Fresh off hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2017, I decided to take on one of the most challenging East Coast hikes with my buddy Max: The Devil's Path in the Catskills. I really wasn't sure where I'd land in terms of mileage on such challenging terrain, so we decided not to take any chances and hiked it as a two-day trip.
It turns out that East Coast hiking makes up for its unassuming altitude with by identifying the easy way over a mountain and then throwing that out in favor of something much more exhausting. The Eastern half of the trail, which we hiked on day one is full of really fun scrambles. If you don't feel comfortable steep incline and declines over rock, rooty, and nearly vertical terrain then you may want to work up to this trail.
However, if you like a bit of adventure in your hikes, then this is the perfect trail to challenge yourself on. It makes for a demanding weekend hike even when split over two days, but most of my friends hike the Devil's Path in a single day. One thing to note... water is somewhat scarce. Most of the trail runs a ride, and there are only a couple decent water sources, so plan ahead as one spring near the middle took me over 10 minutes to locate, and was under so many boulders it was a pain to extract my fill.
The West side of the Devil's Path Trail is like many other Catskills trails. It is a bit tamer when it comes scrambles and semi-technical terrain, though there are a few squared boulders and low rock ledges that may slow down hikers who aren't a bit nimble scaling counter-top size rocks. There are a couple scenic vistas on the Western side and the shapes of the rocks are interesting to see as you hike, but the Eastern side is definitely more exciting. Worth hiking from both directions multiple times to take in all the fun features.
Website: www.hackyourpa...
Instagram: / hackyourpack
Twitter: / hackyourpack
Facebook: / hackyourpack
Thanks for watching! I'm grateful for your support.
Let's be adults and play nice with copyright (both yours and mine).
Video shot by myself and Max
Music licensed from Artlist.io
12 сен 2024
