Trip Report
02/07/2015-02/08/2015
Kelly Hollow, Balsam Lake Mountain Wild Forrest, South Western Catskills, NY
This trip was organized via the meetup.com group East Coast Hammock Campers http://www.meetup.com/East-Coast-Hammock-Campers/. Treywilly, Jollyonthe AT and myself were looking for a little outdoor winter adventure, a quick overnighter, a chance to try out some snowshoe backpacking, a night to test and play with some gear and generally enjoy the a winter’s night hanging in our hammocks. I was also looking to try out the pulk I had put together over a year ago but never used.
We decided on checking out a place called Kelly Hollow in the Balsam Lake Wild Forest in the Central Catskills. The Trail is actually a 3.8 mile state cross country ski/hiking loop trail with a shelter and privy at about the half way around point. None of us thought a 2 miles hike would be much of a challenge, especially considering it’s a cross country ski trail too….. how hard could it be? Right?
Originally we planned on meeting at the trail head at 10:00AM but since the hike was so short we pushed this back to noon on Saturday 2/7/2015. Treywilly was going to meet me at my place at about 8:30 and we would ride up together getting there at about noon. We were shooting the sh*t the whole ride up and the GPS was on mute so we missed the turn off for Rt 28 and ended up having to get off in Woodstock and take a roundabout way. This added about 30 minutes to the trip.
Kelly Hollow is pretty remote and cell reception was lost about 6 miles before the trailhead. We arrived at about 12:15 and met Jolly who had already been there about 20 minutes and being an ultralighter, was all set to go. I’m not quite an ultra lighter and plus I was going to use my pulk for the first time so between introductions, and getting all the gear ready I don’t think we got on the trail till about 12:45. We immediately realized that no one had been to Kelly Hollow in some time and the foot or so of fresh powder dropped by storms earlier in the week sat there on the trail ahead of us undisturbed……. Hmmmmm.. No matter, this is what snowshoes are made for…. Right? And I’m pulling a pulk….. loaded with more gear and food and water than I really need…… and beer and whiskey…….. this is a good idea still right? Pulling a pulk seems so easy on all those Youtube videos? Right Shug? Right KCHappyCamper?
One thing I’ve learned about myself on these trips, is that I an EXTREMELY terrible at looking at a topographical map and visualizing the land in my head.... The trail is never ever like I expect it to be……Anyway we get going and immediately I realize this is going to be a little harder than we thought. While this is supposedly a cross country ski trail, it’s almost all uphill. I have no idea how one would ski uphill, but I guess it’s done. Since I am pulling a 60lb pulk, and I’m fat and out of shape and a former smoker I immediately fall to the back. Jolly and Treywilly are breaking trail and it’s much appreciated by me. I tried breaking it myself a little for them but that was not going to work out too well. They just popped back in front and trudged on……
Normally we would expect a short 2 mile hike to the shelter on a woods road\ski trail to take about an hour or so. Our hike took just over 3. We climbed about 534 feet according to my GPS but most of it was in the first mile. After that we followed the contour lines around a hill to the hollow and the shelter. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous with some trail running through some groves of very tall pines…… The pics make us feel very tiny. There were two water crossings but luckily they both had intact stable bridges…. We saw a bunch of animal tracks, but I don’t think we actually saw any wildlife….. Unless you count a manic shirtless and screaming Treywilly running through the snow as I finally approached the shelter……
Arriving at the shelter was a god send….. I was pretty well spent when I got there and don’t think I was going to be able to go much further. I was at the point where I would pull the sled 4 or 5 steps at a time, stop and rest and then move on……It was sooooooo nice to finally be able to sit down, unhook the sled and start pass around some celebratory beers that not only tasted great going down, but would also no longer be weighing the pulk down on the hike back……
Once we chilled out a bit we scoped out placed to hang and ended up setting up about 20 yards or so behind the shelter. The area had a lot of tall pines and little underbrush so it was perfect for hanging. Once we were all dialed in, we spend a little time gathering some firewood and Treywilly cleaned out the fire pit that was covered in a foot of snow when we arrived. Before long we were all sharing stories, over beers and whiskey, enjoying the fire and getting some hot food. While Treywilly and I had ramen and Mountain House, JollyontheAT stepped it up a notch with some items from PackitGourmet.com . I was pretty impressed and will have to make a point of ordering a couple of meals to try out for myself.
