Today was my second winter attempt at Allen. First the good. The trail was very well packed by at least a dozen people Saturday, and by the end of today at least another dozen will have gone up it.
Saturday 2-22 I and Wendy did Hough, aka Hough and Puff. It lived up to it's name for sure. This peak is one of the more remote peaks in the Dix range, and really is the worst peak to orphan as there is no quick and easy way to get there. I orphaned it 2 years ago, and this was my third attempt to get it for winter credit.
Hough (pronounced Huff) and I have a history. First off, when I did it in the summer of 2020, it was #45 for me on my way to finishing on Dix, and I was riding that hikers high at knowing you're almost done with the big challenge, and also on fumes since I camped out the night before, it rained, and another 2 tents popped up around 1 in the morning.
With the hike I did last weekend not hitting all the peaks I desired, I now have to plan to hit a peak in the middle of the Dix range that really has no great options to get there. So, I'll go through the various possibilities.
Option 1: Come in from Round Pond and go over Dix:
Going into this hike, I knew it was going to be a challenge. Dix is the 6th highest peak at 4857 feet. The last mile you climb 1600 feet and hit a slope of at least 50%. It is steep. We also went in with no idea what condition the trail was going to be in . There had been snow a couple times in the previous week, and we only saw 1 person sign in for Dix after the last big snowfall. We were prepared to break trail as needed. Thankfully there was one brave soul ahead of us that left only a bit before us.
I've had a few people ask me how I go about planning hikes, and while I may think what I do is simple, I have been doing it for so long that I don't even think about all the steps that go into it, and there are a lot of small things that I probably will miss when writing this out. But, I'll try.
Suday I took another 3500 winter hike in the Catskills. Bearpen and Vly. Started off late for me, and started up the road with my hiking companion. This hike is mostly snowmobile trails, and there had been deep enough with snow that they've been well used, so were almost as if they were groomed trails. We decided to start in snowshoes so we didn't have to put them on later, and we got to the hunters cabin without any issue and made our choice to do Vly first.
Today I went up Kaaterskill High Peak in the Catskills. There are a few ways in, but I decided I'd take the shortest from Platte Clove and go up the north side of the mountains. The south side is how I did it for my regular 3500, and that was a climb up Hurricane Ledges. I wanted to avoid that this time.
We started the day with a little miscommunication. I said I was at Loj, and my hiking companions took it literally and went over to the actual ADK Loj, while I was sitting there waiting at the High Peaks Information Center (HPIC). We found each other though and started the hike on the VanHovenberg trail. There was a sign at the trailhead that said there was enough snow, that snowshoes were legally required starting here. So, the shoes went on.
