Balloon Testing, Hunter Mountain

In the middle of the summer, the Catskill 3500 Club was asked for volunteers to climb some of the mountains in the north eastern Catskills. This was for a new weather tower that was being proposed for building just south of Tannersville in the Platte Clove area. The people who proposed it and the residents of the town, wanted to do a balloon testing, to see if there was any obscurities with the mountains. Building a high tower in the middle of a protected state park can make a big eye sore, so the town and the company(hired by New York State) wanted to make sure it wasn't an eyesore with this balloon testing.

The plan was to let up three balloons(on a long rope) into the air, each a different color and each at a certain height. All the hikers knew what color they would be, where they were being let up and at what time. But we all had no clue what size they would be. I was thinking more the size of maybe a yoga ball or something bigger. Well, later on we found out that they were a little bigger than the size of a basketball and seeing them from a over nine miles away wasn't easy.

I was set out to take on Hunter Mountain and the Colonels Chair. I was there earlier in the week when my wife and I did an overnighter at the lean-to on the mountain. We got to watch a beautiful sunset, camp in the near perfect conditions and take beautiful pictures like this!

On the way, fog was breaking out here and there, so in Stamford, I decided to take a quick trip up to the Mt. Utsayantha Fire Tower and hope to catch a picture of the fog in the valley below. It was definitely worth it!!

The other hikers were scattered on mountains around me like Indian Head Mountain, Twin Mountain, Sugarloaf Mountain and Plateau Mountain. All we're set to hike to different locations to where they could maybe spot the balloons when they were let into the air. I was going to observe from two places: the fire tower at the top of Hunter Mountain and the top of the Hunter Mountain Ski Resort, which also they call the Colonels Chair. I got started early so I could get to the top quick, enjoy the views then look for the balloons. I had also taken my good camera, so I could use the big lens to maybe spot the balloons.

I got up to the top really fast and started looking but saw nothing. So I started to enjoy the 360 degree view of the beautiful Catskills and occasionally looking back to see if I could find any balloons.

The Spruceton Valley with Westkill Mountain to the left and Rusk Mountain to the right.

Picture below is looking south, with the Burroughs Range in the Middle and to the right is Big Indian Wilderness and the Balsam Lake Mountain Wild Forest. Righ tin the middle of the picture is Slide Mountain.

Looking east, with Round Top and Kaaterskill High Peak in the distance and the Devils Path to the right(I don't know why its blurry)

Panoramic view looking to the west and north off of the fire tower

The amazing Blackhead Mountain Range. This set of mountains blows my mind everytime I see it!

I stayed up in the fire tower for about 45 minutes, enjoying the views and occasionally looking for the balloons. Then I thought I might want to head down to the Colonels Chair to see if I could find the balloons there. The Colonels Chair is located on the top of the ski resort and is about 1,000 feet lower than the fire tower, so maybe I could get a different angle and spot the balloons from there.

The hike from the tower trail to the top of the ski resort is about a mile long and only a couple hundred feet of elevation gain. I made it down really quick so I didn't miss anything for the balloon testing. I remember the woman that organized it saying that the balloons would be up to a max of three hours. So I had time. When you get to the top of the lifts, it opens up a view to the north east, showing you the amazing Blackhead Range and the eastern Escarpment. You can see the parking area for the ski resort and the town of Hunter below.

Below is a panoramic view from the top of the ski resort showing Windham High Peak, the Blackhead Range, Stopple Point, North Mountain, South Mountain and Part of Round Top and Kaaterskill High Peak. This view was phenomenal and I even did a live video on facebook to show people how nice it was. I also had lunch here and enjoyed the view while still looking to see if I could spot the balloons.

One of my friends (Hi Heather!!) was also volunteering her time to look for the balloons. She was right next to me on one of my favorite hikes, Plateau Mountain. We kept in touch and were asking each other if we could see anything. Just like me, she saw nothing. We both thought that either we were too far away to see anything or that they never released the balloons and no one ever told us. Either way, we both enjoyed the stunning views that the mountains offered. It was a perfect day to do this and we couldn't of asked for better weather.

I wondered over to the north western side of the ski center and checked out the view there also. This offered views to the north west which included Rusk Mountain, Vly, Bearpen, South Bearpen and the Moresville Range. You could even see Mt. Utsayantha from Stamford!

Panoramic view looking north west and east off of the ski resort.

After spending a good amount of time floating around the top of the ski center and seeing not another single person, I started to head back up to the Hunter Mountain trail and heading back down to the parking area. I sent a report saying that I saw nothing and I asked if they even let the balloons into the air. The woman sad yes, but they were very small balloons. Being that far away and seeing a balloon that small would be almost near impossible unless you had a huge camera lens on. Two hikers caught a glimpse of them when they were hiking. One guy was zooming in on them with a camera and was basically right next door to where they were being let up into the air. And another person caught a glimpse of them from the peak next to them. Compared to where I was, they were very close so they could spot them. I guess you can say that some of us were disappointed that we didn't get to see any of the balloons.

We also found out later that the weather tower wasn't going to be built. The town had a meeting and there was a huge up-roar from the local residents about how it would be an eyesore on the beautiful side of the mountains. All of us who hiked that day agreed. We didn't need it so why build it?

Overall, it was a great hike and I enjoyed volunteering for the club and for New York State.