Walking Man 24 7: Mongaup Mountain and Hodge Pond Mountain(Catskills)

Had a day off work, so talked it over with my hiking buddy Jim and we decided to hit another pair of Catskill Hundred Highest peaks in the far southwestern Cats. This area is probably the longest drive for me to get to in the Catskills, but also one of the most scenic. I made a pit stop off along the Pepacton Reservoir to catch early morning light on the Shavertown Bridge.

Further south, made one more stop by Big Pond to capture the early morning mist and reflections on the placid mountain waters.

Once we got to Shin Creek Road, we spotted one car at a south spot on state land and then drove back up the scenic road to a north parking area. Our starting elevation was very high, at just under 2500 feet at the far northwest side of Mongaup Mountain's long ridge.

We headed southeast off into the surprisingly bare woods, where we caught peek a boo glimpses towards Barkaboom Mountain.

We climbed up and over a 2900 foot bump, northwest of Mongaup's true summit, where we stumbled across the shark's tooth. A large, almost vertical sharp toothed glacial erratic.

Most people approach Mongaup Mountain from the state campground to the south and miss the large, wide open clearing on the northwest side of the summit at about 3000 feet elevation. The north facing view is broad and quite impressive, with Barkaboom Mountain(L), and Mill brook Ridge(R), being the most prominent peaks. Cradle Rock Ridge sits in front of Mill Brook Ridge.

While the open meadow appears to have been here for quite a while, a lot of brush on the north side had been cleared recently.

A short distance southeast from the clearing is the nondescript 3177 foot summit of Mongaup Mountain. There is no clear high point, just a long, flat top.

We dropped due south off Mongaup directly down onto the knife edge ridge line towards Beech Mountain, a 3118 foot peak, without enough prominence to count as its own peak.

The skinny ridge is one of the thinnest in all of the Catskills, and the vertical drop on each side is very steep. This offers up scenic long distance views towards Lone, Table, and Peekamoose Mountains.

A touch further south, we found another view towards Red Hill and Denman Mountains.

Just past the skinny ridge, we soon arrived at the wooded 3118 foot summit of Beech, the high point of Sullivan County.

We dropped off the steep west side of Beech, and stumbled across a nice, small ledge with a view down over Hodge Pond. Hodge Pond Mountain, our next peak, can be seen rising above.

A zoom view west over Hodge Pond and Hodge Pond Mountain.

Just beyond the rock ledge, is a very steep drop down towards the pond.

A look back at the steep west side off Beech's peak.

Nearing the pond, we arrived at the old, abandoned buildings on the property of the Beech Mountain Nature Preserve. Open Space Institute acquired this land back in the 1980's and nature is slowly reclaiming all of the man made structures.

A peek inside one of the time and weather ravaged buildings.

Just beyond the old, abandoned buildings, we soon arrived at the quiet shores of Hodge Pond. A rare, natural body of water in the Catskills, this is a very high elevation pond, at just over 2600 feet.

From the northwest side of the pond, we found a nice view back towards Beech Mountain, which we had just descended only minutes ago.

The pond water is very clear, with fallen leaves clearly visible beneath the surface.

A DEC trail leaves the pond heading northwest, climbing up through the most vibrant foliage we saw all day, towards the northeast shoulder of Hodge Pond Mountain. At a height of land, we left the trail and bushwhacked up the summit through a peaceful, hardwood forest.

Arriving at the flat, wooded summit of 2985 foot Hodge Pond Mountain. There we found one of the smallest rock cairns I've ever seen. This was also my 75th Catskill Hundred Highest peak.