Indian Head

The return of warmer weather means a change of scenery. Over the winter months, I have enjoyed exploring outside of my usual territory of the New England states. My winter hikes in the Catskills have been a welcome change from the White Mountains, but with coming summer months, I have decided it’s time to return to my roots.

The Catskills are fun, but in the last few weeks they have already increased in hiker traffic. Besides the human activity, the weather will soon be warm enough for the hibernating snakes to come forth from their dens. I prefer not to hike with the slithering hikers. I can hike venomous snake- free in Vermont and New Hampshire this summer and will return when the snakes go back to sleep.

Before leaving New York behind, I decided to check one more mountain of the 3500 List. I arrived in the state the evening before the hike so I might get an early start. Trailhead parking was beginning to fill up now that the weather was better, and I always prefer an early morning hike.

At the trailhead, I included my name in the logbook used to keep track of hikers on the trails. Some image data for phone numbers has been obscured in the image.

The trail was quite flat at the start, and well maintained.

Water crossings were easily rock-hopped.

Soon I was climbing a steady incline to Jimmy Dolan Notch along a trail of the same name.

The slabs of rock made for some fun legwork, and just enough of a challenge to keep things from getting boring.

According to my topo map data, I would soon arrive in the col between the peaks of Indian Head and South Twin.

I was greeted by junction signage. I chose the easier path to Indian Head to complete my mission.

A few scrambles slowed me down, but I carefully climbed them using some of the gnarly tree roots as handholds, the same as countless hikers before me.

The summit of Indian Head offered no views. I carefully made my way back down to the junction. Because I was ahead of schedule, I decided to hike to nearby South Twin Mountain. It wasn’t on my to do list , but today had become a perfect hike day with low humidity and moderate temperatures near 60F.

The hike to South Twin offered some fun scrambles as well, and some interesting balancing acts courtesy of wind, erosion and time.

When I reached the summit of South Twin, there were a few nice views that made the short hike well worth it.

The Catskills offer some truly enjoyable hikes, and I’ve only begun to enjoy the 33 highest peaks here. Expect more Catskill Peaks in the fall.