chapter 281
Twin Mountain
5/18/2012
twins can be challenging
link to Twin Mt folder (19 pics)
This climb up Twin Mt was 15 years in the making. This more or less completed our [ excuse me, my humming bird just returned from her round trip flight to Mexico - she's at the hanging suet feeder remembering where the bottle feeder used to hang- reinstalled the bottle feeder now in place for her] tour of the eastern portion of the Devil's Path in the Catskill Mountains ( Sugarloaf, Indianhead, Plateau chapters). This is a particularly beautiful set of mountains. They are wild, mysterious, and their linking adds to the mystique. There are also more links in the chain to explore beyond these four; to be continued.
Old buddy Pete (chronologically and metaphorically speaking) had some trail maintenance to perform for the next gen as he says, but let's face it: we were there for selfish reasons- the pure joy of being in the mountains. The Twin Mountain segment was the most challenging, dangerous, and yet rewarding of the set. It is NOT for everyone. In the critical sections it is hand over hand rock climbing. "Real rock climbers" would scoff but you could get seriously hurt here if not careful. If you bring a dog, be prepared to carry him. All that said, anyone in "normal" condition could do it. This 5 mile roundtrip segment from Roaring Kill took about 7 hours including tree removal, trail marking, and a brief (so as not to tighten up) mountain top scenic lunch respite.
This is the approach to the second steep section pictured above.
The first steep section is composed of piles of large broken up limestone chunks.
When going back down thru broken and eroded crevasses you are reminded of the "123 Hours" guy who got pinned under a loose boulder and had to cut off his arm with his knife. Luckily, I had my knife to trim a couple broken hang nails on this trip.
An interesting feature is the Dibble's Quarry slate tailings along the route. In olden days workers travelled by foot and toiled using manual labor to cut harvest and bring these stones back down to the "civilized" world to build the interesting stone houses and stone fences found in this Dutch Rip Van Winkle early settlement. You can not but marvel at the work ethic of the ancient gens.
Overview continued progress map
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