Arizona and Blackhead Mountains

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
7/7/2018	9 miles	6 hours 45 minutes	3,200'

Map: NYNJTC Catskills Map 141

Parking: Stork Nest Road

Directions: Dutcher Notch trail to Escarpment trail. Turn right on the Escarpment trail, hike over Arizona mountain to Blackhead mountain. Return the same way.

It's been a rough week. We've had a heat wave, plus thunderstorms and fireworks which have stressed out our dogs. On Friday, I had to stay late at work. We were so ready for the weekend! The heat wave finally ended and it was time to go out and have fun.

We had one more hike left to finish the Escarpment trail. We looked at our trailhead options, and decided on hiking it from the Dutcher Notch trail - a trail we hiked on just recently. We had reported some downed trees, and were thrilled to see that someone had been out to work on the trees we reported! Thank you, to whomever it was!

Every year we have some hiking goals. This year, our goals were to do 2 state high points (Pennsylvania & Vermont, done), hike 200 miles of the AT (done), finish a state on the AT (only one weekend trip left to finish Vermont this summer), and finish hiking all of the trails on Map 141 in the Catskills (getting really close). I'm thinking that we should have doing 5 days of trail maintenance a year as one of our goals. We'll do 3 days in Harriman this year. I'm also thinking we can do a couple of days in the Catskills. My company allows you to take 12 hours off for volunteer time, so this year I'm planning on using it for trail maintenance in the Catskills.

Today we decided to do a hike on the Escarpment trail. This was our last section of the Escarpment trail to do. We headed out relatively early (for us), and got on the trail at 10:30 am. At the trail register, the forest ranger noted that she had found a trail maintenance tool. We didn't recognize it. I google it, and it looks like a Swedish brush axe. I've never seen one before. The hike up the Dutcher Notch trail is a steady climb. There is a piped spring about 1.5 miles in. I refilled Trek's water there - piped springs are so convenient! This was the only water we came across on the hike.

We turned onto the Escarpment trail at Dutcher Notch. There were some steep climbs for a while. Trek needed some assistance with the rock scrambles. I have just started to think that Trek is getting old. Our vet noticed a lump on one of his toes, and x-rayed it. Luckily it isn't cancer, but it is bad arthritis probably due to an injury. Ever since then, I've started to see signs of aging in him. Ack. My guess is that one of us stepped on his foot - it's happened a few times before by accident. He isn't limping, but today he needed a lot more assistance with rock scrambles than usual. There are a number of views between Dutcher Notch and Blackhead Mountain. We stopped at one, took out a map and compass and were able to identify many mountains. I was really impressed - usually when there are many mountains at various distances away, it becomes a lot more challenging for me to figure them out. Today I did good though. In the foreground - Stoppel Point, West Stoppel Point, Capra Lake, the next group further away was Round Top and Kaaterskill High Peak. Even further away was Indian Head, Twin, Plateau.

After the steep climbs out of Dutcher Notch, the elevation gain became more gradual until we approached Blackhead. We had another steep climb up Blackhead Mountain. I was pretty tired by this point. Heading back down was easier so we made better time despite my tired muscles.