Often times my buddy Jim and I are most interested in exploring areas that don't see a lot of foot traffic and the multiple summits of East Mountain, tucked away in a quiet corner of the Sundown Wild Forest in the Catskills certainly fits the bill. There are three separate summits that we wanted to hit, and thanks to a patchwork of NYC watershed land and state land, it was possible to do a traverse. We spotted a car at a DEP access spot on Mancuso Road, then drove over to a small parking area on the shoulder of Greenville Road to get started. Elevation to start was 1100 feet. To get to the slopes of East Mountain's north summit, we first had to cross Sundown Creek, which runs along Greenville Road.
Lucky for us, a simple rock hop got us across the pretty creek.
Once across the creek, we immediately began to climb quite steely. We saw patches of mountain laurel here and there, but luckily it was easily avoided.
Stone walls are custom on many of the Catskill peaks, but few times have we seen this type of wall built. The stones used for this wall, seemed much more boulder like and less flat..possibly a sign that we were at the far southern edge of the Catskills.
We
were a little worried that we may run into thick mountain laurel, which
is prevalent to this area, but instead were treated to open hardwoods and
late season wildflowers.
As we neared the summit, the fog grew thick, making for an eerie scene. Early fall foliage on this maple tree spruced up the woods though.
A thick layer of mountain mist settled in directly over the 2459 foot north summit of East Mountain. While unnamed on maps, this was actually the high spot for the day.
After a steep 1300 foot ascent, we explored the flat, mostly open, fog shrouded summit.
Dropping off the summit, we soon arrived at a fairly good woods road. Unfortunately it wasn't going the direction we wanted to we continued our bushwhack.
Instead of staying high up on the ridge line, we opted to explore a mini gorge, which drains the north slopes of these peaks. We were treated to a lovely little stream, probably visited more by animals than people.
We were a bit surprised to see that there was actually a decent amount of water in this stream.
A steady climb east up out of the drainage brought us to the NE summit of East Mountain, which is almost literally covered in fern glade meadows.
As we arrived in the fern glade covered 2327 foot summit, the skies cleared out, allowing for sunshine and blue skies.
Jim's keen eye spotted this odd colored moss, which we both found intriguing.
Our route south to the summit proper, hugged the public property line and finally brought us to the grassy clearing atop 2307 foot East Mountain. By this point in the day, the sun had cleared out all the clouds and mountain mist that we had dealt with in the morning, making for perfect conditions. The woods atop the mountain, as well as the slopes SE back to the car, were wide open and almost park like.
A 4/10 of a mile descent off the summit brought us back to our spotted car on Mancuso Road. A very pleasant 8.5 mile, 2500 foot ascent day.
My drive home passed through the quiet little hamlet of Sundown, where a handsome old church sits in the shadow of East Mountain's north slopes.
Our route for the day, from north to south, with all three summits marked with red X's.
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