The Combo Grid

Gridding a dozen specially chosen hikes

As you are hiking The Catskill 35 and pursuing lofty hiking goals such as the Catskill High Peaks - 4 Seasons, the Catskill 420 Grid, the Single Season 35'R, or the Single Season 35'R FOUR in a ROW, you may want to consider the Combo Grid.

The Combo Grid allows you to track your progress in hiking a dozen specially chosen hikes. For each of the hikes, you'll see how many times you've hiked it in each month and season. It's up to you if you want to complete a monthly or seasonal grid for each hike.

We've provided two groupings: Regular Combos and Ultra Combos, with each grouping containing a half dozen hikes.

Combo Grid
The Regular Combos include several of the Most Hiked Combos of The Catskill Combinatorial. While these are very challenging hikes, they are also bread and butter hikes for Catskill Gridders so it's likely you may already have several of them under your belt.

Ultra 35'R
The Ultra Combos contain the most common hikes found in the various recipes leading to an Ultra 35'R round.

The Ultra Combos are the biggest and longest of the Combo Grid hikes and hikers can hike variations by adding bonus peaks which count for the Combo Grid. Each Ultra Combo hike is indicated by the Ultra 35'R icon and a list of acceptable Ultra Variants in the description below the Progress Report.

Hikers are encouraged to be creative and ambitious and create new challenging Ultra Variants. When they do, they can help us by providing mileage and ascent statistics and can even suggest a name for the new Ultra Variant.

Progress Reports - Combo Grid

Ideas and Suggestions

The Combo Grid is an exciting new way to hike The Catskill 35.

Please email us with your ideas and suggestions for making The Combo Grid even better.

Burroughs Range

Slide
4,184
Slide
S
Cornell
3,857
Cornell
C
Wittenberg
3,782
Wittenberg
W

This is the classic Catskill trail hike which is frequently hiked as a car-shuttle traverse between the Slide Mountain and Woodland Valley trailheads. Each direction offers a unique experience. It can also be hiked out and back or in a loop from either trailhead.

Related Fastest Known Time (FKT) pages: Wittenburg-Cornell-Slide Loop

Traverse W-C-S: About 9 miles; 3,400' ascent
Traverse S-C-W: About 9 miles; 2,400' ascent
Out and back S-C-W: About 11 miles; 3,600' ascent
Traverse W-C-S from Lane Street: About 16.3 miles; 4,500' ascent

The SIX

Friday
3,692
Friday
Fr
Balsam Cap
3,608
Balsam Cap
BC
Rocky
3,487
Rocky
Ro
Lone
3,700
Lone
L
Table
3,825
Table
Ta
Peekamoose
3,819
Peekamoose
Pk

This is a bread and butter hike for avid Catskill High Peaks peak baggers folding three days of hiking into one with a very small incremental extra effort. It's usually hiked as a car-shuttle traverse with Friday first and Peekamoose last. It's fun going backwards too.

This can also be hiked as a loop from the Denning trailhead for a vastly different experience.

Peekamoose Parking Permits

Here are ways to avoid the parking permits required at the Peekamoose trailhead from May 15 to September 15.

  • 1) Park at Moonhaw, get dropped off at Peekamoose and go backwards.
  • 2) Hike the loop from Denning.
  • 3) Hike The NINE or The OCHO instead.
  • 4) Hike a traverse from Moonhaw to Denning (NOTE: this is a 55 minute car shuttle!).

About 11.5 miles; 4,000' ascent

The Nine

Slide
4,184
Slide
S
Cornell
3,857
Cornell
C
Wittenberg
3,782
Wittenberg
W
Friday
3,692
Friday
Fr
Balsam Cap
3,608
Balsam Cap
BC
Rocky
3,487
Rocky
Ro
Lone
3,700
Lone
L
Table
3,825
Table
Ta
Peekamoose
3,819
Peekamoose
Pk

Along with hiking the Devils Path Traverse, this is one of the longer, more challenging hikes that the Catskill Forest Preserve has to offer. It even has its own Fastest Known Time (FKT) page.

Any way you approach it, you'll need excellent navigation skills and endurance. If you're after a FKT you'll have to hike a full loop with Denning being the most common starting and finishing trailhead. Slide Mountain trailhead and Moon Haw are other options.

You can reduce the mileage by employing a car shuttle. The StraightLine NINE starts at Peekamoose and ends at Slide. Either direction between Slide Mountain trailhead and Denning are even more feasible with a shorter drive between trailheads and less elevation gain.

If you'd really like to kick it up a notch, consider the Romer Nine which adds Cross, Pleasant and Romer mountains and ends at the Lane Street trailhead in Phoenicia. Of course, none of those peaks "count"!

Related Fastest Known Time (FKT) pages: The Nine, The SIX, Table and Peekamoose

About 16 miles; 5,000' ascent

Ultra 35'R

Triple Biscuit

Fir
3,629
Fir
Fi
Big Indian
3,699
Big Indian
BI
Doubletop
3,855
Doubletop
D

This challenging loop hike is one of the great things that happened when the Gould Family closed access to their property. By starting from the Biscuit Brook trailhead, we now have one of the more challenging hikes in the Catskills. Hikers who've hiked it seem in unanimous agreement that it is more challenging than The SIX and requires superior navigation skills.

If you're considering this one for the first time and you'd like to hike with a group, contact us and we'll try our best to get you in touch with some Triple-Biscuit-Experienced hiking buddies.

