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.

Starting in, it's a very popular forest road.  It's popular as everyone is going to Huckleberry Point, which turns off of the Long Path about a mile from the parking lot.  I had my spikes on and that was all that was really needed.  At the trail junction though, I changed to my snowshoes.  It was obvious that not that many people had gone up the LP.  Turns out there was about 6 people that climbed KHP the previous Sunday, 6 days ago, and we've had a bit of snow since.

So, I start following the trail in, and within a half mile of me reaching the ridge (so about 2 miles in), the tracks have all disappeared and headed off towards the peak.  Odd, but not unexpected.  There is a snowmobile trail that goes around KHP and Round, and it's not uncommon for people to cross over (granted a little earlier than they did) to hike that approach instead of the LP.  There's also the remains of a downed plane just off the snowmobile trail, so that's an attraction people go to.  I kept on the LP as I didn't need to see the plane again, and that would be going the wrong way anyways.  Now we're talking breaking trail for the rest of the day.  Only 4 or 5 inches on the LP, and maybe up to 10 in places in the last 1/3 mile.

Turned off the LP and crossed over to the snowmobile trail, found the 2 trees that are marked with blue paint, and started up the herd path.  I remember the other side being really steep and not an easy climb in the summer.  I also remember coming down the way I went up and thinking that some of it was crazy steep too.  Well, I started off and promptly lost the herd path.  With my GPS and some luck, I started to find an obvious trench which I was able to follow most of the way up.  At one point though, there was a good sized blow down that I had to go around, but eventually I got to the top.

I decided to go over to the ledges because that's where the view was.  Again, loosing the herd path for a bit, I found it again and followed the depression over to get a good view.  No wind, clear skies, and beautiful views.  I can't complain one bit about that.  I head back to the peak and I don't see the canister.  I start heading down the only well packed path towards different ledges looking for the canister.  I get to the point I had my previous hike, and knew that it wasn't any further that way.  I get back to the clearing on the peak and look around a bit more.  There it was.  A tree branch was weighted down with snow that it blocked it from view!

I sign in and start heading back down.  In a couple places I decided to follow a different route, and one of the times it was a butt slide in to the blow down.  Another butt slide ended up with me finding a rock with my butt.  Other than that, I got down and followed my tracks back to the car.  Only met 2 people on the trail, and they were just starting when I was nearly out.  The lot which had only a few cars when I left was full.  This is a very popular ice climbing destination, and everyone I saw had harnesses, ropes, helmets, climbing axes and crampons.

In the end, 8.5 miles over 5.2 hours. This brings me to 49 miles and 33.6 hours for the year, and my second hike where I was over 1.5 MPH for my average speed.