OK, my buddy followed his GPS...

From the NY Thuway to Hunta...I was like, make thhe right...that way

No I know a "shorcut"

The shortcut took us to a 1 lane road with signs saying road not maintained for like October to May...whatever...anyway...going up the nasty ridge road...snow and ice starts to accumlate on the "road"

When we come upon some locals...who are stuck in a f250 4x4

He goes, "I can't make it up, and I'm afraid to turn around" They were thowing down ice melt all around the truck

Now let me tell you, trying to turn around on this road is an adventure...any slip up and it's at least 50 feet of a cliff..we were in a jetta so we had more room...

But does anyone know what road I'm talking about?

Alos I heard that even if we did make it over, the road is blocked by a fallen tree...on purpose I guess...

That delayed us by another 1/2 hour easy


So much for GPS

I posted in the wrong forum...can you move this to skiing or where ever

The name of the road escapes me but I was on the upper part this April. It is not a winter short to Hunter as you found out.

that is a flaw of the GPS, mine wanted to take me thru the Smugglers Notch Pass (closed in winter) from Stowe to Smuggs....there must be a way to go into the unit via USB and key that road as closed so it will reroute....my GPS finally did reroute me after about 10 min, i guess it figured out I wasnt turning around togo thru the pass..

I had fun with my GPS unit while driving back from Mammoth last June. When we where in Death Valley I ploted a route home to Las Vegas and the unit chimed in with a "unable to calculate, no routes to destination":-o :lol:

That was funny as there was a way and luckily I had a map to start the trip before the GPS found it as well. Generally I use my Garmin IQ3600 for every ski trip.

Platt Clove Road...
Or the "Back mountain road"... Goes from Elka Park to Saugerstock...
Seasonal(November to April) - cause it's pretty dangerous... Even during the summer it's sketchy... No gaurd rails with huge drops into the valley. Water pouring off the cliff... insane...

A friend of mine actually hit some ice once and her car went off the side - she jumped out before it went over the edge and watched it go a couple hundred feet before it finally stopped... I've heard a ton of stories about accidents in the winter... Usually involving someone getting stuck and another car that can't stop....

It was the shortcut when 23A was out and it's actually a little faster the 23a... So people really used the crap out of it last summer.... It's sketchy in places...
My advice is to not take it...

dmc said:

Platt Clove Road...My advice is to not take it...

Click to expand...

Hey DMC you getting to sound like a real local. Of course your not a local to Hunter until your at least third generation born in Hunter.

Before going up Platt Clove Road you should have seen another sign with the word CLOSED. :smash:

A little history about the Platt Clove Road. It was the main route to Tannersville and Hunter before 23A road was built. Animal hides were delivered from South America by boat up the Hudson River and then Oxen pulled wagon loads up the mountain. The raw animal hides or skins were then tanned to make leather using the plentiful hemlock tree bark in the Catskill mountains. Many of the huge beams in barns through out the Hudson Valley and Catskill mountain are hemlock from the tanning era. H'mm I wonder why they called it Tannersville.

loafer89 said:

I the unit chimed in with a "unable to calculate, no routes to destination":-o :lol:

Click to expand...

The Northeastern GPS's would have said "You can't get theah from heah...."

I'm a post 911 NYC expatriot...
But I think I'm as local as you can get..

So the tanning industy deforested the hemlocks on Hunter Mt...

This painting of a deforested Hunter Mt.actually helped start the conservation movement that created national parks accross the country...
http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=r&p=a&a=i&ID=1054

Could you imagine how AWESOME the BC skiing would be if those forests were still there? We've skied a couple that still exist... And it's really great...

Well all I can say, it was one of the most scariest "roads" I've ever been on

very pretty views, if I wasn't so afraid

I had a friend do the same thing heading to the River.From N.Conway he knew a shortcut.It ended up being through Evans Notch which is not maintained in Winter.That shortcut took an extra hour or so!

Brettski said:

Well all I can say, it was one of the most scariest "roads" I've ever been on

very pretty views, if I wasn't so afraid

Click to expand...

During the summer that whole Platt Klove is pretty sweet to hike and swim

Platt Clove, that's it, Thanks dmc.

5 years ago I took a shortcut from Moab, UT to Dead Horse Point State park thru Deas Horse Point Road. Most of it very steep with footboll sized boulders and I was going uphill in Ford Exploder. At one point SUV would not move from 1st Low speed...

dmc said:

I'm a post 911 NYC expatriot...
But I think I'm as local as you can get..

So the tanning industy deforested the hemlocks on Hunter Mt...

This painting of a deforested Hunter Mt.actually helped start the conservation movement that created national parks accross the country...
http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=r&p=a&a=i&ID=1054

Could you imagine how AWESOME the BC skiing would be if those forests were still there? We've skied a couple that still exist... And it's really great...

Click to expand...

Hey DMC nice link to the Hunter Mountain, Twilight painting. I had read about that years ago. Maybe its time that the Hunter Mountain, Twilight painting return to Hunter, NY. It seems out of place in the Chicago's Terra Museum of American Art.

Yeah after the Tanning, general logging, and Hunter chair factory devastated the Catskills mountains, the Catskill mountain land was considered worthless. This made it possible for NY State to acquire the Catskill Mountain land and make it into a state park. State run Belleaye Ski Area is also a result of the cheap worthless land purchased by NY State. It wasn't all bad. Unfortunately now the forest canopy is to high and to thick for many animals to live. I believe we need to clear cut small sections and plant these sections with low growth food source plants to increase bird and mammal populations. Other states like PA have done this kind of forest management with much success.

As you noted, backcountry skiing Catskills is limited with the thick forest. There are some good lines around. Last few years natural snow has been a major problem. There is always the old DEC roads that lead to the five fire towers in the Catskills. I have skied few of these.

Thanks again for the link. ;-)