Crouching Panther, Hidden Beacon: Weekend Recap, March 1, 2009

I wanted to get some good hikes in prior to a masochistic Daks mountaineering trip this upcoming weekend (18 miles: Marcy, Grey, Skylight) so I signed up for a Catskills snowshoe trip with Outdoor Bound. I wouldn't normally join a guided hike but this was very reasonably priced, likely cheaper than taking the bus to Phoenicia and grabbing a cab to the trailhead. However, I managed to not see that the date had been rescheduled to Sunday so there I was at 7 am Saturday morning on an empty Manhattan street corner, a pair of snowshoes hanging lonely on my back. Not to be defeated I shrugged, jumped over to Grand Central and headed to Cold Spring for a good 10 miler or so to Beacon over Mount Taurus (see map to right). Awesome day and almost no one in sight until the usual multi-use circus on Mount Beacon. You can get a sense of the distance of the trek in the lower-right photo, taken from Mount Taurus, the fire tower of Beacon is in the distance.

And on to Sunday. Panther Mountain, 3720'. A little geological oddity, Panther Mountain was formed by an impact crater nearly 400 million years ago. Alas, as in Acadia I was unable to make successful contact with otherwordly sentient beings...the search for intelligent life on this planet continues. Perfectly packed snow all the way up, lots of fun, steep, icy sections. Great views of the Burroughs Range to the S and SE, Devil's Path to the NE. A charismatic and friendly alpinist-canine joined us. I had a somewhat mediocre experience on my last and only other OB-guided trip but I was anything but disappointed this time due to the traildog millionaire prowess of our brazen, vastly experienced and quixotic leader Joe. Joe had thru-hiked the AT last year in impressive time and extolled the virtues of kilts, yes, those loveable man-skirts native to the Scottish Highlands, for long distance trekking. The chafe-free action makes perfect sense but I'm not making that commitment yet, even if I did go to Vassar.





















THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE.