Hiking: Romer Mountain Hike and Trail Crew Work | Catskill Mountains, NY | June 10, 2012
Romer Mountain is the site of the start of the new section of the Long Path that will be replacing a road walk along Woodland Valley Road. The new trail will eventually climb Romer Mountain, make its way over Cross Mountain and Mount Pleasant before connecting with the Terrace Mountain Trail near the Terrace Mountain Lean-to. When completed, there will be about 7-8 miles of new trail built and that will replace what was about an 8 mile road walk along Woodland Valley Road.
I was there to help the Trail Crew out and to finalize the route from the base of the mountain up to the top of the ridge. The rough route you can see on the map above. This roughly 2 1/2 mile route makes several sweeping switchbacks up what is a very steep slope up to Romer Mountain. The new trail will go by several different interesting areas and will require some extensive trail construction work in places to install waterbars, stone steps and lots of side-hilling.
Got to try out my newest toy on this hike, the Forerunner 405. Did an excellent job tracking my wanderings up the mountain (in a few places you can see it took me a few back and forth trips to find flagging) and it was neat to get back home and have the location data, along with all the bio data from the heart monitor attachment. Definitely something I'll be using on future hikes, if only to be able to have a visual record of my trips. Full review coming soon.
The new trail starts near High Street along the Esopus River and then uses old roads along with new routes to sweep back and forth across the face of Romer Mountain. There are a few steeper sections, but considering the overall slope of this face of the mountain, I find it quite amazing at just what a comfortable to walk trail that we laid out.
As the Trail Crew broke up into two groups (one worked down from the top, the other worked up from the bottom), I went and really flagged the route, making sure that future crews, whether I am there or not, will be able to find the route.
If you are interested in helping out with the construction of this trail, Trail Crews are open to the public and no experience is necessary. The Trail Conference's Trail Crew Calendar has all of the work trips that are scheduled for this trail.
, which is the best set of maps available for hiking in the Catskills. 
How about a guidebook? Both AMC
and ADK
publish Trail Guides to the Catskill Region
I was there to help the Trail Crew out and to finalize the route from the base of the mountain up to the top of the ridge. The rough route you can see on the map above. This roughly 2 1/2 mile route makes several sweeping switchbacks up what is a very steep slope up to Romer Mountain. The new trail will go by several different interesting areas and will require some extensive trail construction work in places to install waterbars, stone steps and lots of side-hilling.
Got to try out my newest toy on this hike, the Forerunner 405. Did an excellent job tracking my wanderings up the mountain (in a few places you can see it took me a few back and forth trips to find flagging) and it was neat to get back home and have the location data, along with all the bio data from the heart monitor attachment. Definitely something I'll be using on future hikes, if only to be able to have a visual record of my trips. Full review coming soon.
The new trail starts near High Street along the Esopus River and then uses old roads along with new routes to sweep back and forth across the face of Romer Mountain. There are a few steeper sections, but considering the overall slope of this face of the mountain, I find it quite amazing at just what a comfortable to walk trail that we laid out.
As the Trail Crew broke up into two groups (one worked down from the top, the other worked up from the bottom), I went and really flagged the route, making sure that future crews, whether I am there or not, will be able to find the route.
If you are interested in helping out with the construction of this trail, Trail Crews are open to the public and no experience is necessary. The Trail Conference's Trail Crew Calendar has all of the work trips that are scheduled for this trail.
For More Catskills Information
Check out our Catskill Mountain Information Page for hikes, advice and planning information. Need a hiking map for the Catskills? The Trail Conference publishes the Catskills Trails Map Set, which is the best set of maps available for hiking in the Catskills. How about a guidebook? Both AMC and ADK publish Trail Guides to the Catskill Region 
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