Kaaterskill High Peak
Kaaterskill High Peak is the easternmost peak of the Catskill 3500's. It is one of the most noticed mountains in the Catskills because of its shape and because its proximity to the Hudson Valley. You can clearly see KHP(Kaaterskill High Peak) from interstate 87 in Saugerties, so it is well known. I was also very excited about this hike because it is way longer than the previous hikes I have been on, plus, there are two plane wreck sites that I could check out!!
The weather that day was sketchy. Cloudy with a 50% chance of showers. I had to be ready for rain, even at that percentage. I've heard from previous hikers that the trail is very muddy, so I was ready for that too(even though you cant really prepare for that!) The trail starts out on a dirt road that leads up to a house then branches off to the trail. Hikers are lucky enough that the owner let NYS purchase the land so it could be hiked upon. If not, they would of have to thought of other ways to get to the peak.
There are two options when hiking up KHP. You can either keep straight on the marked trail or you can go left and take an unmarked trail through the Indian Camp area. The Indian Camp area is a historic place where Indians would settle when hiking into the Catskills. Going through the Indian Camp leads you to a marked snowmobile trail that goes around KHP.
There isn't anything spectacular about the hike up to KHP.....until you get to the base of the mountain, where the difficult section to climb on begins. The particular route I took is the north access. They have two ways to get up to the top. The north access and the south access. The north is easier than the south so I decided to take it. I will challenge the south access on one of my later hikes!!
Once I got to the trail junction leading me up to the top of the peak, it started to climb in elevation almost immediately. This wasn't the steepest, but it still required for me to use my hands to climb up. Some sections were near vertical and I had to pull myself up the rocks. Other sections required you to use roots to pull yourself up, which was really fun. This is my favorite part of hiking. Even though you're in upstate New York, it feels like you're climbing in the rockies!! A couple pictures below shows you some of the difficult areas.
After the intense climbing you hit the amazing conifer forest. I don't know why, but its just a beautiful feeling walking through those trees. Like I said, maybe it's because you're close to the top or maybe its mother nature saying "thank you for protecting my creation. Now here's a peaceful walk through this stunning area."
You can tell when you hit the top of peak when the elevation just suddenly stops climbing and you're on a rock open area with this solid marker on the ground. They also have a piece of an airplane wing and a rock cairn to show you that you are there. The marker is a USGS(United States Geodetic Survey) marker which are used for key points in land surveying. This was out here to locate the highest point on KHP. Also, there use to be a building on top of KHP, so the area was cleared out area at the highest part. This building was taken down after the NYS DEC purchased the land. Up to the 1870's KHP was believed to be the highest peak in the Catskills. Princeton geography professor Arnold Henry Guyot brought equipment up to the Catskills and started to measure the peaks. He determined that KHP was actually the 23rd highest. His finding upset the hotels in the Kaaterskill Clove who used this fact to attract visitors.
After visiting the summit, there was one place I had to visit. Hurricane Ledge. Yes, it is called Hurricane Ledge for that reason. Back in 1950, a huge windstorm took out a place on KHP's south eastern side, creating Hurricane Ledge. It was believed that winds were well over 100mph and it happened so quickly that the trees were ripped from their roots and tossed off of the peak. Since it was cloudy and the clouds were low, I didn't get much of a view from the ledge. But it was still a great place to have lunch!
The view wasn't the greatest, but it was still amazing to see those clouds flow through the mountains. At one point, when I was eating my lunch, I could feel and see the clouds hitting me while on the ledge. What an amazing feeling. Since the clouds were getting lower and lower, it felt like I was getting higher on the mountain. A truly amazing experience. After lunch on Hurricane Ledge, I went back to the summit so I could head down the mountain looking for one of the plane crashes on the side. I ran into a group of hikers while trying to determine which way I had to go. They were younger than me and there were about 5 of them plus a dog!! The dog looked very excited and they looked happy that they were at finally the top. They came the same way up just as me, but they parked on the other side of the mountain. I asked if they wouldn't mind if I hiked back to the snowmobile trail with them. They gladly accepted.
They wanted to see Hurricane Ledge first before they started back down, so we went there first. After that we hit the summit again and took a different trail then the one we came up. This trail was supposed to lead us to the plane crash on the side of the mountain. Well.......it lead us nowhere. At that point we all decided we didn't want to turn around and before you know it, we were descending down very difficult cliffs, not knowing where we were. At times, we had to help each other down some parts. I didn't even know their names, but they were cool guys and I'm glad we went down together. After the cliffs, since there was no trail, so we had to plow our way through small trees, broken tree branches, bushes and other things from the forest. We kept going down the mountain and unfortunately, didn't find the plane crash. Oh well, the mountains weren't going anywhere and neither was the plane crash.
When we hit the snowmobile trail, we shook hands and parted our ways. They went north while I went south. I was also looking for the other plane crash which was a little further down the trail. I noticed some of these while on my way to the crash site....
Not the biggest bear prints, but they were fresh. I wasn't worried at all. This was his home and I would leave it if I encountered him. From the size, I think it was a cub. I couldn't see any bigger prints, so the momma must of been wondering around off the trail. After that came the plane crash. This was incredible.
The plane crash happened on June 25th, 1987 and it was carrying the pilot and a passenger. Both did not survive the crash. It was an incredible site to see. They say the pilot was flying into a difficult storm and could not climb fast enough to escape the peak. Debris was everywhere. The engine was in one place while the wing and cabin in another. Shards of metal were all over the place. They say the plane was left there for two reasons: 1 - It was a memorial site. The families asked to leave it there for the people who perished in the plane. 2 - Hauling all the debris out of the forest would be difficult.
After seeing the plane crash, I turned back on the trail and back to the parking area. It started raining a little bit before I got back to the car but it felt refreshing after that long day. Another wonderful hike in the Catskills!!