Headed south to hike Stissing Mountain in Pine Plains on a beautiful, sunny late winter afternoon. From the village of Pine Plains, I turned west onto Lake Road which heads almost straight at Stissing Mountain. The view from the road is quite impressive, as the peak rises nearly 1000 feet above the valley floor.
A small, unmarked parking area on the east side of Lake Road provides access and is located a short distance beyond the marked parking area for Thompson Pond. I crossed the road and passed through a wooden gate to begin my hike on an unmarked but easy to follow trail.
While there was almost no snow at the base of the mountain at elevation just over 400 feet, there was still several inches once above 650 feet. The bright March sun sure felt good though, and with temps in the mid 40's, this snow won't be lasting too much longer.
While the lower part of the hike had no trail markers, I began to see some old, rusted trail markings higher up. Even these were quite sporadic though.
The trail I took headed nearly directly up towards the summit, gaining elevation very quickly. At just
over 1100 feet, I left the trail and headed over towards some ledges on the east side of the peak. The slopes on this side of the mountain are extremely steep and provide impressive views.
The open area around the ledges is quite extensive and provide a much more up close view of the surrounding valley than the fire tower does.
The views east/ southeast from the open east ledges are quite spectacular.
Wandering south along the east ledges, following on again off again herd paths.
A nice and easy bushwhack from the ledges brought me back over to the fire tower, which rises an impressive 90 feet up. Friends of Stissing Landmarks owns and manages the fire tower and trails, and was formed by local citizens back in the mid 1980's to save the fire tower from demolition.
From the fire tower the views are incredible, but be prepared for gusty winds, as you are well above the entire surrounding area. Here is a view north over Little Stissing Mountain with Stissing Pond to the east. Just north of that is Twin Island Lake.
West views from the tower towards the Catskills.
East views over mostly frozen(but quickly thawing) Thompson Pond towards northern Dutchess County and Connecticut beyond.
To the south, Stissing Mountain's long ridge continues on, with the true summit a little over half a mile away.
A zoom view of the Catskills, with the rural Dutchess County landscape in the foreground.
Northeast views towards the Taconics of southern Massachusetts.
Many people don't realize that the fire tower is not located on the summit of the mountain. While it is on the main ridge, the tower is found a slightly lower elevation than the true summit, which sits much further south on the ridge. Once leaving the tower, I decided to continue south on a sparsely marked red trail towards the summit. There is not a lot of elevation change as the trail basically follows the ridge. After about half a mile, I arrived at the nondescript 1403 foot summit, which sits off trail.
Just beyond the summit, I continued SW towards an open area, with screened views to the west.
I was a bit surprised to find a deep little chasm near the far west edge of the mountain, near private land.
At the very edge of the Nature Conservancy's land I found a filtered view off the steep west slopes of the mountain. This side of the peak was quite fun to explore, with very open woods.
A look north along the far west edge of the mountain.
As I climbed back up towards the summit, I stumbled across a wide open set of west facing ledges.
While not nearly as extensive as the east facing ledges I found earlier, the west ledge I found was very nice, across rolling hills and farmland towards the Catskills.
I made my back over to the red trail and followed it north along the ridge, before dropping down off the mountain on the less steep loop. As I made my way down under warming temps, I noticed winter slowly loosening its grip, as Spring begins to make its move.
Hiked about 3.7 miles RT with over 1300 feet of ascent. Really enjoyed exploring some of the lesser visited parts of a popular mountain.
Here is my approximate route:
No comments:
Post a Comment