hike (especially if you leave out the rocky section down to the creek). It would be a much better summer hike with dogs though - so they can enjoy the lakes.

On the way home, we stopped by Roscoe - "Trout Town". Home of trout fishing & Trout Town brewery - maybe we will have to stop by there sometime when the weather is warmer. We did stop by a small natural foods store on the way home. I picked up some bread. We were hoping for some pre-made food (deli inside or something), but they didn't have anything like that. We also noticed a pasta company - but I don't think it's an actual store.