The Catskill "9" (NY)

[Cat Skill]

The "9" is a classic, tough loop hike in the Catskill Mountains of NY that traverses 9 high peaks above 3500ft. It is obvious enough on a map, there is a big crescent of trails that covers Table and Peekamoose mountains to the south and The Wittenberg, Cornell, and Slide to the north. The catch is, to connect these sections of trail you have to bushwhack the other peaks, Lone, Rocky, Balsam Cap, and Friday, as they are trailless. Each of these four summits has a canister maintained by the Catskill 3500 club, that you can sign to show that you were there. This trailless section is extremely thick woods in places requiring experience with map, compass and/or GPS navigation, all the while trying to move quickly. While I know of many people to have hiked the 9, I don't know of anyone who has tried to run it for time.

I started from the Denning parking area and headed up the Phoenicia East branch trail. These are my splits to the summits:

1. Table 56:52.
2. Peekamoose 1:06:47
3. Lone in 1:40:43
4. Rocky 2:05:58
5. Balsam Cap 2:47:11
6. Friday 3:13:25
7. Cornell 4:06:34
8. Wittenberg 4:24:12
9. Slide 5:16:50
Car 6:07:50

The whole loop was 19.6 miles with about 5700 feet of elevation. Here's the GPS track log. connect.garmin.com/activity/169726485#

As there are at least three places to start this loop, it might be more appropriate to not count the approach section from the parking area. This way you can start the watch at any point on the loop, and stop it when you return to that spot. This would make about 17.3 miles with my time being 5:47.

[Cat Skill]

Well after 2 years and as many knee surgeries, I figured I'd give this another shot. I used the same route as last time, starting and ending in Denning PA. It was a perfect day weather was nice and cool, no bugs, no more snow, but after a couple of days of heavy rain, the trails everywhere were wet and muddy, even the woods were muddy in places. I took a big chunk off my previous time, running the loop in 5:33:10. Here are my splits:

1. Table 54:17
2. Peekamoose 1:03:44
3. Lone 1:29:29
4. Rocky 1:55:31
5. Balsam Cap 2:26:45
6. Friday 2:55:21
7. Cornell 3:40:08
8. Wittenberg 3:51:43
9. Slide 4:42:01
Car 5:33:10

and my GPS track log connect.garmin.com/activity/502381393

I think I'm done on this one, not sure I can go much faster. Most of the time I made up was on the bushwhack with better navigation, the knees just can't take any faster running on the trails.

[Peter Bakwin]

From his profile, I surmise that "gunksrunner" is Mike Siudy. It's good to give your name so that we can credit you with the FKT!

[Cat Skill]

Wow, totally spaced on that one. I am Mike Siudy.

[Kali Bird]

Hiya Mike.

I think we've met before at a Gunks Fat Ass..

I'm thinking about running this this weekend and was wondering how long it would take me. I expected around 6 hours if all goes smoothly. Thanks for posting! If /when I run it, I'll post my times.

Cheers.


Kali

www.HikeNY.com

[kenposner]

I've done (or attempted) this route several times, and Mike's time is extremely impressive. The trails are rocky and steep, and if you make a wrong move in the bushwhacks, you'll get caught in dense spruce-fir thickets or go down the wrong valley, which can add hours to your time!

[Cat Skill]

Thanks Ken. I went out today and lowered my time to 4:49:52. Had wet conditions and some minor navigational errors so there's still a little meat on the bone for this one.

connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1148440021

Splits
1. Table 51:18
2. Peekamoose 1:00:55
3. Lone 1:27:08
4. Rocky 1:47:25
5. Balsam Cap 2:11:45
6. Friday 2:34:24
7. Cornell 3:06:27
8. Wittenberg 3:16:21
9. Slide 4:02:31
Car 4:49:52

[Marco]

This is incredibly impressive -- I ran just Wittenberg - Slide + Table & Peekamoose recently, couldn't image where to find the best route over the trailless peaks. Is there any way I can download the gps track? Sorry, new to this. Thanks!

[e-mail]