Burroughs Range Photos
Burroughs Plaque on Slide Mtn.
Balsam Fir bark
Red Spruce bark
Junction of W-C-S and Terrace trails
W e did this famous shuttle hike on 9/7/12 - me, Jay, Joel, Paul, Irene, and (of course) Halle. Started at Woodland Valley parking area at 8:10, hiked 9.7 miles and ascended 4000 feet in total, finishing at Rte. 47/Slide Mtn trailhead at 4:30. Eight hours and twenty minutes, including a lunch break, close to the standard rate (1.5 miles per hour, plus 30 minutes for each 1000 feet). Cornell Crack slowed us down a bit.
Photos here on this Wittenberg Cornell Slide Flickr set.
The morning ascent up Wittenberg was very humid, not terribly hot, just humid. Scenic Hemlock grove with partial overlook at about 2250 ft. We made the junction with the Terrace Mtn trail in 90 minutes and thought we were ahead of schedule. The next trail segment, up to Wittenberg summit was about on pace. Views from Witt. were very hazy. Extremely hazy, with Ashokan Reservoir spread out before us as a whiter patch in a gray landscape.
The trail follows the col to Cornell summit, only 0.8 miles with a few hundred feet of gain. I had estimated 30 minutes. Oops. Not exactly. More like 70, as the steep scrambles, especially Cornell Crack, slowed us down. The Crack is not especially terrible, but us old geezers made heavy going of it. Lunch on Cornell, with again unspectacular views.
Throughout the hike, the views were underwhelming - partly the hazy weather, partly the inherently flat, rounded tops of the Catskills. It was a great hike; we all loved it, but it just wasn't a day of magnificent views.
Headed down the trail from Cornell into the gap before the Slide ascent. The map notes camping areas here, but as we were day hiking and moving at pace, I did not look for them or notice them.
The ascent up Slide involved some more scrambles, and, again slowed us down. I was delighted to find the spring of fresh water bubbling loudly off to our right, the one at 3800 ft. shown on the map. There was no sign pointing to it, only the sound and an obvious, short path (less than 50 feet). Refilled my Camelbak and enjoyed the bracing, icy-cold mountain water. I did not filter or treat it.
Rested atop Slide, with obligatory photos of Burroughs Plaque. As we continued along the flat height of Slide, I was also delighted at the so-called Garden Path, the white pebbles, eroded out from the 370 million year old Devonian conglomerate, and apparently not scraped away by the recent glacier.
Spruce were the most common trees on the summit, with a fair number of Balsam Fir mixed in. I cut open a resin blister and tasted a drop. ... Not bad.
We did not meet any other hikers on this popular 9.7 mile route, somewhat surprising to me. I would expect some traffic on a warm, partly sunny Friday in early September.
Slide Mtn was the high point of the hike, and we followed the straight, gradual, rather boring W-C-S trail, at a rather rapid clip, down to the Rte. 47 parking area. Towards the end of the hike, about 0.7 miles from the trailhead, the yellow-blazed trail turns left & downhill. It is easy, but inadvisable, to blunder along straight, onto a woods road leading into the private Winnisook Club property.
Links:
New York-New Jersey Trail Conference
Adirondacks High Peaks Hiking Forum
Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC)
Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK)
Acepilots.com - my WW2 aviation website