Essex County

I decided it was a nice day out, and I wanted to be able to say I had gone up to the tallest peak in the Catskills, at 4,180 feet. According to Wikipedia, it may actually be somewhat taller then that (as much as 4,200 feet), but they’ve never done a bench mark on the top of it.

The first part of the trail is fairly steep.

It climbs up to an old woods road, that is an easy walk and relatively flat, as it goes up to the Curtis-Olsbee Trail. You see the split between the old Jeep trail up Slide Mountain, and the the trail to Curstis-Olsmbee.

The trail crosses a high footbridge, without rails. It once was a full-size bridge for vechicles, but no more.

Reaching a historic marker of Curtis-Olmsbee Trail.

You climb, and then there are some places with views to South and West as you continue along. A few moderately steep places, but overall the trail is not super-steep.

The trail once you reach the first couple of views, remains relatively flat as you wander past several swamps and borreal forests.

When you reach almost the top there is a point where you can see almost 70 named peaks.

Enjoying the mountains.

The top of the mountain is John Broughs Point. It has some interesting, partial views to the north and east.

The Ashokan Reservior from Slide Mountain.

An established, primative campsite about 3/4 the way down the mountain or one mile from the Slide Mountain Parking Area.

By the time I left, the parking lot was packed.

Here is a map of the route I took.