Big Indian Mountain

"A traverse of Fir, Big Indian and Eagle from Burnham Hollow road to McKenley Hollow TH. At the canister on Fir we sipped on hot coffee with maple syrup in our squishy silicone goblets, not just for race day, along with some donuts and donut-like pastry. Over at the Big Indian canister we had our usual tablecloth buffet lunch plus several loafs of Stromboli. After getting properly fortified we made quick work of reaching the brightly painted canister on Eagle then down toward McKenley Hollow with the daylight fading on us. Headlamps we’re deployed for the final half hour." — Nimblefoot • Dec 26, 2019

"We did our usual loop from Burnham Hollow to McKenley Hollow tagging Fir, Big Indian and Eagle. Since this was a special hike we had a longer than usual snack break at the Fir canister. One of our peeps, a CIA instructor, brought some tasty pastry- Stollen and elephant ears which was enjoyed with hot coffee with maple syrup mixed in. Both Christy and Mary completed their Single Season Fall on Big Indian and received their patches via “trail mail”. Additionally Christy completed her 4-Season Grid on BI and received her patch at the canister. Afterwards the eight of us lunched on Korean pancakes, dumplings, kimchi, cookies and cheesecake washed down with homemade spicy ginger tea. Eagle was a quick in and out so we could get down the ridge to McKenley Hollow in daylight, not putting on headlamps until fairly close to the TH." — Nimblefoot • Dec 15, 2019

"Solo loop of Big Indian and Doubletop from the Seager PA. Met Mike and Ellen Dwyer on the whack between Big Indian and DT. They were doing the same two peaks, in reverse order, for Ellen’s 2nd Grid. Then a few minutes after reaching the canister on DT Lou Berrios strolled in from Graham. We had a 15 - 20 minute chat then he headed down or so I thought. I followed about 10 minutes later after I got my sandwich out at 2:20pm. Once my wet feet warmed up I cruised back to the Seager PA hoping to catch up to Lou and the Dwyers on the way but it turned out that I was the first to arrive back. Changed into dry clothes and footwear then prepped for the 2+ hour drive." — Nimblefoot • Nov 11, 2019

"Seven of us did a traverse of Fir, Big Indian, Eagle and Balsam from Burnham Hollow road to Rider Hollow. We had a rather wet start that only got worse the closer to Fir we got then once we hit the canister the rain amazingly ceased. We actually had pieces of blue sky and sun peeking out at us on our way over to Big Indian where we celebrated a Yong Ae’s completion of a single season summer Cat 35. After a tasty Korean banquet complete with table cloth we dropped down to the P-W trail and headed for Eagle. Our first time signing into the new canister. On Balsam Christy and I celebrated our completion of a single season summer and received our triangle patch. Down at the Rider Hollow leanto three friends, Anna, Connie and Jim, prepared hot dogs/buns with sauerkraut and baked beans, beverages, big soft pretzels and brownies. A glorious day once the rain stopped two hours into our hike, walking our clothes dry all day." — Nimblefoot • Sep 2, 2019

"Took steamboat ridge up to Fir, cruising over Peak 3208 on the way, then the usual land bridge crossing over to Big Indian. Finished the day by cruising out the P-W trail back to the PA. Nice comfortably warm day." — Nimblefoot • Jul 25, 2019

"Tom, Peter and I did a nice stroll from Burnham Hollow road to Millbrook road visiting the five summits of Fir, BI, DT, Graham and BLM. By the time we hit the old cinder block building on top of Graham we were glad to leave the bushwhacking behind and enjoy some trail hiking to finish the day. On Fir we bumped into Mark P. another early finisher of the Catskill All Trails Challenge. He joined us for the hike over to Big Indian then headed right on the P-W trail for Eagle while turned left to head toward Doubletop. Graham completed my 31st round of the Catskill 35." — Nimblefoot • Jun 8, 2019

"Tom, Miyon, Miyon, Tim, Christy and I did a loop of Fir, Big Indian and Eagle from Burnham Hollow road. After breaking a new track most of the way to Fir we had a fresh track from today to follow all the way to Big Indian making it an easy trek. Big Indian was Christy’s final peak for her W35 so we got a video of her reaching the canister under an arch of trekking poles. A variety of celebratory snacks were consumed as we signed into the logbook and took some goofy photos. Off to Eagle hoping for a broken trail." — Nimblefoot • Mar 9, 2019

"Rob and I enjoyed a crisp, windy day exploring the woods and whacking our way up and over 3 Catskill peaks. Our gain for the day was ~3800' over 14+ miles. The blue skies, fun stream crossings, crunchy snow and howling wind made for a great adventure!" — deb-and-rob • Feb 9, 2019

"Seven of us did a loop of Fir, Big Indian and Eagle mountains from Barnum Hollow road. We picked up an eighth person, George from the Albany area, at the canister on Fir. We rotated leads for breaking out a track, in some nice deep fluff, acrossed the land bridge to Big Indian. After another group photo we dropped down the herd path to the P-W trail where we bid adiu to George as he headed left toward Biscuit brook lot and we headed right toward Eagle mountain. Somehow we lost the normal herd path after leaving the can, no sign of old tracks, so our track is good at the two ends but wanders a bit in between. We headed up the trail a bit to find a nice spot for our lunch which was augmented with home made dumplings and hot ginger tea thanks to Yong Ae. Properly fortified it was back to breaking trail towards Eagle, our third and final peak." — Nimblefoot • Feb 2, 2019

"Tom, Steve and I did a nice traverse of Fir, Big Indian and Eagle from Rt 47 to Burnham Hollow PA. After a hot climb of Fir we headed acrossed the land bridge to BI. Up high the temperature was much cooler and humidity much lower so our soaked clothes were now cooling us....nice! Followed herd paths all the way acrossed so no navigational instruments were harmed during this adventure. After doing the usual sign-in and perusal of past visitors we whacked a short cut over to the P-W trail on our way to Eagle. " — Nimblefoot • Aug 30, 2018