This doesn’t happen often. After this, it may not happen again for some time!  Getting the family together at once for a late winter day hike through the Catskill Mountains.  Not everyone was prepared for wbat was coming.  Immediately you can tell who had proper hiking shoes and who did not.  General sneakers would not cut it,  but being all they had we gave it a shot. My mistake was A BIG one though. No I did not have enough micro spikes for all 5 of us,  I do however have 3 pairs and I should have thrown them in my pack just in case. I didn’t and we all paid the price.  There were multiple times we should have turned around, but we did not.  The thought of going back the way we came was dreadful,  it must get better ahead, it cant get any worse then what we slid down on our backsides multiple times already.  The waterfall is ahead, we made it this far without sliding off the side of the mountain.  “This is why no one hikes with you” I kept hearing throughout the 3.5 miles. Yes it was supposed to be a short 3.5 mile day hike to a spectacular water fall on a cold sunny morning in the Catskills.  My first warning signs were while driving up to the trail bead.. multiple cars coming down covered in snow? Hmmm.. no snow anywhere in sight and all week the weather has been warm and mild. 2 weeks ago i was here and no snow or ice anywhere.  The 2nd sign.. in parking lot at trail head.. sheet of solid ice! Ughh.. maybe we shouldn’t attempt this. I left the spikes at home not really thinking they would be needed.  3rd sign,  2 out of 3 of us are NOT hikers,  but everyone wanted to do this “easy” day hike,  I told them it was easy and on scale 1 – 10.. for me a 1 for them probably 3.  It was supposed to be easy. Only 3.5 miles, nothing too sketchy or technical and we would end up at one of  the largest waterfalls in NY!  Lets goooo.  Crap.. the etire trail was thick slick ice!  No spikes or traction.. it was a but slide 3.5 miles.  Honestly,  things could have went really bad but i had confidence in our abilities and fitness,  some bumps, scrapes and bruises would be fine. Thankfully nothing worse happened.  It amazed me because we saw dozens of people on the trails heading towards the falls and not 1 person had any sort of spikes or traction and I could tell they were all day hikers who probably never hiked more then a mile or 2 at most. The thing about Katterskill falls is its an easy 1/3 mile hike from parking lot to top of the falls and only about 1/2 mile or so to the bottom,  so it attracts everyone!  We decided we all wanted to hike some miles and avoid majority of crowds, see some views.. so originally I had about a short 5 mile hike. When we saw ice in parking lot and on the trail,  i made a decision to make it shorter.. 3.5 mile loop,  while still getting some miles in, some views and the waterfall. Boy, did we get it all!  This is a reminder to anyone hiking in the Catskills.. bring your micro spikes until mid april!!