The best time of year

Hopefully this is the start of a little more regular blogging. There is a lot going on locally and I'd like to put up some more post on the goings on.

Spring is here. The arrival of spring finally gives us the chance to get outside a lot more and enjoy our beautiful area. One of my favorite hobbies is hiking the Catskill Mountains. With the warm weather and a little bit of vacation I had the chance to hike one of my favorite spots and try a new one.

Our first family hike of the season was to Kaaterskill Falls. One of the main reasons is due to the heavy tourist traffic that makes hiking there near impossible later in the season. We were lucky enough to have a beautifully warm day to hike on. The only problem we ran into was some ice on the trail but we were able to get through to the bottom of the falls. In years past and better conditions we hike up to the first bowl and behind the falls which is an awesome experience if the water is running well. I highly recommend this hike to anyone.

(Some pics of the two different falls that can be seen on the hike)

My second hike of the season was not so easy. I along with two other hikers climbed (and I do mean climb) Double Top Mountain. Double Top in the western Catskills is the highest trail-less peak in the Catskills. A trail-less peak requires finding and signing in at a canister at the summit. The hike requires a fair amount of bushwhacking up a very steep side of the mountain. The hike itself from the end we went in was about 6.5 miles round trip. The last mile to top has an assent of almost 2000 feet and is pretty tough on a good day. Besides the tough steep hike, there was still anywhere from 1 to 3 feet (or more) of snowy happiness left for us left by old man winter. Due to the snow, we were forced to snowshoe the entire hike, which after a long winter of sitting around I can honestly say my body wasn't ready for. But in the end we made it and had a very exciting hike/slide back down. I look forward to doing this hike again in the late fall when there is no snow.  Below is a (cell phone) pic of the sign in canister at the top. Unfortunately my camera died, but if I can get permission from a friend that took more pics to post them here I will.