Hunter and SW Hunter

May 18, 2013

Dianne, Debbie, and I drove from a skanky motel in Utica to Sprucedon. Got on the trail at 10:00 to do the clockwise loop of Hunter. The ascent went very quickly as the trail was actually just a fire road. After about an hour and a half of easy and somewhat boring walking, we arrived on Hunter summit and climbed the fire tower to get the view as the true summit was pretty treed in. We did not see many people. Passed one somewhat grumpy couple, and ran into a group of young lads who had hiked in at midnight the night before. After a quick lunch on a picnic table up here, we headed down to a better lookout. From here we could see many of the Catskill peaks including Slide, our destination tomorrow. A fellow who was some sort of Steward arrived and pointed out all the mountains in view for us, which was helpful since this was the first time here for us. He also gave us some navigational advice for the SW Hunter peak as it does not have an official trail. We scooted off, happy to now to be hiking on a trail instead of a road, and in fairly short order after following a well trodden path arrived at SW Hunter, or "Swhunter" as we decided to call it. There was a cannister attached to a tree with a log book so we signed it and had a second lunch in a small clearing in the trees. Hiked back down and followed a trail of loose boulders all the way back. Diamond Notch Falls was the highlight of the day. This was absolutely beautiful and we spent a lot of time here, scrambling the rocks and taking pictures of this special spot. As we left, a photographer arrived and we had to coach him down a small scramble to get to the really nice spot for the photos. It was a short cart track walk from here back to the car. We met four army cadets who were quite friendly and we took their photo for them and hiked the last few hundred meters with them. Finished the hike at just over five hours... a fairly civilized introduction to the Catskills. Camped at the Woodland Valley state campground for the night which was a bit of a zoo. Went to supper in the local town and convinced our very friendly waitress, who was not a hiker, to go take a visit to Diamond Notch Falls.

Trailhead at end of Sprucedon Road.