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The Devil's Path is a hiking trail in the Greene County section of the Catskill Mountains of New York, often described as the toughest and most dangerous hiking trail in the Eastern United States. It goes across the eponymous mountain range and then three other peaks to the west, offering hikers and peakbaggers a chance to reach the summits of five of the 35 Catskill High Peaks (two more are reachable by detours). It draws hikers from not just the region but far outside, due to the challenging climbs straight up and down the steep gaps between the four peaks of the range, which often require hikers to use hands as well as feet to pull themselves almost straight up cliffs and through rocky chutes. These climbs, however, lead to many spectacular views of the Catskill range. Most hikers use the trail for day trips to one or two summits along the range, via the trails that go up into the cols. But backpackers have done weekend trips due to the easy availability of a state-owned campground at Devil's Tombstone, near the single road crossing at Stony Clove Notch. It is also possible for determined hikers to complete the entire trail in a single, long day. The portion of the trail from Plateau Mountain to just east of Indian Head Mountain is currently part of the Long Path. Most of it is on state-owned Forest Preserve land in New York's Catskill Park. Most of it lies within two New York State Department of Environmental Conservation management units, the Indian Head Wilderness Area east of Stony Clove Notch and (currently) the Hunter Mountain Wild Forest from there to Diamond Notch, then the West Kill Wilderness Area. ==History== While some of the peaks east of Stony Clove Notch had been climbed for quite some time, according to Catskill forest historian Michael Kudish, the modern Devil's Path was first cut from the Old Overlook Road to Mink Hollow in 1929, shortly after the state acquired the property. Plateau followed in 1934 after that purchase was made, and the following year the route up Hunter from the notch was opened. However, for several decades afterward there was no new construction. In 1973, the state finally opened the route down to the falls, and the final section over West Kill came shortly thereafter.〔Kudish, Michael, ''The Catskill Forest: A History'', Purple Mountain Press, Fleischmanns, New York, ISBN 1-930098-02-2, 2000, 121〕 Despite an original idea to continue the trail on over North Dome Mountain and Mount Sherrill to the west that led to a sign (still in existence) erected at the proposed junction site, those two peaks remain trailless today. There has been some proposals within NYSDEC of building a modified extension but it does not appear likely to happen at this point. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Devil's Path (hiking trail)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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