Blackhead Mountain

Blackhead is a mountain located in Greene County, New York. The mountain is part of the Blackhead range of the Catskill Mountains. Blackhead is flanked to the northeast by Black Dome.

A panoramic view of the Catskills from Blackhead Mountain.
A panoramic view from Blackhead Mountain. The prominent peak in the foreground is Black Dome.

Blackhead stands within the watershed of the Hudson River, which drains into New York Bay. The southwest side of Blackhead drains into East Kill, thence into Schoharie Creek, the Mohawk River, and the Hudson River. The north side of Blackhead drains into the headwaters of Batavia Kill, and thence into Schoharie Creek. The east side of Blackhead drains into Trout Brook, thence into Shingle Kill, Catskill Creek, and the Hudson River.

Blackhead is within New York’s Catskill Park. The Long Path, a 350-mile (560 km) long-distance hiking trail from New York City to Albany, is contiguous with the Escarpment Trail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackhead_%28New_York%29

Black Dome and Blackhead

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I arrived at the trail head off Big Hollow Road around 7 AM. I had set my alarm clock early, so I could get up the peaks early, and get some really good photographs. I also had wanted to get back early, so I could be back in Albany to do some political canvasing for Scott Murphy. While the later did not happen, as I was running late, the trail up the mountain was flat for the first 3/4 of a mile, then grew somewhat progressively steeper, as the red Black Dome Trail made it up to to the Yellow trail, the Blackhead Mountain Trail.

Blue Skies

It was icy on parts of the trail, particularly as it went further uphill. Then the trail went far enough south to get beyond the very distinctive snow line. There was no snow or ice beyond this line, where the sun gets to the longest part of the day and without the cold northern winds. After the intersection, I went west towards Black Dome. I passed the 3,500 ft elevation sign. The trail gets steeper, and then it seemed to head just far enough north get back in the snow line. It was a bit slippery, but not too bad. Nice southerly views, a bit with trees blocking it.

Then the trail becomes steeper, climbing up a notch in a rock face. A little more snow and ice, then it gets in the woods, and becomes very icy, with the ice melting in the woods. The trail wasn’t all that steep at this point, but I decided not to continue up, and risk getting injured. I turned around, about 100 feet from the peak of Black Dome. I will return to this mountain after hiking up Thomas Cole once the weather warms and the remaining ice is gone.

Percent of Registered Vehicles that Run on Electricity

I then descended Black Dome and continued up Black Head Mountain (the most easterly peak of TriMount). The trail up that was amazing, with some great westerly views, which I was fortunate enough to get some amazing pictures from. I made it up to the top of Black Head Mountain, and the Northern Trail / Escarpment Trail off the mountain was too icy to take back down. It was good insofar as it gave me more opportunities to take pictures on the way down from Black Head looking south-west. Amazing to see all the mountains. Made it back down to the truck around 1 PM.

This DEC trail map I photographed may also be of assistance.

Purple Blue Mountains