Today, I completed my Catskill 3500 on Slide.  I did this exact same hike in December, and remembered it being a rather easy one overall, nothing too steep, a nice view towards and just after the top, and relatively short (5.6 miles per the maps).

It was wet.  It was raining most of the day, which meant wet everything.  By the time I was done, I had gone through my second pair of socks, boots were soaked through.  All clothing was soaked through, and wearing cotton underwear that was the only thing that did not dry out apart from the feet.

I took the friday off to go hiking.  It was a nearly perfect day to be out.  Sky was cloudless, temperatures were great, humidity was low, but visibility was horrible due to Canadian wildfires.  The air quality wasn't that bad though, I wasn't smelling any camp fire smell like we did in Albany a few weeks ago when the AQI was over 200.  Prediction was to be around 150... so strenuous outdoor activity was advised against, but that doesn't mean it really was a bad idea.

For my last winter hike of the year, I went back up north and decided to do a "simple" 12 mile hike, TableTop and Phelps.  The weather forecast was good, but suggested weather would be moving in later in the day.

Did a solo winter hike here.  Plateau has a couple ways up, and my concern was finding one that was broken out from the storm Friday into Saturday.  First stop was off of 214, and that was broken out.   This trail is a beast though.  1600 feet up in the first mile.  I was soooo thankful for my heel lifts, but it still took me nearly 2 hours to get up to Orchard Point.  Let me tell you though, the views though were well worth it.  I then started across the ridge to the true peak of Plateau.  This was a lovely forested, mostly evergreen, trail.

We started late for me, at 930, with the hopes that someone had been through and broken trail from the storm the friday/saturday before.  We were lucky.  It was broken.  Overall, it was a beautiful day. Clear sky, and warm.  I was sweating my ass off within a mile, and stripped down to just my long underwear top.  Unfortunately, I was wearing long underwear bottoms under my insulated pants, and my bottom half was sweating all day.  We made it to the col between the 2 mountains and went up Indian Head first.

I have heard many good things about doing Allen mountain in the winter.  Biggest being that the hike up Allen Brook is not a slippery mess of moss and slime.  I was looking forward to doing this hike in the winter to see how much better it can be.  I also have never come in from the south on the East River trail, so those couple miles would be new to me.

Original plan was to do just these three peaks.  We had options of adding in Hough and Dix if we felt it.  We didn't feel it.

This was the last of my required winter peaks for the 3500.  This time I went up from McKinley Hollow, like I did a month or two earlier for Eagle.  The trail was a mix, but mostly soft, slushy snow.  By the time I got to the ridge trail, I was slipping more than not even with microspikes, and my feet were wet from the mashed potato snow/slush I was hiking in.  I put on the shoes and hiked off to the peak, and the viewpoint after the peak.  This, as agreed to by the only other pair of hikers using shoes, felt like breaking trail.  It was just bad conditions for hiking in general.  The weath

I took a day off because my legs were unhappy with the postholes on Panther/Giant's Ledge.  I arrived bright and early for Blackhead and originally was going to go up between Blackhead and Black Dome and do it as an in and out.  I decided when I got to the first trail junction though that I would do it as a loop.  Heading up, there was a mix of bare trail and snow/ice until on the escarpment trail, just past the lean-to.