About 11.8 miles; 3,250' ascent

Biscuits and Gravy

Fir
3,629
Fir
Fi
Big Indian
3,699
Big Indian
BI
Doubletop
3,855
Doubletop
D
Eagle
3,583
Eagle
E
Balsam
3,607
Balsam
B

By far, this is the most challenging combo in the Big Indian Wilderness. You take the Triple Biscuit and add some Eagle and Balsam gravy. You'll likely want to use a car shuttle for this one. Another way to look at this combo is that it's a FirBBiE with a quick out and back to Doubletop in the middle.

The signage in and around the DEC Burnham Hollow parking area is missing and/or misleading so we produced this helpful guide to getting started at Burnham Hollow.

About 17 miles; 4,800' ascent

Ultra 35'R

CrazyCombo™ Spruceton StraightShot

Sherrill
3,558
Sherrill
Sh
North Dome
3,605
North Dome
ND
Westkill
3,898
Westkill
We

The CrazyCombo™ name is throwback to the days when we hiked as the Rip Van Winkles, but by current standards this is not so crazy anymore. Best hiked as a straight line from Shaft Road to the end of Spruceton Road, getting the bushwhacking portion finished early and ending with a trail hike, it's also routinely hiked in the opposite direction. Under certain conditions a DoubleShot approach may make sense.

About 11.3 miles; 4,200' ascent

SIX West

Sherrill
3,558
Sherrill
Sh
North Dome
3,605
North Dome
ND
Westkill
3,898
Westkill
We
Rusk
3,686
Rusk
Ru
Hunter
4,030
Hunter
H
Southwest Hunter
3,753
Southwest Hunter
SW

There's no longer only one SIX in the Catskills. SIX West is a new one that we've quickly come to enjoy. It's a long challenging day, so you might consider stashing some water at the midpoint around Diamond Notch falls.

About 20.5 miles; 6,950' ascent

Ultra 35'R

DPE4

Plateau
3,835
Plateau
Pl
Sugarloaf
3,783
Sugarloaf
Su
Twin
3,650
Twin
Tw
Indian Head
3,573
Indian Head
IH

Hiking the four peaks on the eastern Devils Path is one of the true pleasures of rugged trail hiking in the Catskills. Best hiked as a traverse with a car shuttle, it can also be tackled as an ambitious DoubleShot or an outrageous out and back hike.

Hiking the Devils Path route precisely as a traverse from the Prediger Road trailhead to the Notch Lake trailhead on Route 214 is the first half of the Devil in a Day challenge.

Experienced Catskill peak baggers come to know that tackling them biggest to smallest (Plateau to Indian Head) is the best recipe for a successful and pleasurable trip. They may even have a few shortcuts up their sleeves to spice thing up a bit.

About 8.8 miles; 3,900' ascent

Kaaterskill High Peak, Roundtop

Kaaterskill High Peak
3,652
Kaaterskill High Peak
KHP
Roundtop
3,465
Roundtop
RT

The addition of Roundtop to the Catskill 35 has added so much variety and interest to the hiking in the Kaaterskill Wild Forest.

Aficionados of the Majestic Roundtop have rediscovered the DEP parking lots on Gillespie Road (Gillespie One and Gillespie Two) and have found relief from the busier scene at the Platte Clove parking lot. So many route options are possible when planning to hike this pair that we'll leave it up to you to find your own favorites.

About 6 miles; 1,600' ascent

CrazyCombo™ Mink-Gillespie Horseshoe

Plateau
3,835
Plateau
Pl
Sugarloaf
3,783
Sugarloaf
Su
Twin
3,650
Twin
Tw
Indian Head
3,573
Indian Head
IH
Kaaterskill High Peak
3,652
Kaaterskill High Peak
KHP
Roundtop
3,465
Roundtop
RT

If you think, as we do, that every cluster of Catskill peaks should have a challenging horseshoe shaped combo, then you'll come to love this one which we think is the most challeging of the bunch. You may tend to agree when you see the elevation profile of the traverse route.

It may even prompt you to consider hiking this combo as a DoubleShot. It's just a DPE4 traverse plus a KHP, Roundtop combo: a pretty full hiking day for sure!

About 17.5 miles; 6,200' ascent

Ultra 35'R

Devils Path Peaks

Westkill
3,898
Westkill
We
Plateau
3,835
Plateau
Pl
Sugarloaf
3,783
Sugarloaf
Su
Twin
3,650
Twin
Tw
Indian Head
3,573
Indian Head
IH

These are the peaks you'll summit if you hike the full Devils Path Traverse which just happens to be the Catskills entry on the New England Ultra 8 (NEU8) challenge.

If you're not up to that challenge, you could consider hiking this combo as a DoubleShot, saving some mileage.

Related Fastest Known Time (FKT) pages: Devils Path Peaks, The Other Nine

Distance and elevation? Let us know.

Ultra 35'R

Windham-Blackhead Horseshoe

Thomas Cole
3,953
Thomas Cole
TC
Black Dome
3,994
Black Dome
BD
Blackhead
3,940
Blackhead
BH
Windham High Peak
3,525
Windham High Peak
WHP

You can hike all four peaks in the Windham-Blackhead Range Wilderness by adding Windham High Peak to the three peaks of the Blackhead Range.

The legacy route would be a horseshoe shaped trail hike between the Barnum Road and Peck Road trailheads. This is a fabulous hike and perhaps the best of the "horseshoes" in the Catskills.

With the addition of some newly acquired DEP parcels, a shorter circular route can be considered. Short bushwhack sections at each end of the hike replace the trail mileage to the traditional trailheads and the circular shaped route avoids the need for a car shuttle, so this route can be hiked solo if necessary.

Many hikers choose to use a DoubleShot approach to hiking this combo which allows you to refresh your water and supplies at your car.

Related Fastest Known Time (FKT) pages: Blackhead Range

About 13.8 miles; 4,350' ascent

Ultra 35'R