Monday, May 26, 2014

Devils Path Day 1

May 23, 2014
Devils Path western 1/3 Westkill Mtn (3880ft) and St Anne's Peak (3420)
End of Spruceton rd - 7.2 Miles west

I left the house at 7am to start my hike of the devils path. I am hiking myself today and joining the AMC hiking group in the morning to complete the first two thirds of the trail. I could not join them for all three days of the scheduled hike since it is my father-in-law 80th birthday on Monday.


It rained last night and it looked like it was going to be a blah day. When I arrived at the trail head at about 9:30am and you can barely see the Mountain as it was overcast with the clouds so low. The forecast called for possible rain and thunder storms.

The trail started on a gravel road for .7 miles and then straight up 1600ft in 1.4 miles,  to West Kill mountain at 3880 ft. The trail was very wet and muddy making it slow going with plenty of mud pits.   The visibility at Buck Ridge lookout just before the peak was was near 0.  The next climb to ST. Anne's was only 400ft







I met just one group of hikers who spent the night out last night. They said there was large hail hitting their tent during the night.

I was trying to decide where to make camp for the night since there were no shelters on this section of the trail. I was getting nervous that would not find a dry spot as it seemed I was hiking in a swamp the last 1.5 miles.  I finally found a nice flat spot .5 miles from the trail head at around 4:00. This only my third time camping on my own and it is always a little creepy.

I was excited to try one of my dinners I made for the JMT as I made a few extras for this trip. I had Beef Broccoli and rice and it was really good. A lot better then anything you can buy.


My first day on the Devil path did not seem too hard and devilish. If the rest of the trail was like this, it is going to be easy.

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