Plateau Mountain, Catskills

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
6/16/2018	9 miles	6 hours	2,410'

Map: NYNJTC Catskills, Map 141
Parking: Notch Inn Road, on a pullout right before the "Privately Maintained, No Thru Traffic" sign. Parking must be done before this sign.
Directions: Continue walking uphill on Notch Inn Road. Turn left onto yellow blazed side trail (no sign/no blazes visible from the road) before the house at the end of the road. Continue along the yellow blazed trail to the intersection with the Warner Creek Trail. Turn left onto the Warner Creek Trail towards the Devil's Path. Turn right on the Devil's Path to the Plateau summit (a short distance after a 90 degree turn). Return the same way.

Today we are hiking another trail on map 141 that we've never hiked on before. I really like to hike in new places as much as possible. I remembered that there were special instructions for parking on Notch Inn Road, so I made sure to google it to read up on it before we left. We parked, walked up the road, missed the trail, and got close to the house at the end of the road, where there was a no trespassing sign. Hmm...I didn't remember any instructions for finding the trail. We turned around and found the trail. There were no blazes or signs for it - except for a private property no trespassing sign. We didn't see any blazes until we entered the woods. It would have been less confusing if there was a blaze or sign visible from the road.

The yellow blazed trail felt like walking on a rocky dry streambed, but it wasn't as bad as the Dutcher Notch Trail. Parts of it were fine.

At the intersection of the Warner Creek Trail, we turned left towards the Devil's Path. We still need to hike a 5.5 mile or so piece of the Warner Creek Trail going southbound from this intersection.

We started a switchbacked climb uphill. Yeah for switchbacks - that made the climb easier! After the switchbacks were done, the trail leveled out as we followed a ridge. We saw a lot or orange tape tied to trees on the trail. We couldn't figure it out. Were they for trail maintenance? They were mostly tied to small trees. On the way back Glen saw something about an ultra being held here next weekend. Aha! That explains it. The tape is probably marking the route. We crossed paths with a group of four hikers a few times today. They made friends with Trek.

The trail was pretty dry. There was one spring on the way - it was pretty muddy and stagnant though. Trek carries a liter of water, but we stopped there to get more. Otherwise, there really wasn't any water on the trail.

On the way down, we saw an animal running down the trail in front of us! I couldn't tell what it was at first. It was brown and running too fast to be a porcupine. We continued on, and kept getting glimpses of it. We caught up enough and found that it was actually a large bird! It flew a little, landed next to the trail, and kept running. We wondered if it was trying to lure us away from a nest.

Notch Inn Road from the trail. The house on the left is at the end of the road.

Yellow blazed trail

Ultra trail marker

This was the spring off the side of the Warner Creek Trail - mostly stagnant water

An easy .5 mile to the summit from here - I love this section - not just because it's flat!

Plateau summit

Here is a view of the trailhead from Notch Inn Road. The no trespassing sign is to the right.

Walking downhill on Notch Inn Road to our car.