Advice for devils path

[maxpetros]

Hey guys, just joined the forum looking for advice. I’m a rather experienced hiker and looking to do a short challenging hike in the upcoming weeks. I stumbled across devils path and it looks like a perfect trip. I’m planning to do it in two days and camp overnight. Any suggestions or advice for this trail?


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[Vegan.Hiker]

Hey guys, just joined the forum looking for advice. I’m a rather experienced hiker and looking to do a short challenging hike in the upcoming weeks. I stumbled across devils path and it looks like a perfect trip. I’m planning to do it in two days and camp overnight. Any suggestions or advice for this trail?


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Are you referring to the Devils Path in the Catskills? If so, it’s considered one of the most difficult and dangerous trails in the country. I haven’t done the whole path, just sections here and there, and it’s definitely no joke. Definitely don’t bring a dog, carry some cordage for lowering and raising your pack if your carrying anything more than a day pack, let someone know your plans, and be careful. The Catskills are nice, but unless you are intentionally looking to challenge yourself, you can find a better bang for your buck elsewhere within a few hours radius imo.

If you’re talking about a different Devils Path than the one in the Catskills, please ignore, or mods can delete.

And welcome to the site btw!

 

[maxpetros]

Are you referring to the Devils Path in the Catskills? If so, it’s considered one of the most difficult and dangerous trails in the country. I haven’t done the whole path, just sections here and there, and it’s definitely no joke. Definitely don’t bring a dog, carry some cordage for lowering and raising your pack if your carrying anything more than a day pack, let someone know your plans, and be careful. The Catskills are nice, but unless you are intentionally looking to challenge yourself, you can find a better bang for your buck elsewhere within a few hours radius imo.

If you’re talking about a different Devils Path than the one in the Catskills, please ignore, or mods can delete.

And welcome to the site btw!

Thanks for the welcome! And yes I should’ve clarified, it is the devils path in the Catskills. The whole point in picking it is I want to push myself as much as I can.


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[Vegan.Hiker]

Thanks for the welcome! And yes I should’ve clarified, it is the devils path in the Catskills. The whole point in picking it is I want to push myself as much as I can.

If you are looking to push yourself, you’ve picked the right trail. I could see it being highly rewarding if you are looking for that type of challenge. I don't know exactly where you are from, but you should also check out the Great Range Traverse in the Adirondacks and the Pemi Loop in the White Mountains as well if you haven't already.

People who enjoy pushing themselves to the limit do those two loops in a single 24 hour period, whereas normal backpackers like myself do them over several days. I've never heard of the Devils Path being day hiked. It might be cause it's just too sketchy to hike in the night by headlamp.

Some quick stats on these hikes:
The Devils Path (Catskills) - 24.3 miles, roughly 9,000' cumulative gain
The Great Range Traverse (Adirondacks) - route dependent, the most common route is 19.3 miles and 9,137' cumulative gain
The Pemi Loop (White Mountains) - 33.4 miles, 9,051' cumulative elevation gain

The Pemi Loop and the Great Range Traverse are ranked #2 and #3 respectively in Backpacker Magazine's list of America's Harderst Day Hikes.
LINK - Backpacker Magazine - America's Hardest Day Hikes
For some reason, the Devils Path is not ranked, but that just might be that it's too difficult to be done in a day. I would never be able to average more than 1mph over any reasonable distance on the DP, but then again, I'm not a particularly fast or strong hiker.

I've been on all 3 and in my experience the Devils Path is the hardest terrain, followed by the GRT, and then by the Pemi. As far as scenery is concerned, I'd have to say that the GRT and Pemi blow the Devils Path out of the water. I did the Pemi over the course of 4 days 2 weeks ago which you can check out here and a partial, failed attempt at the GRT here. I have some day hiking reports on here that go across parts of the Devils Path too that I can dig up for you if interested.

Best of luck. Let us know how it goes.

 

[maxpetros]

If you are looking to push yourself, you’ve picked the right trail. I could see it being highly rewarding if you are looking for that type of challenge. I don't know exactly where you are from, but you should also check out the Great Range Traverse in the Adirondacks and the Pemi Loop in the White Mountains as well if you haven't already.

