Twin and Indian Head

October 11, 2019

We had so much fun on the Devil's Path yesterday, we decided to do another hike along here. Five of us set out from Prediger Road to do a (mapwise) similar route, just a little bit further east on the trail. We hiked down a very gently rising trail for quite a while which got slightly steeper as we approached the col. From there the trail up Twin was even steeper with a few easy scrambles and lots of neat rock formations to explore. We hit the first summit of Twin and found a fantastic lookout which we made a mental note of for the return. A lovely walk along the forested ridge brought us to the second and true summit of Twin mountain and another lookout. We wanted to go a little further to some caves, but the trail at this point was blocked due to the closure. We simply went back to the first lookout and sat down for a while to refuel and soak in the view.

Yet another balanced rock.

Summit of Twin.

Lunch with a view on the Twin's lower summit.

The descent went quickly, and we checked out another lookout in Jimmy Dolan Notch, where the rocks were more interesting than the view. The climb up Indian Head was fairly steep, but short lived and we walked over this summit without finding anything of note to mark the top. Along the ridge though, there was several lookouts, and we also found a big snake sunning itself on a grassy ledge. The best lookout of the day was along here and we stopped for another break even though we did not need it, just because it was such a nice spot to hang out at.

Rocks, rocks, and more rocks.

Big snake.

The best lookout of the week on Indian Head.

The trail went down a very steep downclimb, the back up over another bump, and past Sherman's lookout which was nice, but too windy to spend any time at and then descended gently down until we reached an old quarry. Like yesterday, there were several stone chairs built here, though no view. We still stopped for a while to relax before the final stretch home.

Down scrambling Indian Head.

Sherman's lookout.

Armchair relaxing.

The last stretch of trail was fairly flat and went quickly by. We reached the parking lot completing a seven hour hike and the conclusion of a very successful week in the Catskills.

The End

[Home] [CAT35] [Main] [Prev]