After a few more drinks, some gear talk, trail stories, background on each other and debate on the route out, it was about 9:00. The fire was dying down, and firewood was in short supply so we decided to start packing it in and call it a night. Jolly wasted no time and was out first. His snores could be heard before I even had my boots off. The temps were only around 27 so it wasn't too cold. We all stayed warm and comfortable in our downy goodness…..Most of the night at least….. Unknown to me Treywilly is apparently an insomniac and I woke around 1:00AM to some noises in camp and then bright flashes. He was up and about taking pics in the middle of a light evening snow! He got some pretty good ones too.
Morning came at about 6:45 or maybe 7:00 or so. I could already head Jolly and Treywilly up and about and starting the process of breaking camp. We were aiming to be on the trail back by 9:00 or as close to it as possible. A hot item for debate the previous evening was the route we would take out this morning. Originally we had planned on making it a 4 mile loop. Seeing as how breaking fresh trail on the way in was much harder than we anticipated and there was a winter storm warning beginning at noon the next day for the entire area……. A group decision was made to take advantage of the broken trail we made earlier in the day and head out the same way we came in. No one was in much of a mood to break another 2 miles of fresh trail while racing the storm.
We packed and had some breakfast and coffee. Treywilly and I had instant oatmeal and Jolly ate like a king with some Packit Gourmet broccoli mushroom cream soup… or something like that. I forget what it was exactly but he was kind enough to let us try and it and it was delicious! The rest of the morning was fairly uneventful. We were a little behind and finally made it out of camp at about 9:15 or so. We took a little more garbage than we came with as the previous occupants of the shelter were apparently not big believers in LNT. I did however end up leaving my Bahco Laplander Saw. I dropped it in the snow near the shelter while collecting firewood and it was never to be seen again. I guess someone in the spring will have a new tool. I hope you enjoy it and put her to good use…. whoever you are.
Originally we hoped to make it the two miles back to the car by 11:00 as the Winter Storm Warning said it was supposed to start snowing by noon. We flew on the way back though and made it back to the car in just over an hour as opposed to the 3 plus hours the trail in took us a day earlier. We were at the cars around 10:20. Since the pulk was the last thing up the trail yesterday it really did a nice job of basically paving it. Our snowshoes floated over the packed snow rather than sinking and the walk was a real delightful walk in the woods as opposed to the trudging work of breaking trail the day before. We packed up, and had one last celebratory beer and hit the road for the town of Phoenicia.
It took us about 45 minutes or so to get from the trail head back to Phoenicia, NY where we planned on hitting up the Phoenicia Diner for some real food. I must say if you’re in the area, stop in. The place was packed with skiers from the resorts in the area so we ended up getting 3 stools at the bar. The place looks like an old roadside diner, but apparently it’s under new ownership and the menu is a little more upscale than you’re run of the mill diner. We could see everything coming out of the kitchen and it all looked great. Upon Jolly’s recommendation I went with the house made corned beef hash skillet, with sourdough toast, coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice. It was great. From our stool at the bar we could see everything coming out of the kitchen and it all looked pretty awesome. The place was a little pricey but it was worth it and I’ll hit it up again for sure the next time I’m in the area. Once breakfast was done, we said our goodbyes and Jolly hit the road while Treywilly and I headed back to Jersey.
All in it was a great trip even though it was a much much much harder 2 miles than any of us imagined it would be. We can’t wait to go again.
Lessons Leaned /Things to work on
1. Improve Fitness Level
2. Snowshoeing is hard work
3. Breaking Trail is REALLY hard work
4. Pulling a pulk isn’t as easy as it looks on Youtube.
5. Don’t bring everything and the kitchen sink just because you have a pulk
6. Broken Packed snow RULES
7. Need to figure out a cover for the pulk to prevent it from filling with snow
8. Probably do not need to use the fins on the bottom of the pulk in powder. They collected ice around them
9. Tie some reflective cord to your tools so if you drop them in a foot of snow, hopefully the cord sticks out and you can find them.
10. Vapor Barrier Socks work great
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More pics are available here if you want to check them out.https://plus.google.com/photos/10197...66266300329297
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Originally Posted by Ratdog
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