THE CATSKILL GEOLOGISTS BY PROFESSORS ROBERT AND JOHANNA TITUS - Foot erosion

CATSKILL - One of our favorite hiking trails in the Catskills is the Blue Trail where it heads north from North Lake. It roughly follows the edge of the Wall of Manitou, the Catskill Front, and that affords it with a number of very fine views, looking east down into the Hudson Valley. Then there are several locations where you just have to stop and gaze, transfixed, across the whole valley towards the Taconic Mountains and, below them, the Hudson River itself. One of our most common goals is the top of North Mountain and that offers a sweeping view of the whole region. The hike can sometimes be a challenging trek. Along the way there are several very steep ascents. And they all seem to be so much steeper than they used to be! The final one carries you to the very top of North Mountain. 

But there are smaller, more special views along the way. These include things that you just might not notice. But, if you have a sharp eye, then these can be among the most fascinating sights on the whole trail. Take a look at our photo. This site is about a 15-minute hike north of the campground. Right there you get funneled into a narrow slot between two masses of bedrock. Take a good look at this. Do you see what caught our attention? No? Well, let’s talk about it. You have to remember that people have been doing this hike for centuries. And all of those people have also been funneled into and through this same slot. Now, look again and you should see it. The upper slope shows the creases that mark the bedding of the stratified rock – sandstone – that comprise this outcropping. Yep, below those strata, the lower slope of the slot is footworn, in fact, very badly footworn. The markings of those strata have been altogether eroded away. It’s a testimony to the slow steady effects of erosion. As the centuries continue to pass by, this worn stretch will only get more and more smoothed out. We will have to coin a new word to describe this. It will stop being footworn and become “footgrooved.”

Think about this. Generations of hikers have hoofed it along this stretch of the Blue Trail and all of them have been forced to squeeze into this short narrow stretch. That includes almost all of the abled-bodied visitors to the Catskill Mountain House Hotel. And those include many of the most important, celebrated and influential people of 19th and early 20th century America. Writers, musicians, painters, inventors, industrialists, politicians, etc. etc. All of them placed their feet down right here. All of them, even if only a little bit, contributed to the erosion of this surface. Take your turn sometime soon. As you walk this way think of those who preceded you. The list of people who almost certainly passed this way includes Presidents Ulysses Grant, Chester Arther and Theodore Roosevelt. There were literary figures such as Washington Irving, William Cullen Bryant, Oscar Wilde and, of course, John Burroughs. Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman was there. Then there was the famed singer Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale.” Endless numbers of great artists came to visit. And on it goes; the list goes on almost forever. And it would seem certain that all of them passed through this little gap in the bedrock and each of them contributed to its erosion. And so can you. When you get there, kneel, look around and wave your arm through the space around you. Think about all the people who have occupied this very space and breathed its air.

Contact the authors at randjtitus@prodigy.net. Join their facebook page “The Catskill Geologist.” Read their blogs at “thecatskillgeologist.com.”