Catskills Backpacking Trip - Devils Path

This weekend we finally hit up a trail in the Catskills that I've had my eye on for some time - the Devils Path.  Jeanette Shiloh and I spent the weekend with our friends Colin and Kathleen tacking the trail.  We parked at the Prediger Rd. lot and hiked through to Devils Tombstone Campground in Stony Clove.

We hit the trail around lunchtime and headed up through Jimmy Dolan Notch to the summit of Twin Mountain.  The trail was slow going - rocky and steep!

We had hoped to make it to Mink Hollow for camping but ended up staying in Pecoy Notch as the afternoon drew into the evening, setting up in the saddle between Twin and Sugarloaf Mountain.

The evening was great with an a phenomenal dinner - Katmandu Ramen Chicken concoction, exploding rocks in the campfire, late night cocoa and Hillshire Farms sausage on a baguette.

The next morning we hiked out over Sugarloaf and Plateau Mountains.  A real calf/thigh/knee burner.  There was a considerable amount of snow above 3500 feet for this time of year which made the footing fun.  All in all it was a great weekend.

Grand canyon of Yellowstone

We spent today hiking around the fastest river Ive ever seen. Super steep sand/gravel raveen cut by numerous 100's of feet high water falls. We hiked the 327 stairs  down Uncle Tom's trail aka the "heavy metal stair master".  We finished up on a trail so notrious for bears even dave spent a ton of money on state-of-the-art bear spray. Looks like a mini fire extinguisher. At this point we have only seen chipmunks and a crazy loon- no bears; the nite is still young. This might be our last post... we love u all ;>

Vigin river narrows

We just finished 2 days in the backcountry. By far the most amazing backpacking trip we've ever taken. Essentially You hike from the source of the virgin river where it appears to look like any east coast river down through Zion canyon where it cuts through 1000 foot cliffs of red rock. Amazing. The going was slow. As Jeanette said, the 13 miles felt more like 26. This was due to the continuous river crossings in some areas 5 feet deep. It was a great start to our trip from an outdoors point of view and taxed us physically.  We will sleep well tonight.

Zion narrows

Finally in the great outdoors up in Zion. We came up yesterday and did a couple dayhikes- weeping wall and emerald pools. Last night was a rough night sleep-not the luxury of Vegas beds. It was hot.  Today We are going out on a backcountry overnight trip in the virgin river narrows a slot canyon through Zion.