April 24, 2019 With the growing interest in the Catskills All Trails Challenge (CATC), we have created a Facebook group dedicated to the folks who are hiking the Challenge. The page gives you a place to connect with one another, share information and advice about the trails, ask questions, make plans, share routes, find hiking and carpooling partners and post pictures and descriptions of your adventures on the trails of the Catskill Park.
Anyone who has hiked or is interested in hiking the All Trails Challenge is welcome to join the group. You’ll need a Facebook account to join. Simply go to the following link and ask to join. Catskills All Trails Challenge on Facebook.
We welcome all hikers who share our values of good stewardship of the Catskill Park. We endorse Leave No Trace principles and compliance with the rules and regulations written by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation in order to protect the Catskill Forest Preserve, which was created to protect these lands as “Forever Wild” by an Amendment to the New York State Constitution. These regulations include limited hiking group sizes, with a legal limit of 20 without a special permit. We suggest a limit of 12 to limit impacts on sensitive and endangered plant communities, and to preserve the quality of the wilderness experience. For more, visit our page Recreational Use Regulations for the Catskill Park Forest Preserve.
I would love to find any fellow hikers who are able to hike during the week.
For anyone who is interested in hiking the Challenge. go to the Facebook group page and ask to join. You’ll be connected to hundreds of other hikers who are hiking the Catskills’ trails. https://www.facebook.com/groups/CatskillsAllTrailsChallenge/
any reason why the Vernooy Kill Falls trail is not included? How about the Red Eft and Bluestone loops or Turnpike trail in the vicinity of Onteora Lake?
Many new trails have been added in the Bluestone Wild Forest with the primary intent of providing mountain biking trails. Although they are multipurpose trails, we feel that mountain biking and hiking are not truly compatible activities. Several years ago we delisted the Jockey Hill trails for that reason. The Red Eft and Bluestome Loops were hiking trails until recently and are listed as required trails (they did not have names when we created the program). They are still popular hiking rails, so we have not delisted them or the yellow blazed Onteora Lake Trail. We don’t plan to add any other biking trails to the list. The new section of the Vernooy Falls Trail was a snowmobile trail only until a few years ago. Today it adds a parking area that provides quick access to the falls. We will consider adding it, but we have no plans to do so at this time.