Joining the Journey: a Catskill 3500 Club Hike with Michael Bongar 🥾

[00:00:00] Michael Bongar: So I lead one hike a month for the club generally, and my hikes are advertised as slow but steady. There are other hike leaders who rock and roll like you. I can tell already.

[00:00:21] Brett Barry: Yeah, she—this is her pace in life.

[00:00:23] Michael Bongar: Yeah.

[00:00:26] Brett Barry: Kaatscast recently set out with Michael Bongar, president of the Storied 3500 Club, whose members hike a list of Catskills peaks exceeding 3,500 feet. We were joined by my friend Kathleen, whose goals usually involve speed, but for the most part, she tempered her pace to match our small group rhythm as we ascended one of the so-called trail-less peaks on the "3500 Club" list, Southwest Hunter, also known as Leavitt Peak. Michael joked that the cool hikers don't bother with checklists.

[00:01:03] Michael Bongar: The really cool people don't keep track. They just hike, but...

[00:01:08] Brett Barry: But I don't know if he really believes that, and there's much to be said about the framework of a hiking challenge. I, for one, enjoy the satisfaction of checking off a list, and this particular list is a great way to experience the Catskills. As of July 2025, the Catskill 3500 Club boasts 4,718 members. That's 4,718 people who climbed every peak on the list and kept a record of it. Michael Bongar is member #2173, and I hope to snag a number of my own within the next few years. In fact, despite years of hiking in the Catskills, I'd considered today's hike with Michael and Kathleen the first official hike toward my own 3500 Club membership, and I couldn't have asked for a better guide to help kick off the challenge.

[00:02:03] Michael Bongar: Hi, I'm Michael Bongar, and we are hiking up to Southwest Hunter from the end of Spruceton Road. We're going to—we're on an old road now. In fact, we're going to see some colonial rock piles to the left. We're going to the waterfall, and then we're going to hit Devil's Path and hike up towards Devil's Acre Lean-To, and then down an old railroad grade to Southwest Hunter.

[00:02:46] Brett Barry: And Southwest Hunter is one of the peaks you have to climb to gain membership into the 3500 Club.

[00:02:56] Michael Bongar: Right, the Catskill 3500 Club, which was founded in 1962 and was originally based on a list compiled by the Smileys.

[00:03:11] Brett Barry: Same Smileys from Mohonk?

[00:03:13] Michael Bongar: The same, in fact, Virginia Smiley created the logo for the Catskill 3500 Club, but their list was about the habitat of the Bicknell's Thrush. They were birders, and above 3,500 feet in the boreal forest, the fir-spruce forest is where they fledge, like in June every year.

[00:03:47] Brett Barry: So 3,500 is not arbitrary. That number was chosen for the best chances of spotting this bird.

[00:03:54] Michael Bongar: Correct, and subsequently, this mountain that we're going to was added to the list. It was originally on it. Southwest Hunter, which is also called Leavitt Peak, is named after the couple who first did the 3500 Challenge, the Leavitts.

[00:04:18] Brett Barry: That's William and Eleanor Leavitt, club members one and two on the list.

And so at this point, 33 peaks need to be hiked in order to gain membership in the club?

[00:04:30] Michael Bongar: Yeah, you want me to name them?

[00:04:32] Brett Barry: No, you don't have to, but you can join as an aspirant before completing the challenge?

[00:04:39] Michael Bongar: Right.

[00:04:40] Brett Barry: Do you consider it a challenge?

[00:04:42] Michael Bongar: It is a challenge, and it's—that's the beauty. You know, it's really a great accomplishment for people. I love celebrating that accomplishment. That's historically what the club's all about, so 33, and the brilliant thing that the creators of the club did was they said, "Plus, you've got to hike four of them again in the winter," and people say, "No, not the winter," and I may have even been guilty of that. The winter—even though I had hiked my whole life and I did have winter camping and hiking. It's brilliant because it allowed me, for instance, to get skills [where I could go out west] and hike 14,000-foot peaks.

[00:05:47] Brett Barry: So what—what's your number, Michael?

[00:05:50] Michael Bongar: My number is 2173. We're up around 4,600 now. I have some friends who are in the double digits and triple digits who aren't that much older than me. They just started earlier. My first—what was my first peak? I think Wittenberg, Cornell, and Slide from Woodland Valley out and back, and on that hike, they said, "You know, there's a whole list of mountains in the Catskills that are 3,500 feet, and it's also written in David and Carol White's books. There's a list, and it's sort of subtly put in there. You know, we don't go out there trying to promote. We would rather people discover this on their own. I mean, that's the culture of the club. Yeah, we're not trying to recruit people to do it, and it's a beautiful thing when people discover this and then make the accomplishment.

[00:07:03] Brett Barry: The requirement is to hit the summits of these mountains, but sometimes the marked trails don't actually hit the summit, do they? They hit a viewpoint or something like that, so how do you know when you're truly at the summit and can check that off your list? And I'm sure that technology for doing that has changed.

