South Mountain and Steenburg Mountain(Schoharie County/Catskills)

Headed out after work this afternoon to do some exploring in the northern Catskills, just over the Schoharie County line, in the South Mountain State Forest.  With plenty of sun and temps in the low to mid 40's forecasted, I figured this would be a perfect day to get out.  Parked in a small pulloff near an informal campsite along Durham Road at just under 2200 feet elevation.

Immediately upon exiting the car, the barren hillside rising above to the south is hard to miss.

The state has opted to log a large forested hillside that was covered with many trees planted back in the Depression era. Unfortunately many of these trees are not native and were slowly dying.

Mount Pisgah's ridge is easily visible to the SE on the now open slopes.

As I climbed, the views got much better...stretching all the way west to the Moresville Range and Utsayantha.

To the NE, the valley views are broad and far reaching into Albany County.

To the SW,  the ridge of Ashland Pinnacle and Huntersfield rises above the Manorkill valley.

The cut and slash left scattered about is certainly quite an eyesore...thankfully we can at least enjoy the views.

Found this interesting little "pond"..or really just an oversized puddle atop the 2400 foot bump.

I fully explored the logged area, and would've loved to have continued on over towards Richmond, but with an early sunset I had to settle for this view of Richmond's nearby ridgeline.

More west views from the open slopes.

You would be hard pressed to find a better view of Steenburg Mountain(my next stop), up close and personal to the north.

On my descent, I captured one more valley view to the NE, with Durham Road and my parked car clearly visible below.

After arriving back down at the road, I crossed north onto the slopes of Steenburg.  After stepping on and over fallen brush, logs and branches, I was quite happy to be back in a beautiful forest setting.

The slopes of Steenburg are quite steep, but with no signs of winter in sight, it was an easy ascent.

I hugged the steepest, north facing slopes in hopes for more views.  As I approached the summit, I had almost continuous through the trees views.

To the north, the rolling ridges of Bates State Forest can be seen.  A power line cut is also clearly visible.

From a small ledge, I was lucky enough to find one clear valley view to the NE, stretching into the Albany County hilltowns.

The woods up high were remarkably open and pleasant.  Pictured here is the wooded 2570 foot summit of Steenburg Mountain.

The only sign of winter I saw all day, was on the north facing slopes of Steenburg's summit ridge.  I continued north all the way to the end of state land.  The woods were quite inviting, but unfortunately no more views opened up.

I decided to really explore the slopes of the mountain, and did manage to find this peek a boo view south towards more logging activity.

Although the 2570 foot summit elevation doesn't garner a lot of attention, it is a Catskill 200 hundred highest peak, and has very steep slopes on nearly all sides.

A nice, easy descent brought me back to the car.  Did about 2.8 miles of wandering today with over 800 feet of ascent.