Another trip to the Catskills! I was counting the days until we could get back up. I’ve really fallen in love with these mountains. Every time we go, they become more and more familiar. This time we stayed in Phoenicia in a rustic cabin. The cabin had a warm, glowing fire, and the main lodge was decorated for the holidays, which really set the mood perfectly. The town of Phoenicia is centrally located in the Catskills, so it was a great base with plenty of options for different hiking trails.

There was already snow on the ground from a few days earlier, so I wasn’t sure how my low-clearance car was going to manage. I went with no expectations and decided that if worse came to worst and we didn’t get out on the trail, we’d still have a nice place to stay and relax.

Our original plan was to hike to Balsam Lake Fire Tower. This trip was more of a recon trip to reacquaint ourselves with our winter gear and get a feel for hiking upstate. We’re experienced with snow hiking on the West Coast, but the East Coast is a completely different beast. The cold and wind come at much lower elevations, and as with any mountain, temperatures and weather conditions can change in an instant.

As we drove along Route 28 and up and over Belleayre Mountain, the temperature dropped, the winds picked up, and the snow started coming down fast. We decided to turn around, just in case conditions got worse. If we had an AWD vehicle, that might have been a different story, but I didn’t want to spend the weekend waiting for a tow truck to pull us out of a snow drift.

It was already late in the day, so we decided to head over to the trailhead for Hunter Mountain on Spruceton Road and see what the driving was like over there. I was more worried about the car than the hiking, because once we’re on the trail, we’re good to go.

The afternoon was very quiet and still, and the only sound I heard was the flow of Hunter Brook. The trail was doable in either spikes or snowshoes; however, if we’d had time to go farther up the mountain, we definitely would have switched to snowshoes.

We were able to get in a few miles before the short winter day started to fade and the sun began to set behind the mountain. We headed back to the cabin, checked in, and then went out for a bite to eat before settling in for a warm, cozy evening.

The night was so quiet and peaceful. We woke up Sunday morning to a few more inches of snow. It was nice to look out the window and see towering pine trees instead of towering skyscrapers for a change. We had a light breakfast and took our time in the morning, hoping the DEC might have the trailhead plowed out so we could get in another hike on Hunter before heading back to the city. Spruceton Road was plowed just fine, but unfortunately the parking area at the trailhead wasn’t, and my car just can’t handle snow like that. We headed back to the cabin to enjoy the rest of the day in the beauty of the Catskills, with a cozy fire and each other’s company, before making our way back to the city.

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