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Blackhead Mtn., The Catskills,11/14/2020

The Catskills are such underrated wilderness. Especially coming from south Jersey. They are not as remote as the Adirondacks or the Whites but still offer the ability to put together some epic hiking. They also have the 35er challenge and I am a sucker for a challenge. The 35er challenge meaning hiking the designated 33 high peaks of the Catskills. The high peaks being over 3,500 feet in elevation. On this day, I planned the entire hike myself. This was a first. My personal preference being to just show up and walk. And as someone who thinks the only use for a map is wall decor, this was going to be a challenge. Also, my hiking buddy and I had different definitions of “prepared.” Who knew you could check weather conditions on the summit? Moutainforecast.com for anyone who wants to know. But I did my research and planned what I thought was doable route. Sure, I didn’t know the bailout points, the parking situation, or trail conditions. But I knew how to get us there and had a general sense of the way to go and I had cookie ready for the summit. I downloaded all trails, we got this.

The route was to take us through the Blackhead Range starting from Thomas Cole and Camel Hump. It was an out and back with the piece de résistance being a continuation onto Arizona Mountain. Arizona was my big “I know my shit, bet you couldn’t find this” attempt to impress my buddy. Arizona is an obscure mountain in the Catskills that I found via a random blog which called it one of the most “ridiculously under hiked” mountains in the Catskills. Why? Well it is 93 feet shy of being a high peak. Which seems to be the reason most people, myself included, go to the Catskills. And it really isn’t easily accessible. So, screw it, I added it to the route. I had never planned a route for my much more experienced hiking buddy before and I was looking to increase mileage and elevation gain. I was still pretty insecure about my abilities, and was trying to prove something. Looking back that’s such a silly concept. It doesn’t matter... it’s about getting out. I look at hiking so differently now, not every day is about bagging the most peaks, pushing pace, pushing mileage. Actually, now I prefer to plan things that don’t do that and allow you to enjoy the journey more. But for this hike I wasn't there yet. And this hike was not great.

My hiking buddy introduced the concept turn back time to me. I’m not really sure why this was the hike we talked about a turn back. It wasn’t our longest. The planned route was only 12.5 miles. It wasn’t the most elevation gain, promising a little over 4K, but nonetheless this was the one. If we didn’t hit a certain point, by the turn back time, we would turn around. This was not an option in my mind. I planned a hike, I had a goal and we were going to complete. So, while it was supposed to be a safety concern, all the turn back time did to me, was make me paranoid about pace. So rather than taking our time enjoying the trail, talking to trail encounters, we booked it and we got to Arizona well in advance of “turn back” time. You would think this meant the day would take a turn we would be able to just enjoy it now… you’d be wrong.

The only part of the day I was not in charge of was lunch. This was typically my job, but since I typically did not plan the routes we flipped roles. My go to is always wraps. And cookies, always cookies. My buddy had different ideas. He wanted a hot meal. I appreciated the idea. It was freezing, snow on the ground, hands were numb and the idea of a hot meal just sounded heavenly. But the jet boil wouldn’t light. So rather than a delicious hot meal on the summit of a relatively unexplored peak. We were frustrated, cold, eating cookies and trail mix. Needless to say, we did not linger here long. We hiked out quickly, we did not talk and we still finished in the dark. The only memorable trail encounter being a tiny black bear by the car. I think though that it is sill important to acknowledge that while a lot went wrong and it wasn’t the mind blowing, life altering day in the wilderness like some past adventures. It was a still a day out, and there is nowhere else I would rather have been. But what I started to learn is the importance of hiking compatibility and trail style. And who you are with matters.

Final Stats: 12.3 Miles Hike, 4.1K Elevation Gained, 4 Mountains Summited Summit Cookie: Maple Brown Sugar

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