Suday I took another 3500 winter hike in the Catskills. Bearpen and Vly. Started off late for me, and started up the road with my hiking companion. This hike is mostly snowmobile trails, and there had been deep enough with snow that they've been well used, so were almost as if they were groomed trails. We decided to start in snowshoes so we didn't have to put them on later, and we got to the hunters cabin without any issue and made our choice to do Vly first.
Today I did Bearpen and Vly from the north side. Most people, in fact all the people I ran into today, will start this hike from the south side where county 3 turns into a dirt road. Myself, I went in from the north side where county 3 turns to a dirt road mostly because it was closer to home. The theme of today's hike was woods road. The hike from the car to the "hunters cabin" where the herd path off to Vly and the snowmobile trail split off of county 3.
The next peaks I am going to do will start the bushwacks. First up, I'll be doing Bear Pen and Vly. These 2 are described as relatively easy as it starts off with woods road and then it's snowmobile tracks to Bear Pen and following the park border the opposite side to vly. I can come in to that ridge "trail" from the north or the south, and I believe I' will do it from the north as it allows me to get to Halcott easier. The only issue I'm having with map planning is that these are not trails so I'm relying on someone's All Trails GPS tracks for how to do these,
So, this weekend looks like it is going to be pretty free for hiking. Saturday looks to be iffy weather in the form of light rain, and Sunday looks to be good weather. So, my plans are to do a few hikes this weekend to add to the 35er count. So, I'm going to start with some of the bushwack trails. First up will be Bearpen and Vly. These 2 are not really much of a bushwack from what I've read. Going in from the south, the herd path to Vly is following the state park border. Bearpen is turning the other way and following snowmobile trails.