Plateau Mountain #2

Plateau Mountain has already been crossed off of my list for the 3500, but Travis needed to cross it off his. I wanted to join him because this was an incredible hike. Steep climbs, stunning views and an amazing, long, peaceful walk on the top!

So the day started off on a bad note. When we arrived at the trail head and started putting on our packs, we both noticed some trash in the creek off to the side. Now, it wasn't just a couple of pieces of trash. There was about 4 bags of trash scattered in the creek. It was horrible:

Disgusting. Why would someone throw bags of trash out in a state park? Oh yea, because you are pathetic and you wanted to save a couple extra dollars. I was furious. Since we were deep in the mountain, I didn't have a cell signal and I couldn't get ahold of anyone. Later on during the hike, when we reached the viewpoint, I would call the New York State DEC and inform them of what happened. I tell more later!!

Travis and I decided to go on with the hike and clean up as much as the trash as we can when we were done. We didn't want to leave bags off trash in my car. The hike to the notch between Sugarloaf and Plateau Mountains isn't that bad. Not steep and a good grade that we could move a long to and not have to stop to catch out breath every ten feet. It looked something like this:

Not bad at all and a good way to start the hike. When we reached the notch we took and breather and started to head up Plateau Mountain. It wasn't too bad at first. But it didn't last long. All of the sudden it started gaining elevation like crazy!! Steep climbs all over the place. Most of the time we had to use both our hands and feet to get up to the next area. Sometimes we even had to use the roots to pull ourselves up! It was awesome! Travis and I love these hikes. The very challenging hikes are exciting. Most people think that we are crazy and quite frankly.... we are. Here are some photos to show you the steep areas: these were taken on my previous hike up Plateau:

In just under .8 miles we gained about 1100 feet in elevation! Think of it like this: walking up a barn roof for almost a mile. While it was fun, it was exhausting. There were times when it flattened out so we could catch our breath, but it wasn't long. Right after that would be another steep climb. About 3/4 up we hit a viewpoint where we caught a glimpse of Round Top Mountain, Kaaterskill High Peak and the Platte Clove Valley. Beyond that is the Hudson Valley:

It was a great place to catch our breath, have a snack and gain some more energy for the next climb. In the picture is Round Top Mountain to the left, Kaaterskill High Peak in the middle, the Hudson Valley to the rear and part of Sugarloaf Mountain to the right. The climb to the top of Plateau wasn't that bad after that. A slight gain in elevation and we approached the stunning conifer forest:

Now this amazing walk through the forest would continue for almost 2 miles. Usually, the walk through the conifer forest wouldn't be that long, so this was an amazing treat. A nice, peaceful, flat walk across the top of the mountain. That's why it's called Plateau, the long flat walk on the top. It was such a beautiful day out also. The sun was periodically showing itself here and there, the wind was blowing just enough to cool us off and it wasn't too hot to make us feel uncomfortable. The fluffy clouds were passing by with the blue skies above.

Towards the end of Plateau, you come upon two amazing viewpoints. We skipped the first one and went onto the second one so on the way back, we would be greeted with the great view. We didn't even look when we walked past it. The second view overlooks the southern part of the Catskills. Man was it breathtaking!!

This was definitely a great place to stop and have lunch. We sat here for a good 30 minutes. Pointing out peaks and just staring into the mountains. Travis was getting better at pointing out which peaks are which now. Since he's been to a good amount of peaks, he's starting to know which direction certain ones are located. After lunch and a crap load of pictures, we headed back to the other view point. This view overlooked the north eastern part of the Catskills. You can see the Blackhead Mountain Range to the left, the North-South Lake region next to that, the Kaaterskill Mountain Range slightly right of the middle, part of Sugarloaf Mountain to the far right and the Hudson Valley to the back. It was absolutely beautiful!!!

Absolutely stunning. I'm glad we stopped at this one last, because it blew us away. This amazing viewpoint was of the north eastern parts of the Catskills. A beautiful day with clouds flowing over us and the sun shining for a good amount of the hike.

Now back to the garbage incident earlier. When we were at one of the viewpoints I contacted the DEC and left a message to get a hold of me. They contacted me later on that night and I told them everything. They also gave me an email address to send them the pictures of the trash and of the address of the idiot that left his garbage out in the middle of a forest preserve. I sent them the pictures and hoped that they would find the moron who did this.

Within the next couple days, I was talking back and forth with the DEC and the State Troopers about the whole situation. Explaining what I saw, when and what other info I had to give them to get them the information that they needed to find this person. After a day, I got a call from the DEC saying they caught the person who was throwing there garbage out in the forest. Not only at this place, but many others. A man from the city who owned some property near the Catskills paid some other person to do this. One of them was arrested and the man who was paying the person was going to be arrested also. Like batman says:

JUSTICE!!!