Southwest Hunter Mountain (Leavitt Peak) is a subpeak of Hunter Mountain, located in Greene County, New York. SW Hunter is considered one of the Catskills' High Peaks in its own right, because of its separation from the main summit, and its topographic prominence. Hunter Mountain is named after John Hunter, who also gave his name to the town of Hunter.
Southwest Hunter is part of the Devil's Path range of the Catskill Mountains. SW Hunter is flanked to the northeast by the main summit of Hunter Mtn., and to the west faces West Kill Mountain across 800-ft-deep Diamond Notch. It is considered a bushwack, as there are no registered trails leading to its summit. There is, however, a herd path 0.1 miles (0.16 km) west of Devil's Acre Lean-to marked by a small rock cairn that leads to the summit canister, following the ridge for 3/4 mile and then turning uphill to the peak (note that this upward turn is easy to miss and is only marked by an arrow scratched onto a nearby rock).
Southwest Hunter stands within the watershed of the Hudson River, which drains into New York Bay. The north side of SW Hunter drains into the headwaters of West Kill, thence into Schoharie Creek, the Mohawk River, and the Hudson River. The southeast slopes of SW Hunter drain into Myrtle Brook, thence into Stony Clove Creek, Esopus Creek, and the Hudson River. The southwest side of SW Hunter drains into Hollow Brook, thence into Stony Clove Creek.
Hunter Mountain is contained within the Hunter Mountain Wild Forest of New York's Catskill State Park.
This Mountain is unnamed in the GNIS database, there is an effort underway to get the peak named Leavitt Peak in honor Bill & Elinore Leavitt, two of the founders of the Catskill 3500 club.
Famous quotes containing the words hunter and/or mountain:
“Every one finds by his own experience, as well as in history, that the era in which men cultivate the apple, and the amenities of the garden, is essentially different from that of the hunter and forest life, and neither can displace the other without loss.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... my mother ... piled up her hair and went out to teach in a one-room school, mountain children little and big alike. The first day, some fathers came along to see if she could whip their children, some who were older than she. She told the children that she did intend to whip them if they became unruly and refused to learn, and invited the fathers to stay if they liked and she’d be able to whip them too. Having been thus tried out, she was a great success with them after that.”
—Eudora Welty (b. 1909)