the Way of the Turtle

3.7 Mile Snowshoe on Harvey Mountain
Sunday, January 10, 2010

I've been aware of a state forest bordering Route 22 in Austerlitz for years, having seen the markers alongside the road as I drove back and forth to Albany. But it was only in the last year or so that I found out that there's actually two state forests along that stretch of road, Harvey Mountain State Forest on the east side and Beebe Hill State Forest on the west, and that there's a fairly extensive system of trails at both. The Harvey Mountain trail goes, not terribly surprisingly, to the summit of Harvey Mountain, which lies on the border between NY and MA.

Last winter I read an article posted on Rich & Sue Freeman's NY Outdoors Blog that described a local newspaper writer's hike to the summit of Harvey Mountain in January. No great surprise, I also have the trail guide mentioned in the article (AMC's Best Day Hikes in the Catskills and Hudson Valley by Peter Kick) which gives directions for the hike. So naturally I've wanted to do the hike ever since! I even tried heading over there once before, at the end of October, but ended up staying closer to home when rain moved in.

Today I had thought I might drive down to CT for the first Manchester Running Company snowshoe race in Vernon, CT (last week's race was cancelled due overall poor conditions.) When I woke up this morning I was suffuciently sore from yesterday's trek up and down the mountains of Pittsfield State Forest that I decided a 4 1/2 hour round trip to run a 5k in barely enough snow just didn't make sense... but I did still want to get outside, and from that thought it was only a few moments before I decided to give Harvey Mountain a try, with possibly trips to No Bottom Pond and the Beebe Hill Fire Tower afterwards.

I found the directions in Kick's book a little bit confusing, mainly because I ended up turning on the north end of East Hill Rd rather than the southern end - so all the driving distances were a little bit off. I was surprised the find the parking lot almost full (ie. four vehicles already there) - I'd been expecting to have the place pretty much to myself. Walked across the road to the trailhead and decided that snowshoes were in order - the path had been well packed by other snowshoers and at least one XC skier, but there was no telling what it would be like further on.

There's a steep climb right at the start but then the trail wanders along a fairly level grade through the woods for a while, before travelling along the edge of a cleared hill and then down, down, down into a gully with a very nice stream bubbling away at the bottom. Easy walking, for the most part, and no real wind in the woods.

Of course, what goes down must then go back up... and in this case, the final half mile or so to the summit proved to be the challenge, as the trail climbed up out of the gulley and up the side of Harvey Mountain. Sometimes steep, sometimes not so steep, but uphill all the way. Two hikers in snowshoes passed me on their way out; they asked me briefly about my "running" snowshoes before heading on their way. My legs weren't thrilled with the climb, especially after yesterday's 2-mile long uphill slog, but I took plenty of quick breaks and made it to the top with no problem.

The summit was basically bare, with nice views off to the west and also toward the southeast into the Taconics. Catamount was clearly visible off in the distance; I suspect the view is particularly splendid in the fall when the leaves have turned. The wind was blowing pretty briskly, so after taking some pictures I wandered around a bit. There were ribbons that seemed to be marking some sort of possible path, and other snowshoe tracks, but none seemed to lead anywhere other than into the woods to the east. No additional views, unfortunately. Since I wasn't sure where those woods led to, and the snow cover was very uneven (at one point I took a step and sunk up to mid-thigh in a drift I didn't realize was there) I decided to head back out in hopes of still having time to visit Beebe Hill State Forest.

The hike back out was a lot easier - I definitely preferred descending from the summit! Made it back to the stream much more quickly than the hike up, and the climb back up out of the gully wasn't bad at all. After that it was just a matter of hiking through the woods back to the trailhead, tossing my gear in the car, and heading over to the Beebe Hill trailheads.

Speaking of gear... my bicycling booties did a great job of keeping my feet dry during the hike, I'm really glad I'd left them in my snowshoe bag. Unfortunately all of my snowshoeing so far has been geared toward running so I really didn't think to dress right for the hike - I really should have worn one of the pairs of pants I XC ski in rather than jeans, which got pretty damp once the snow on them melted. The lightweight pair of tights I wore under the jeans kept me from getting too cold... but it really would have been nice to be able to change into dry clothes once I was all done walking for the afternoon. Definitely something to remember for next time...

JMH