'A great local spot'

By: BRIAN SCHEID (Thu, Dec/28/2006)

Climbing to the top of Mount Everest might cost you tens of thousands of dollars, weeks of time and, possibly, your life.

But for the cost of a few gallons of gas, you can head to far Upper Bucks and climb Haycock Mountain, Bucks County’s only mountain.
 
At just over 960 feet tall, the mountain is less than 1/300th the size of Everest, the highest point on Earth. The views at Haycock’s summit won’t be nearly as impressive, but the climb will take only a few hours and likely won’t put your life in danger unless, of course, you’re climbing during hunting season. Located on state game land on the border of Nockamixon State Park in the eastern portion of serene Haycock, the mountain was named by early settlers for its “resemblance to a cock of hay,” according to W.W.H. Davis’ 1876 book titled “History of Bucks County.”

“Its height has never been ascertained, but the elevations [are] considerable, with a gradual slope to the top from which there is a prospect of unsurpassed beauty over a wide scope of country,” Davis wrote.

He also wrote that rattlesnakes had been found on the mountain as late as 1819.

The mountain offers breathtaking views, challenging hikes and some of the most challenging rock climbing in Bucks.

“I don’t think it’s like El Capitan [a 3,000-foot vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park] or anything,” Aaron Brough of Dublin said. “But, it’s a great local spot.”

Brough is a senior staff member at the Doylestown Rock Gym, an indoor rockclimbing facility on Old Easton Road in Doylestown Township. Like nearly everyone who works at the rock gym, Brough regularly makes the less than 30-minute trip out to Haycock to climb the hundreds of boulders that are strewn about the mountain.

Haycock isn’t a state or county park, so there’s no visitor center, information kiosk or Web site. The Rock Gym does have free maps of the area.

The mountain is a wellknown spot for climbers, but Bucks residents without a harness in their closet or a subscription to Climbing magazine might not even know the mountain is there.

“They may know what it is, but they don’t know what it’s all about,” Brough said. “I think people just think of it as a place for hunters.”

Orange clothing is a must for everyone during hunting season when the mountain is filled with deer hunters, Brough said.

The mountain offers hundreds of spots to climb boulders, with spots of varying difficulties that are 8 to 29 feet tall. Many of the popular boulders have been named by climbers, including Teddy Bear’s Picnic, Hobo, Catching Flies and The Flaming Moe.

Brian Scheid can be reached at 215-949-4165 or bscheid@phillyBurbs.com.