"A loop of the two Hunters and Rusk after clearing two small blowdowns on my adopted section of the Diamond Notch trail. Getting some peaks for a winter round before the “Big Storm” comes in a day or two. Overnight flurries that continued into the early AM put a dusting of snow on the ground hiding the various ice patches leading to micro spikes going on and off all day. Wonderful day looking like a winter wonderland on the ground and blue patches with bright sun in the sky." — Nimblefoot • Jan 5, 2024

"Sherri and I joined Richard in getting his last three peaks to close out the month of December for his grid. Beautiful day in the winter wonderland with snow still hanging on the trees. Fortunately all trails and the rail bed/herd path to SWH were broken out making for work for us. The knuckleheads who broke a track over East Rusk to Rusk and down to the Spruceton trail need to improve their game in trail braking. It was great that they did it but they plowed through stuff that was totally unnecessary and missed the entire herd path coming off of Rusk. Great day of laughs, giggles and the occasional slip and fall that we labeled as performance art in the slippery powdery snow." — Nimblefoot • Dec 13, 2023

"Loop of the two Hunters and the two summits of Rusk with Richard and Pat on a lovely day. My first time hiking with Pat and she is certainly a new friend. She is a local, knows all the who what and where of the Catskills, and likes to cook and bake. Richard and I got our fill of her delicious home made chocolate chip cookies….one per peak plus some extras…my kind of hike(!)." — Nimblefoot • Aug 23, 2023

"A loop of Rusk, East Rusk, Hunter and SW Hunter from the Spruceton trail PA which wasn’t plowed out at 8:30 am. Bare booted up the Spruceton trail to the hairpin turn where I hopped onto a rough snowshoe track. Bare booters put numerous divots in the track over the weekend and now they are frozen. Spikes went on for the climb up to the canister then switched to snowshoes for the trek over the East peak of Rusk. Two tracks between the peaks and down to the Spruceton trail looked like they were made by two squirrels running around. Up to the tower on Hunter for the month and day #216 of 366 for the 4K/day challenge. Bit blustery on the summit with wind blowing through the tower that sounded like an airplane. Got out lunch then headed on for SWH, so far haven’t seen a soul. Did a short bushwhack to cut off some mileage hitting the DP near the rail bed rather than right at which was my original intention. After signing into the can on my final peak I continued on the rail bed before taking a wonderful plunging bushwhack descent down to the bridge over DN falls thus avoiding the monotonous descent on the DP. Good decision as the DP was poorly broken out from what I saw after crossing..." — Nimblefoot • Mar 7, 2023

"Did the classic loop of West kill, the Hunters and Rusk via East Rusk for the month of October. Saw my first icicles of the season on my climb of West kill. With the low temps and a bit of a breeze I almost put on hand shoes, aka gloves, but I toughed it out on my trip up and down West Kill. Only saw women hiking on West Kill then a couple near the summit of SW Hunter. Hunter was a ghost town which was a bit of a surprise and the two Rusk peaks were quiet which was not surprising. The descent off of Rusk was tricky in the steeper parts as all the fallen leaves were hiding the loose rock and roots adding slipping and tripping to the mix of fun." — Nimblefoot • Oct 20, 2022

"Classic loop of the Hunters and Rusk via East Rusk. Pretty much a solid herd path up and over East Rusk and onto the can on Rusk. For some reason I lost the HP coming down E. Rusk, in haste I zigged when it zagged or vice versa, found it again as I reach the plateau between the peaks. Mid way along the plateau I met a group of 4 doing the same loop and they too lost the HP but drifted toward the Spruceton trail and spent some time whacking toward Rusk basically paralleling the HP until they saw me zipping along. When I left the canister on Rusk and heading for the HP down I could still hear them discussing their navigation loudly and it seemed they were off the HP again. Nice day in the woods. " — Nimblefoot • Jun 3, 2022

"Picking off the other two peaks I missed 5 days ago when break trail to SW Hunter in the fairly fresh snow. Fortunately this time some bare booters had broken out a track to Rusk and right over East Rusk making my travel much easier." — Nimblefoot • Jan 24, 2022

"Did a Spruceton circular of West kill to Rusk. I hit the summit of West Kill first, to find the cairn knocked over and the remnants of a recent “camp” fire including a scarred tree roots, then whacked down to Diamond notch. After an easy stroll through open woods it was a steep drop that was a bit slippery with wet leaves. Next was a steep ascent on sliding rocks to head toward SW Hunter. Once most of the elevation was regained it was an easy stroll to the canister. Now it’s rail bed and trails to Hunter with the overcast sky breaking up and the sun showing through. The two people descending the tower were the only two other hikers I saw on the summits. Popped up and over the East summit of Rusk on my way to the canister on Rusk followed by a speedy descent on the herd path trying to stay ahead of gravity with the slippery leaves again." — Nimblefoot • Oct 27, 2020

"Six of us did a loop of Rusk, Hunter and Southwest Hunter from the Rusk TH. Nice sunny blue sky but unfortunately that led to warm temps and sticky snow. Bushwhacked over East Rusk on our way to Hunter mtn where we had our usual buffet lunch complete with tablecloth, paper plates and napkins. Bumped into Ralph Ryndak and Rob Stewart, who had whacked up from Becker Hollow TH, at the cabin. We chatted with them while having lunch with the wind blowing and the sun shining. Got to the SWH can and out to Spruceton road before 5 pm so no headlamps were harmed on the venture." — Nimblefoot • Dec 23, 2019

"Tom, Anna, Yong Ae and myself hiked the classic loop of SW Hunter, Hunter, Rusk East and Rusk starting on the Spruceton trail and finishing with a short road walk. This was a special day for Anna and Yong Ae as they finished their single season Spring round of the Catskill 35 therefore awarded the first two Spring triangle patches from Hikers Anonymous. Prior to finishing on SWH we enjoyed a catered lunch on the summit of Hunter compliments of Yong Ae. Replete with tablecloth, plates and flatware to enjoy chicken wings, spring rolls with dipping sauce, seaweed wraps with rice, kimchi made with local ramps and boc choi, coconut cookies and ginger tea. On SWH their arrival was videotaped with the two ladies wearing green triangular hats emblazoned with their trail names of Daisy and Wildflower and Yong Ae banging a gong. Plenty of Woo hoos and silly poses were added to the occasion." — Nimblefoot • Jun 6, 2019