Please lend me your Catskills in November wisdom!

That's a nice hike and good plan. The northern side (windham, burnt, acra) is a lot easier than the southern ridge (blackhead, black dome, though Thomas Cole on out is relatively easy). From Acra south toward Blackhead there are many flat areas to camp. Busy? Hmmm… that area is popular with hunters (easy access for them on Batavia kill trails) so check with NYSDEC to see what's in season and whether bow, muzzle-load or rifle. I would definitely wear a lot of orange! Weather/snow… very hard to say right now and Nov 13 is still kinda early for winter conditions, even in the Catskills, though microspikes would probably be needed, snowshoes questionable depending on weather history up to that time. Those roads aren't very busy, but it's always a bummer (to me, anyway) to end a hike with a road walk.

a quick look on the catskills 3500 page says that they don't schedule hikes during hunting season. A look at their last archived fall newsletter marks hunting season as November 15, which I assume means regular season. This year the regular season starts the weekend after, on the 21st, but early bowhunting will already be in affect. It looks like the Catskills 3500 club has run events the weekend before regular season opens. Is early season bowhunting that popular up there too?

Hi, Joshua, One very easy way to find out is to google "hunting equipment catskills" and find a store that caters to hunters and give them a call. If you look at the NYSDEC website's hunting season info it is a bit confusing for us non-huting types and I don't have time to decipher it, but you can bet your lightweight trail runners that the hunting stores, hunt/fish clubs, etc., can tell you with total accuracy the dates this year for archery/muzzle/regular, and for what game. On at least a couple of occasions I've seen trails where hunters have dragged deer out of the woods, with blood in the snow and deer fur snags on trees/bushes. There are many hunt/fish clubs in the Catskills, and a whole bunch of small, private lodges (er, shacks, lol) with just a few members, right along Maplecrest Road. One very cold night there were a couple of friendly locals who welcomed us into their warm little lodge when my good friend misjudged an icy curve on Maplecrest road and crashed the car into a ditch. He actually hit the "Curve" sign and destroyed his bumper, radiator and ripped open the oil pan. However, I've never felt unsafe backpacking during hunting season, but as with bears it's a good idea to make some noise occasionally and to wear orange for the hunters.