Slide Mountain Loop by Ben Nephew

Slide Mountain Loop
10/9/2010
15.1 miles
6400’ of climbing


My wife’s family lives in New Paltz, NY, which has some of the finest trails I’ve ever run at the Mohonk Preserve and Minnewaska State Park. I never really felt the need to go north into the Catskills; I guess Escarpment gave me my fill of that region for the year. Running Devil’s Path earlier this year definitely got me interested in exploring other trails besides Escarpment, and I soon realized that a loop around Wittenberg, Cornell, and Slide mountains would make a perfect long run. Unlike some ultra runners, I still really enjoy 2-3hr long runs. Most of this is probably to the fact I don’t have time to do anything longer! Actually, what I like about relatively shorter long runs is trying to do them hard, rather than just putting time on my feet. I wasn’t sure how long this loop would take me since I have never been on any of the trails, but my initial guess was 3-3.5hrs. I hit the road at about 6am, and started up the trail from the Woodland Valley campground around 7:20 or so.

Let me back up for a moment. If you like to drive, heading from New Paltz to Woodland Valley by way of Mohonk, route 213 and route 28A over the Ashokan Reservoir was one of the best drives I have ever done. The roads were empty, the trees were on fire, and it just one perfect turn after another. I almost skipped the run and just turned back to do it again!

My actual run started up the Wittenberg Cornell Slide trail, which gets right up to business. My legs were not liking the early climbs, but I just eased into it. With over 2500’ of climbing in the first 3.5 miles to the summit of Wittenberg, not all of it was running. I passed a woman at about a half mile in, and then had the trail to myself the rest of the way. It was a perfect cool and dry fall day, and I was looking forward to the views from Wittenberg. Right before the 3500’ sign, I passed one of the finest campsites I have ever seen. It was right on the shoulder of the mountain on a small ledge with expansive views of the Devil’s Path and the Escarpment to the north. The campers were just getting coffee going, and I snuck by on the trail as quietly as possible. There were a couple more ledges, and then I was suddenly on the summit rocks. I usually feel that my camera takes decent pictures, but I’m unhappy with the photos from the top of Wittenberg. I don’t think any camera could have done the job, though. It’s a spectacular view from the Devil’s Path to the shining Ashokan to the Slide Mountain Wilderness. The air was perfectly still, the foliage was approaching peak, and it felt like I had just stepped into a painting. In the year since we visited the Alps I’ve gotten a bit depressed at times about not living in a place quite as spectacular as Serre Chevalier. When I was on top of Wittenberg, I suddenly realized that there are places just as spectacular close to home, I just don’t take the time to visit them often enough.

The descent and ascent from Wittenberg to Cornell Mountain was a really fun section of trail; technical, but still runable for most of it. The crux of the climb up Cornell was the Cornell Crack, which reminded me of Exit Cracks on the Eiger that I climbed as a young lad still in diapers. I suffered a bit with the altitude, but finally struggled up to the summit, which didn’t have great views. However, there were several nice views on the way down Cornell to Slide Mountain, intermixed with multiple ledges that made for a fun descent that could be run quickly.

It was a bit hard to follow the trail on the plateau between Cornell and Slide, but I didn’t lose too much time. The ascent up Slide was about 1000’ and became steep enough for a couple of ladders towards the top. Knowing that this was the last big climb, I pushed the pace hard, and my legs were shot by the time I reached the summit. There are no views right from the summit, and I missed the side trail leading to a viewpoint. This was probably because I was running 6 minute pace at over 4000’ on the most runable section of trail over 4k I have ever seen. I’m sure it’s not any fun to hike, but it was pretty wild hammering down off the summit of the highest mountain in the Catskills at that pace. I got down to 5:45 pace at one point. The trail become more technical at times after that first mile, but it was still a very rapid way to lose altitude.

I passed the first hikers I had seen since the my climb up Wittenberg about halfway down Cornell and I then took a right onto the Phoenicia East Branch trail to the trailhead on route 47. I had to run on the road for a mile or so uphill until reaching Winnisook Lake. The Winnisook Club owns the prime piece of property around the lake, and that is a club I would like to belong to someday. Fortunately, they do allow access to an old carriage road at the north end of the lake, which allowed me to cut out a section of road. This section of trail reminded me a bit of the roads at Mohonk, without the fine gravel.

The trail became a bit rocky as I passed the intersection to the Giant Ledge trail and rejoined the Phoenicia East, and I had to watch my footing with all the fallen leaves hiding the rocks. After a particularly steep descent, there was the last hill of the loop. It was only about 300’ high, but it was moderately steep, and my legs were done with climbing. The lower section was a long stone staircase that must have taken an impressive amount of work to construct. It reminded me of the stairs on the Skyline trail in the Blue Hills.

There was only about a mile of downhill back to the parking lot, but the footing was pretty rough, with one section similar to the nasty talus field at the start and finish of the 7 Sisters near Amherst, MA. I stopped my watch at 2:47:09. According the map, the loop is about 15.1 miles. My GPS track is 17.1 miles, but some sort of alien interference added a couple miles after Lake Winnisook. I was back in New Paltz by about 11am. It was a great long run loop that I highly recommend.

My GPS track: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/52532008