Mount Raimer's West Ridge(Taconic Ridge State Forest-Town of Berlin, Rensselaer County)

With my wife being 9 months pregnant, I have been playing it close to the vest when it comes to hikes recently-not wanting to venture too far- just to be safe.  Again today, I "elected"(Election Day dad joke-sorry) to stay close to home and check out some newly acquired state land in the Taconic Ridge State Forest.  I wanted to check out the long west ridge of Mount Raimer from the south, beginning at the Green Hollow access point(Elevation 1310 feet) on a cool, breezy November morning.

Followed the marked trail east for less than 2/10 of a mile before beginning my bushwhack north, where a short and steep descent brought me down to the first of two drainage crossings.

Crossing stream number two. 

I headed north/ northwest up the steep slopes of Raimer's west ridge, gaining over 700 feet in about 3/4 of a mile.  I climbed towards the high point on the ridge, which sits over 2000 feet, but state land only comes to about 1/10 of a mile away.

Once on the ridge, I turned east with filtered views north into Petersburg as well as the northern Taconic ridge.

Dropping down into the col at about 1750 feet, I hit a good logging road(a former Cowee Forest woods road) and a clearing with a nice view SE towards the ridge leading to Berlin Mountain.

Further east, the logging road turned sharply north, where I managed to find more filtered views just off of that back towards the high spot I just been.

With some exploring in the woods, I was able to find some decent views northwest back into Petersburg and the valley of the Little Hoosic as well as the distant Rensselaer Plateau.

 

Following a well worn logging road up towards Mount Raimer.

From a small 2325 foot knob on Raimer's west ridge(about 2/10 of a mile west of the Taconic Crest Trail), I began a steep drop into the deep cirque west of Raimer's summit.  While side hilling, I found many screened views west on the steep slopes.

A view south towards Berlin Mountain's west ridge above Green Hollow.

There are literally a maze of logging roads on these slopes, many of which I utilized to make my way through the steep terrain.

From high above the drainage I had crossed earlier in the morning, I found this nice view west directly up Green Hollow.

Eventually I had to drop steeply down to the drainage, and then re-climb back up towards the marked trail. 

After a fairly steep ascent, I picked up a good woods road and followed it back to the marked trail, which was just under 2/10 of a mile from the car.  A real nice 6 miles and 2000 feet of total ascent without seeing another person. 

Map below from the updated DEC Taconic Ridge Sate Forest page.  

Blue X's=High spots on the ridge that I hit