People who enjoy pushing themselves to the limit do those two loops in a single 24 hour period, whereas normal backpackers like myself do them over several days. I've never heard of the Devils Path being day hiked. It might be cause it's just too sketchy to hike in the night by headlamp.

Some quick stats on these hikes:
The Devils Path (Catskills) - 24.3 miles, roughly 9,000' cumulative gain
The Great Range Traverse (Adirondacks) - route dependent, the most common route is 19.3 miles and 9,137' cumulative gain
The Pemi Loop (White Mountains) - 33.4 miles, 9,051' cumulative elevation gain

The Pemi Loop and the Great Range Traverse are ranked #2 and #3 respectively in Backpacker Magazine's list of America's Harderst Day Hikes.
LINK - Backpacker Magazine - America's Hardest Day Hikes
For some reason, the Devils Path is not ranked, but that just might be that it's too difficult to be done in a day. I would never be able to average more than 1mph over any reasonable distance on the DP, but then again, I'm not a particularly fast or strong hiker.

I've been on all 3 and in my experience the Devils Path is the hardest terrain, followed by the GRT, and then by the Pemi. As far as scenery is concerned, I'd have to say that the GRT and Pemi blow the Devils Path out of the water. I did the Pemi over the course of 4 days 2 weeks ago which you can check out here and a partial, failed attempt at the GRT here. I have some day hiking reports on here that go across parts of the Devils Path too that I can dig up for you if interested.

Best of luck. Let us know how it goes.

Thanks for all of the info! I’ve been trying to do a ton of research on the trail. I’m in Maplewood NJ so devils path is only about 2 hours from me. The other two sound great and I’ll need to check them out. I’m very familiar with NH and the white mountains.


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[Vegan.Hiker]

Thanks for all of the info! I’ve been trying to do a ton of research on the trail. I’m in Maplewood NJ so devils path is only about 2 hours from me. The other two sound great and I’ll need to check them out. I’m very familiar with NH and the white mountains.

Oh cool, I'm from NJ as well. Another Catskills option for a nice challenge, albeit only a day hike would be the Slide, Wittenberg, Cornell loop which can be done as a 15 mile, 4k ft. elevation gain hike. This site definitely would benefit from more east coast trip reports and such, so please post a report here with some pics when you are done, but you'll probably have more luck getting trip planning advice on adkhighpeaks.com for the ADK's and on Views From the Top vftt.org for trip planning advice on the Whites (although that site seems to be dying a slow death). I believe ADKHighPeaks has a Catskills sub-forum as well.

I'm not trying to direct you away from here at all though, because In the end, this site has the best content if you aren't hyper-focused on only learning about your own neck of the woods. It's got a lot of variety, a lot of knowledgeable members from all over, the best trip report contributors, and it's very civil and well-run.

 

[maxpetros]

Oh cool, I'm from NJ as well. Another Catskills option for a nice challenge, albeit only a day hike would be the Slide, Wittenberg, Cornell loop which can be done as a 15 mile, 4k ft. elevation gain hike. This site definitely would benefit from more east coast trip reports and such, so please post a report here with some pics when you are done, but you'll probably have more luck getting trip planning advice on adkhighpeaks.com for the ADK's and on Views From the Top vftt.org for trip planning advice on the Whites (although that site seems to be dying a slow death). I believe ADKHighPeaks has a Catskills sub-forum as well.

I'm not trying to direct you away from here at all though, because In the end, this site has the best content if you aren't hyper-focused on only learning about your own neck of the woods. It's got a lot of variety, a lot of knowledgeable members from all over, the best trip report contributors, and it's very civil and well-run.

Thanks! I checked out ADK high peaks and really like it! There are a ton of posts already about devils path and I’ve started reading them! I definitely am not restricted to the north east but will be doing a majority of my hikes in this region. I’ll be sure to stick around as the community here seems really great. I’m a member of a large archery forum and the same cannot be said for it. Glad to be here and thanks for the help!


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[Vegan.Hiker]

My pleasure.. best of luck and let us know how it goes.