West Stoppel Point(Catskills)

A late start due to an iffy morning forecast left me with only a few hours of precious daylight to explore today, so I decided to head down to the northeast Catskills(which is under an hour and a half drive). I chose to bushwhack 3100 foot West Stoppel Point, which is another Catskill Hundred Highest peak that I need on my list.  I parked in the very last parking area along Colgate Road(CR 78) and headed south into the snowy woods.  Snow depth at the road, which was just over 2100 feet, was about 4-5 inches.  No showshoes needed, but I brought them along just in case.

 A short distance in, I came to a crossing over the East Kill.  This proved to be a fairly easy rock hop.

 The wintry East Kill, which flows out of Lake Capra just upstream of here.

 Once across the creek, the woods turn into a beautiful, dark conifer forest.

 I chose to ascend West Stoppel's western sub summit first.  The woods are very open, with screened views nearly the entire way back north to the Blackheads. A snow squall can be seen moving in over Thomas Cole here.

 Blue skies began to emerge to the southwest as I continued my climb.  Clouds would quickly take back over and eventually win out.

 The East Kill Valley as well as most of the Blackhead Range can clearly be seen through the bare trees as I gained elevation.

 Typical steep slopes, as I gained over 900 feet in about one mile to the western sub summit.

 Arriving at the wooded 3040 foot sub summit.  Notice the yellow pain blazes just beyond, signifying the state land boundary.

 The true summit was a mere half mile away, so I began an easy drop down to a small clearing in the barely noticeable col.

 From the 3000 foot col, looking back at the 3040 foot sub summit.

 A quick, easy ascent up to the 3100 foot summit marked my 76th Hundred Highest Catskill.  There were about 6-7 inches at the summit, which is a fairly large flat area. 

 I wandered around a bit, looking for a high spot, and settled on this small stand of conifers as the true summit.

 I decided to basically head due north off the summit, then drifted back towards my bread crumb trail near 2500 feet.  From this area, I spotted a small opening in the forest canopy, with a nice view towards Black Dome.

An easy descent dropped me back down to the East Kill, in a shaded hemlock forest.

Crossed back over the creek, arriving back at the car at just under 4 miles RT, with over 1000 feet of elevation gain.  76/102 CHH.