[00:07:23] Michael Bongar: Quite a bit. When I first started these, there was no GPS, no smartphones. We use the thing called a map and another thing called a compass, and they are beautiful. I encourage everyone to learn how to do it because your satellite can go down. You bring up an interesting point. I was just on Bearpen Mountain. There are some old roads, and you always went probably within 30 feet of the true summit, and I never bothered going off trail 30 feet to hit the true summit, but now there's a marked path. People want to tag that summit, and I like minimizing our impact on the mountain. It's important to leave the no-trace principle as something that we embrace as a club.

[00:08:25] Brett Barry: Does the club care how you ascend, from which side, or by which trail?

[00:08:33] Michael Bongar: No, and there are always multiple ways. Interestingly, this mountain—Southwest Hunter, Leavitt Peak—was historically the one where people would have to come back two and three times because, as you will see in about 90 minutes, hopefully it's a very dense fir-spruce forest, and, you know, we didn't have the internet. Now you just go on, you see, "Okay, there's an old railroad grade—just go down that and then shoot up." Before that, people would go all different directions and routes. It used to be that we encouraged people to take different routes to summits.

[00:09:24] Brett Barry: Mm-hmm.

[00:09:24] Michael Bongar: Now, because of usage, we think it's great to limit it to a single path.

[00:09:33] Brett Barry: Established state paths.

[00:09:36] Michael Bongar: Yeah, and then we're right in the process of that happening with the DEC.

[00:09:46] Brett Barry: About a third of the Catskill peaks over 3,500 feet are trail-less, and traditionally hikers would bushwhack with a map and compass, finding their way to the summit and signing in at a "3500 Club Canister" attached to a tree. These days with GPS apps and increased usage, so-called herd paths have developed, and those formerly trail-less peaks are now crisscrossed by a panoply of paths that can have a negative impact on the environment [think ground-nesting birds and rare plants] and also on hikers who might blindly follow what looks like an established path to some dead end on the wrong side of the mountain. To remedy this, the Department of Environmental Conservation just released a draft visitor use management plan for the formerly trail-less Catskill High Peaks with an eye toward official sustainable trails. The department is accepting public comment on the proposal until September 15th. Here's Michael with more on that topic.

[00:10:51] Michael Bongar: When I first did these, it wasn't that long ago. Truly, you bushwhacked. You had to reconnoiter the ground on your own using a map and compass, but over the years, and especially starting around the time of the pandemic, so many people were doing it that herd paths developed, the DEC released and completed their study, and it sounds like in the Catskills there may be trail markers involved.

[00:11:29] Brett Barry: How does the club feel about that?

[00:11:32] Michael Bongar: The club supports the DEC a hundred percent.

[00:11:38] Brett Barry: Do you think the DEC will adopt mostly along the existing herd paths?

[00:11:43] Michael Bongar: Some of them are perfect. They're long ridges, but some that go up a mountain are not sustainable and will harm the mountain and erode it, so it's a lot of work, and I'm hoping the club will be able to help the DEC. The DEC has wonderful scientists. I believe that they're balancing between public usage and environmental degradation. I think it's going to be a really happy compromise. That's me speaking. The board of the 3500 Club has to develop their response, but it's going to be something like that.

[00:12:36] Brett Barry: Let's take a quick break as Michael and Kathleen and I continue our climb to Leavitt Peak, and when we come back, Michael reflects on his learning to clown at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College and reveals a common thread with his work at the Catskill 3500 Club. How's that for a cliffhanger? Stay tuned. We'll be right back.

[00:13:00] Campbell Brown: Kaatscast is sponsored by The Mountain Eagle, covering Delaware, Greene, and Schoharie counties, including brands for local regions like The Windham Weekly, Schoharie News, and The Catskills Chronicle. For more information, call (518) 763-6854 or email mountaineaglenews@gmail.com. This episode is supported by Hanford Mills Museum. Explore the power of the past as knowledgeable staff guide you through the mill with demonstrations of the waterwheel, sawmill, and woodworking machines! For more information about scheduling a tour or about their 2025 events, visit hanfordmills.org.

[00:13:38] Brett Barry: On our way up to Leavitt Peak, I asked Michael Bongar about his current role as president of the Catskill 3500 Club, and he flashed back to his clown training at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College.

[00:13:52] Michael Bongar: There's a—there was a—an organization that I've been involved with, for which I just have adored all the people, and that is the alumni of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, which I attended in 1973, and our graduates have won Academy Awards. One of our members was a co-founder of the Mark Twain Awards, and one of my classmates was Penn of Penn & Teller. It's a really great group of people and crazy wonderful artistic types, right? Then when I started hiking the 3500, I had a similar feeling about the Catskill 3500 Club members. It's really interesting [what a diverse group they tend to be]. Well, people who have the ability to accomplish a goal enjoy this nature. We're still in the hardwood forest here, which is second growth for sure. Those are yellow birch, by the way. I really liked the group of people, and I started leading hikes. I am involved because of the huge salary that I receive and the private jet. No, it's an all-volunteer organization in my career, so I went to Ringling, and I clowned quite a bit [did my own show], and I had started my own business, an entertainment production company, and I'm still doing it.

