Blackdome Mountain

Blackdome Mountain. 3'980 feet. 3rd Highest in the Catskills. I've heard that this hike is an awesome and a little challenging. I was ready. But was my friend ready? :-)

I asked my friend, Travis, if he ever was interested in going on a hike with me. His days off were the same day as mine and he lived a couple miles away from me so it was perfect. I didn't want to take him to the most difficult hike, but I also thought I would take him to a place that would show what the Catskills has to offer. This hike wasn't the most difficult, but it would be a challenge at times.

The hike starts outside of a small town called Maplecrest. Maplecrest is a very small town with a limited amount of people, but it got destroyed during the flood from Hurricane Irene in 2011. Blackdome is located in the Blackhead Mountain Range, which offers some of the highest peaks in the Catskills. But it also has a creek that gets flowing when a lot of rain comes about. The runoff of these huge mountains makes Batavia Kill (kill in Dutch means water channel) and when the hurricane dumped inches of water on New York, this creek was unstoppable with its force.

The trail head starts out at the end of of a road with many mountains surrounding it. You have a variety of choices to hike when you're in the Blackhead Mountain Range. We were supposed to hike another peak right next to Blackdome on that same day, but we both decided that Travis wasn't quite up for it. We didn't want to take our chances. The hike starts out flat along a creek which wasn't flowing that much but it still made a peaceful sound when you heard it. The past week was very dry and humid. Today, the temperature was 85 degrees but the humidity made it feel at least to 93 degrees, maybe even higher.

The mountain slowly starts gaining in elevation as you are going, not too much to make you stop every 10 feet, but enough to make you breath heavy and wear you down a little. After a little over a mile you come to the trail junction of Blackhead and Blackdome Mountain. We will take on Blackhead Mountain on another date, so today we took a right and headed up Blackdome. This junction is also called Lockwood Gap, which is the point between both mountains. After the junction the trail starts to climb at a good pace.

Some places offered some decent climbing. I was doing this for awhile so I was ready, but Travis had to admit, he was out of shape. We had to stop every once and awhile to catch our breath. Plus the heat and humidity didn't help. I'm not one to climb up the mountain the fastest, but I like to move at a decent pace, then take a break, then start moving again. One of the common questions that I was asking Travis a lot was "You good man"? I thought after a bit that he would not want to hike again since it was a) hot as heck out and it was difficult and b) I was being an ass, making him push harder and harder. He held his own though and got himself up at a good pace for someone who hasn't done this before.

The cool thing about Black Dome Mountain is that it got its name from the conifer forest near the top of the peak. It clearly resembles a black dome on the mountain!!(the picture below is of Blackdome Mountain, taken on a different hike)

When you hit the conifer forest you still have a little more to go, but you come to this amazing view of the mountain right next to Blackdome - Blackhead Mountain!

Since it was the first time that Travis has hiked in the Catskills, I had to take a picture for him. Turns out that I have fun taking pictures of other people while on the trail. When I hike with my wife, I take pictures of her with the mountains too. I love it. Also, having something in the foreground to show how big the mountains are, really puts things into perspective!

I took this picture with Travis doing his famous 'Illuminati' pose. I asked him what it meant and he said, "I don't know man, I just do it." Damn straight. You'll see many more pictures like this later on.

The ledge also offered a view to the south. It shows Kaaterskill High Peak, Round Top Mountain and the famous, beautiful Devils Path:

The picture above shows(from left to right) Kaaterskill High Peak, Indian Head Mountain, Twin Mountain, Sugarloaf Mountain and a little of the start of Plateau Mountain. I will be hiking these amazing mountains later on!!

After a little more climbing we came to the summit on the top and proceeded a little further to a ledge that, years ago, had a beautiful view of the southern part of the Catskills. The trees are overgrown now and you could only get a glimpse of it. We weren't worried because this was a great place to rest and enjoy lunch. We also discussed if we were going to go any further to the next mountain, Thomas Cole, to nag two peaks in one day. We decided that it was too much for Travis and that we would head back down. I wasn't disappointed because the mountains weren't going anywhere and we could definitely do that on another day!

The way back down was the same way we came up, so we got another amazing view of Blackhead Mountain.

Even though we just saw it about 30 minutes ago, we were still speechless. The sky, the mountains, the greenery. It was all perfect. After spending a little bit on the ledge we headed back down the steep section. When you are on your way down steep sections, it really messes with your legs and ankles. They start feeling like jello and you start rolling your ankles way too often. We took it slow so none go hurt and we suscessfully made to the trail junction. It was an easy walk from there on, with little downhill. We came upon the creek again which let us know that we were close to the trail head. Before you know it, we were there and we were finished!

On the way back home I asked Travis if he would ever do this again. Thinking that he would say "Hell no, that was horrible!" he responded with "That was awesome, hell yes." I'm glad I found someone else that will enjoy this as much as I do!