Climbing Blackhead mountain

At the summit - 3,940'

A few Saturdays ago, I had the opportunity to climb up Blackhead (in the Catskills) with my girlfriend Sarah, her father, and a high school chum of her father's. I do love a good hike through the forest, but this was quite a different experience from my usual: much more vertical travel than I've done before.

We started at 10:15am, at roughly 2,200 feet. I should also point out that at that elevation it was still early Autumn, slightly overcast but still warm enough to make us reconsider bringing our jackets. The forest was almost entirely deciduous (lots of birch and maple) so the scenery, while not unattractive, consisted mainly of the browns of bark and shed leaves, occasionally punctuated by the bright green of moss. Our path followed and occasionally intersected a stream. (Sarah's father was quite keen on looking for swimming holes for the summer, and we did find one or two.)

There was also a spring from which we all drank cold, clean mountain water. I can happily report that none of us got dysentery. My favorite part of the hike however was the sudden climate change after around 3,400 feet. There was literally a stark division in the flora and.. well, to be perfectly honest there was hardly any fauna around except for a lone raven cackling in the distance. The warm--if monotone--browns of fallen leaves turned into dark verdant conifers under which a thin carpet of snow refused to melt. The trees were short, but very dense, and so the trail was very tunnel-like.

The downward passage was somewhat steeper than the ascent; it was also significantly icier; often we had to climb down backwards holding onto the odd root or tree branch.