Six Shots: Devils Path

The New England states often get overlooked in regard to awesome and challenging backpacking adventures due to the relatively small mountains(when compared to western peaks), but that is not the case at all. This past weekend I headed to Catskills State Park in New York to spend a night on Devils Path. Devils Path is a twenty five mile point to point hiking trail that traverses the summits of five Catskill High Peaks. While none of those peaks stretch taller than 4000 feet, they still pack quite a punch when backpacking through them. Much of this trail heads straight up and down each peak. Not many switchbacks to be found here. Since my girlfriend Emalee and I only had limited time to spend out on the trail, we opted to only take one car, and do an out-and-back hike. We spent Friday night at Devils Tombstone campground, which actually splits the east and west half of the trail. With a relaxing night of car camping under our belts, we set out from the Devils Tombstone parking area and headed east into the mountains. The trail quickly climbed out of the valley as we ascended Plateau mountain. The air was cool and the leaves vibrant with autumnal colors, we really had it made in terms of weather. The top of Plateau Mountain offered us a reprieve from climbing for a while as we chugged along through the beautiful mountain forest, stopping on occasion to take in the various views being offered up. We descended the eastern side of Plateau Mountain and came across the Mink Hollow lean-to, and a small group of hikers taking a break. Emalee and I took a quick break there to collect some water from the spring and eat a quick snack before heading up Sugarloaf Mountain. The route up Sugarloaf was, as we expected rocky and steep much like the climbing and descending we have been doing all day. Much of the ascent involved climbing up rocky features, using all four limbs to maneuver the amalgamation of stone and tree roots. We stopped for another quick break on a rock ledge in front of a sprawling view of the mountain range that we were traversing. Emalee and I sat down to make sandwiches and were joined shortly by a group of five or six guys who were traveling the opposite direction as us. I overheard one of them telling a story about traveling through Europe and it made me a bit nostalgic for Iceland. At this point it was about two in the afternoon and we have covered about six miles of unrelenting descending and ascending. We could continue nearly seven more miles to the Devils Kitchen lean-to, or we could hike another mile or so and top out on Twin Mountain then back track to the Mink Hollow lean-to. We chose the later and were on our way. We arrived back at the Mink Hollow lean-to at around five pm to find it bustling with life. The was a group of older gentlemen settling in after a seemingly long day of hiking. Since the shelter was busting at the seem with people, we knew we couldn’t stay the night there, but fortunately one of the gentleman recommended a nice secluded campsite about a hundred yards further down the trail where Emalee and I ended up building a campfire, sharing stories and eventually falling a sleep. The next morning we slept in a bit, knowing that we had only one tough climb to pull off before descending to the car. After breakfast and some wandering in the woods, we made it back to the car by noon. Plenty of time to head to New Paltz and celebrate our hike with some beers from the Gilded Otter. 🙂