Sugarloaf Mountain's NE Ledges(Indian Head Wilderness-Catskills)

Took advantage of an unseasonably mild mid December day by doing a little off trail exploring to a series of ledges on Sugarloaf Mountain's north ridge in the Catskills this afternoon.  I parked at the DEC trailhead for the Pecoy Notch Trail on Roaring Kill Road(Elevation 1975 feet) and initially headed south on the yellow blazed trail, with the sun shining bright above.

 

I continued a short distance in to a split in the trail and then ascended on the blue blazed Pecoy Notch Trail to around 2350 feet, passing by some stone chairs along the way.

 

 From 2350 feet, I left the trail and began my bushwhack through remarkably open hardwoods.  Fallen leaves covering hidden holes and boulders proved to be the most challenging part of these woods.

 

Around 2500 feet, I began to encounter my first significant pockets of conifer.

The slopes were mostly straightforward and easy to climb, but I did have to negotiate a few large cliff bands along with typical steep Catskill terrain along the way.

As always in the Catskills, I picked up the remnants of a woods road at about 2900 feet.  No matter how high or rugged the slopes are, I'm never surprised to find some sort of woods road in the Catskills.

The woods road quickly petered out, only to be replaced by a herd path, which took me to the  base of the cliffs that I was heading towards.  After a very steep push up through some thick spruce I emerged at the first of many good ledges between 3175 feet and 3250 feet, with some rally incredible view points.  This manicured rock perch sits at the edge of a 200 foot cliff, with views east towards neighboring Twin Mountain.  The northern slopes of Indian Head and Plattekill can be seen just beyond, as well as Plattekill Clove/ Huckleberry Point in the distance to the left.

Kaaterskill High Peak(right) and Roundtop(left) are visible to the northeast, although somewhat obscured by nearby treetops.

To the south/ southeast is a spectacular view of Pecoy Notch and Twin Mountain.  Sugarloaf's summit ridge is to the right.

There are multiple amazing view spots, but the spruce is somewhat thick and the terrain is incredibly steep and filled with cliff bands making for tricky exploring.  Here is one last east facing view out towards the Hudson Valley and Plattekill Clove.

With the early sunset fast approaching, I chose to turn back where I seemed to run out of open rock, retracing my steps north back off the mountain.  An incredible 3.6 miles RT, with 1500 feet of ascent.

Map below.  Blue X=Parking  Red Circle=Appx area of ledges