Hiking Trail Description

I was definitely nervous to go on this hike. I knew it was long and demanding. It crosses six mountains and some of the gnarliest terrain in the Catskills. But tackling it as part of a group made it a fantastic experience.

Friday Mountain is always hard, but Rocky and Lone are in another league, the two prickliest peaks you can tackle in the Park. In our group of eleven, every single one of us bled. It was awesome.

Catskill 3500 Club Group Hike

As a noob, there’s no way I would tackle this hike alone. At least, not on a first pass. Even in a group, I was concerned about my ability to keep up. But our group leader, Marv Freedman, who leads this hike regularly, assured me I could absolutely do it. I’m not the fastest hiker but I’d been on a few previous hikes with Marv and knew I could trust what he said.

If you want to do this hike, keep an eye on the 3500 Club’s hike schedule and sign up as soon as the hike is posted.

As it turned out, at the pace Marv set, the hike was completely do-able. We took regular breaks, nobody felt pressure to hurry, and we even finished a little under our expected time.

About This Post

The first and last parts of this very long hike — starting with Friday and Balsam Cap and finishing with Table and Peekamoose — are covered more deeply by other posts.

Informationally, this post focuses mostly on Rocky & Lone.

Friday Mountain

Balsam Cap

The hike from the pregnant tree on Friday to Balsam Cap is pretty easy, and super pleasant. Lots of classic Catskills moss, rocks, and roots.

This is the canister on Balsam Cap.

Balsam Cap to Rocky

From the canister on Balsam Cap, the herd path runs southwest, descending into a col.

Very quickly, I realized things had kicked up a notch.

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The parent mountain for this hike is Friday.

If you do this hike, LMK how it went…