Catskills - Wittenberg / Cornell / Slide Trails - NY - July 2001

Seven of us with the Wilmington Trail Club did this as a 2 day, ~12 mile loop trip on a nice weekend in July. We started out at the Woodland Valley State Campground, you then go over Wittenberg Mt., Cornell Mt., and Slide Mt. before you loop back around and go back to the campground. Day 1 takes the trail to Wittenberg which is almost 4 miles and is going up the entire time, but the view at the top is the best view you'll get on the entire trip so stop and spend awhile checking it out. Another really cool feature of this trail is the rock scrambling that you have to do at certain points. Going in a clockwise direction like we did the scambling was always up the rocks, but if you went the other direction you would definitely want to bring some rope because you would have to take your pack off and lower it to be abe to navigate some of the rock faces. The established campsites are in between Cornell and Slide Mt.'s. There are several to be had. The weekend we were there much of the water was dried up. There is a spring down an unmaintained trail at mile 6.15, but a better source that allegedly never dries up can be had up Slide Mt a ways at mile 6.8. Day 2 had us going over Slide Mt. and looping back around to the campground. They have re-routed the trail away from private property so now instead of it being all downhill at the end, you have to climb a 500 foot staircase right at the end. Ugh, I hate stairs! And then just to make things more interesting I got stung by a wasp (or something) while climbing the stairs. I had never been stung in my entire life up to this point so I'm wondering if I am allergic or not to the sting. The first symptom of an allergic reaction is difficulty breathing. Well I'm having all kinds of difficulty breathing because I am climbing this crazy staircase! I didn't die on the trail or on the drive home so I'm thinking that if I had a reaction it must not have been much of one. Since this is only 12 miles you could do this is a 1 day hike as well.

I'm too lazy to pull the pictures out and scan them in. I have included a scan of the trail map.

Mark on the summit of Wittenberg Mountain (3,780 ft) in the Catskills (New York) on 7/21/01. Mark on the summit of Cornell Mountain       (3,860 ft) in the Catskills (New York) on 7/21/01.
Mark on the summit of Slide Mountain (4,180 ft) in the Catskills (New York) on 7/22/01. Catskills Trail Map

 

 

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