Tremper Mountain

"Easy hiking day visiting some fire towers and a single peak for my grid. Very warm day(70’s) so I was glad I wore shorts. After tagging Roundtop from Gillespie road I headed down to Phoenicia to climb Tremper, my #4 out of 6 for the ‘24 DEC Fire Tower Challenge. A quick stop in Phoenicia to pickup some fluids then out to the Catskill Visitor Center for an easy stroll to the Upper Esopus fire tower,#5 of 6. Continued on to Woodstock to drive up to the Meads TH for the final climb of the day, Overlook. On my descent I ran into two friends who had driven down from ADK Loj in Lake Placid after Mondays eclipse viewing. We finalized a hike for the next day which is unfortunately forecasted to be cooler and a bit wet with showers(ugh). Overlook completed my fire tower challenge now it’s time to report to the DEC and get my patch." — Nimblefoot • Apr 9, 2024

"First I did Bearpen and Vly out of Johnson Hollow then headed back to Phoenicia for a hike up to the fire tower on top of Tremper. BP and Vly completed my 57th round of the Cat35 then Tremper completed my ‘23 Fire Tower challenge of the DEC." — Nimblefoot • Jun 19, 2023

"It was a tough but beautiful climb. Steady uphill. Flowers coming into bloom, black flies are coming out. Lovely trail but a lot of loose rocky scramble. Tower was locked. Not much view" — melaniehaskell • May 3, 2022

"Getting Windham and Tremper for the month of February. Shortly after leaving the PA on Peck road I had rare sighting of two wolves or wolf-like creatures crossing the trail ahead of me. They were separated a bit and moving fast. The trail to WHP was rutted up and frozen so it was often easier to microspikes to the side in the hard crust. The trail to Tremper was a mix of bare ground and ice patches then eventually all ice or hard crusty snow. Carried snowshoes up to WHP and back without using so on Tremper left them in the car." — Nimblefoot • Feb 16, 2022

"We took the Willow trail for 9.5 miles round trip & 1846 feet of elevation gain. Beautiful trail full of mushrooms—we found fresh maitake & lion’s mane. This was our 23rd fire tower, & it was a beautiful hike to finish the fire tower challenge on!" — EmilyDoucet729 • Oct 17, 2021

"Climbed 2/27/2021. Had 1-2 inches of wet snow during the night before. Temperature was warm for February, 37degrees. Hiked from the Phoenicia Trail (CR 40). Trail was packed down except for the recent wet snow the night before. Used snowshoes. 6.8 miles roundtrip with 2163 feet of elevation gain. Had trouble with my new TSL snowshoes so I had to switch to micro-spikes. Trail able to carry my weight without post holing. Weather was a fine rain and very foggy going up. No views from the fire tower due to the fog. Cab was open. Skies started to clear during our hike down. Half the hikers weren't using snow shoes." — Tree2topper • Feb 27, 2021

"Solo hike of WHP and Tremper on nice blue sky day. Carried the microspikes on WHP but didn’t deploy them as I got good grip on my way up and down in the inch or so of snow. On Tremper it felt like a different season with bare ground and warmer temps in the sunshine. I left the spikes behind and I could have taken more gear out of my pack for an easier ascent. I treated it as a little workout. On my descent of a Tremper I took a bushwhack shortcut from one of the hairpin curves in the trail straight down to the PA to save time. I don’t think I saved much for the hassle of steep drops and briars, much better with plenty of snow to play in." — Nimblefoot • Nov 21, 2019

"Hiking Bearpen and Vly for the month of August using the usual trade routes from Johnson Hollow( Rt 3 ). Bumped into a few other hikers on both peaks while getting soaked by the high humidity in the thick air. Back to the car to change my costume and eat my lunch while relocating to the Willow trail PA off Jessup road. Pleasantly surprised there is no other car in the small lot in early afternoon I head up with lunch belly slowing me a bit in the addition to the increasing heat and humidity. At the tower I find a young couple with a little tyke in a diaper, another couple and the volunteer in a hammock all hanging out at the base. Quaff a tastey beverage while having a short respite then took the required selfie before heading back down. As I neared the PA I passed a couple with a dog heading up at 4:30, definitely fire tower enthusiasts as I saw Jack Freeman’s guide on there dashboard. Another fine day in the Cats." — Nimblefoot • Aug 17, 2019

"Saturday was simply beautiful! We started out the day enjoying coffee on the patio for the first time in months! We enjoyed it so much we got a very late start hiking - as in on trail at Tremper just after 12:30! But the day was warm and sunny and our late start gave us the advantage of missing the clouds. Throughout the day we would climb our last 2 Firetowers ~11 miles and 3400' of gain." — deb-and-rob • Mar 30, 2019

"Headed up to check out the new parking lot for the Willow trail, as reported by Right-On last month, and visit the summits of Carl and Tremper mountains. No recent tracks beyond the SW peak of Carl mountain on the Warner Creek trail. Bare booted all the way to the tower, no need for snowshoes or spikes. Before heading back I climbed the tower for a better view." — Nimblefoot • Dec 5, 2018