[Journal entry for November 10, 2021; Slide Mountain Fieldtrip]. A group of seven scientists, including Billy D’Andrea (Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, LDEO), Nicole Davi (William Patterson & LDEO)), Dennis Kent (LDEO), Michael Kudish (Emiritus at Paul Smith’s College), Bill Menke (me, LDEO), Steve Parisio (NYS DEC) and Dorothy Peteet (LDEO) took a field trip to the summit of Slide Mountain in the Catskill Mountains of New York. The issue that we had come to investigate is whether this particular mountain peak was a nunatak, that is, a mountain peak that stood above the glaciers of the last Ice Age and escaped the erosive effect of the glacial ice.

I arrived at the Slide Mountain Trailhead, off of Oliverea Road (Route 47) in Big Indian, New York a little early, at 8:30AM. I poked around the trailhead while waiting for the others, who arrived at about 9AM. After signing the hikers’ register at the kiosk, and after examining a peculiar lichen on a tree trunk said to be indicative of old growth, we set off up the Wittenberg-Cornell-Slide Trail (blazed in red), heading eastward. A trail marker near the kiosk indicated that the summit was 2.8 miles distant. We forded the West Branch of the Neversink River, stepping from stone to stone. It is wide, but today its flow was very sluggish. The trail heads uphill through hardwood forest. Few leaves remain on the trees; the fall foliage is pretty much gone here in the Catskills.

The trail passes some very large and angular blocks of sandstone and conglomerate, the typical bedrock of the Catskills. They were isolated blocks surrounded by almost no smaller scree, which caused me to think that they been glacially-plucked from the escarpment above. The trail turns right (south) onto a woods road, but we turned left (north), followed it for a hundred yards or so, and then went right (east) up an unblazed but well-built trail. Mike had obtained the (informal) permission of the local land owner to traverse it.

The trail loot us up a steep hill to a viewpoint with a wide rock ledge on the edge of a vertical cliff that is perhaps fifty feet high. The ledge is crossed by several gaping cracks, a foot across and ten feet or more deep. These cracks, the clear glacial striae on the ledge, and the paucity of tallis beneath the cliff convinced me that this southwest facing cliff had been glacially-plucked.

We continue on the trail, passing several interesting features: a low scarp, covered with beautiful mosses and ferns; a small well, which Mike said was built by a nearby hotel owner back in the late 1800’s; a stand of sugar maple trees (unusual for this altitude); a second overlook with a great view of Catskill peak to the west and a small pond to the south; and a place where the trail squeezed through a “lemon squeezer” crack, complete with a small cave. The unblazed trail reconnected with the Wittenberg-Cornell-Slide Trail about a mile below the summit. We took it, going left and uphill.

The trail flattened out considerably as it followed the ridge of the mountain. The sky, which has started out overcast, cleared and sun began to light up the tree beside the trail, which on this upper section are mostly conifers. I paid close attention to the rock ledges exposed on the trail. I was looking for glacial striae and planed-off conglomerate pebbles, indicative of glacial erosion. The trail had mostly small patches of ledge, but two adjacent areas had much larger rock ledge: a third overlook about a half mile below the summit, and the summit area itself. I searched carefully, but could find nothing really convincing. Weak striations on the summit ledge, which at first excited me, turned out to be caused by bedding planes.

The evidence put forward by Mike and Steve in favor of the nunatak theory is the distinctive soil in the summit area. I agree that it has a substantial amount of sand and loose, eroded-out conglomerate pebbles, and that these deposits are unique to the summit area. They key issue, which I really cannot address, is whether this amount of erosion requires more time than the twenty-thousand years since the last ice melted, or whether more time was needed (suggesting the summit was a nunatak).

We had a delightful lunch on the summit ledge, talking about our observations and about the history of the Catskills. The sun was warm and the surrounding trees, though they obscured the view somewhat, shielded us from the wind. After lunch we hiked down to the base of the ledge. The cross-bedding of these deltaic rocks is very well-exposed there. A bronze plaque affixed to the rock reads:

In Memory

John Burroughs

who in his early writings introduced Slide

Mountain to the world. He made many visits to

this peak and slept several nights beneath this

rock. This region is the scene of many of his essays.

“Here the works of man dwindle, in the

heart of the southern Catskills”.

Erected by Winniscook Club, 1928.

We then retraced our path off the mountain. The complete trip took about six and a half hours, of which about five and a half were hiking. 7:00.