[00:15:46] Brett Barry: Called BongarBiz?

[00:15:48] Michael Bongar: BongarBiz is a trade name. It's Visionary Performers Network. Our main bread and butter is corporate.

[00:15:57] Brett Barry: Okay, I'd better interject here, so if you're planning a big corporate event with unique entertainment, say clowns or fire eaters, singing waiters, tango dancers, strolling carolers, snake charmers, flamenco dancers, robots, and mermaids, the list goes on and on. Michael Bongar is the person to call.

[00:16:18] Michael Bongar: And I've been around the CEOs, and I've looked at these people, very accomplished people, and I've wondered, "Could I do something like that?" I think I could because I'm doing the same skills with musicians and dancers and actors and circus performers, so that kind of was a reason why I said, "Nah, let me try this."

[00:16:46] Brett Barry: This being president of the 3500 Club...

[00:16:49] Michael Bongar: It actually is more complicated than I dreamed, but...

[00:16:55] Brett Barry: What's the term for the presidency?

[00:16:58] Michael Bongar: Traditionally, it's two years.

[00:17:00] Brett Barry: And you've been at it for how long?

[00:17:02] Michael Bongar: Two years.

[00:17:03] Brett Barry: So you were re-elected?

[00:17:05] Michael Bongar: Yeah, here's the big thing about my term as president of the club. Four years ago, the club changed the status to become a 501(c)(3), a nonprofit corporation, and that was the right thing to do. It was the right time. My vice—our vice president Lori Herpen is a professional in nonprofit fundraising governance, so she has been unreplaceable. I couldn't have done it without Lori's advice on nonprofits, so I'm going to do one more year unless I get impeached, which would be the best thing that could possibly happen just to make this transition from being a social club to being a professional nonprofit.

[00:18:09] Brett Barry: Yeah, when you say social club, Michael, I expect there's this plush clubhouse where we all have a gin and tonic at the end of this thing, but that's not really the type of social club this ever was, right?

[00:18:19] Michael Bongar: No, there was never a physical.

[00:18:21] Brett Barry: I'm still looking for that place.

[00:18:23] Michael Bongar: Yeah, well, it's called The West Kill Brewery.

[00:18:26] Brett Barry: Yes.

[00:18:28] Michael Bongar: The thing that makes us really unique is the hike leaders and leading hikes, which are gratis.

[00:18:37] Brett Barry: Yeah, tell me about the guided hike so you could complete this challenge, this membership with help.

[00:18:44] Michael Bongar: Yeah.

[00:18:44] Brett Barry: People who know where they're going if you were uncomfortable or just didn't want to hike alone.

[00:18:49] Michael Bongar: We have a wonderful [that's called Outings with David White] membership. We have a wonderful committee. Five members of the outings committee, all terrific people. We have about 18 or 20 leaders. For instance, I try to lead one a month. It's really great for me to meet aspirants [people working on their list], and my hikes, for instance, are at this pace, which is slow [geared towards everyone]—slow but steady. I call it. We have other leaders who do more marathon-type hikes, probably more to Kathleen's liking.

[00:19:37] Kathleen: No, I'm enjoying this greatly.

[00:19:40] Michael Bongar: I know. Well, this is a great part of it—meeting people. You know, our members are a lot of teachers, doctors, lawyers, you know, scientists. They're the folks that tend to like to clear their heads out—terrific people.

[00:19:59] Brett Barry: Do those official hikes include the trail-less peaks, or are the people encouraged to do those alone?

[00:20:03] Michael Bongar: No, I know, hiking my whole life, but the trail-less peaks—I went on club hikes, so that's how I really got involved with the club. There were a few that I did on my own with a map and compass, which was very satisfying, but the longer ones I would go with club hike leaders.

[00:20:30] Brett Barry: Is there some thread that ties everyone together—a type of person who wants to sign up to be a member of this club?

[00:20:40] Michael Bongar: Yes, absolutely love of nature—perspective nature—wish to do an esoteric accomplishment. What appealed to me when I decided to do it was, like, wow, I will really get to know these mountains in a different way, knowing where all the trailheads are, going through all the communities to those trailheads. You see, there are certain features that repeat on every mountain, on many different mountains, and then there are features that are only in one place.

[00:21:20] Brett Barry: So the club, if nothing else, gives you a framework to get you to all these different peaks that you might otherwise skip if you were just kind of hiking scattershot.

[00:21:31] Michael Bongar: Yeah, you really get to know the land, the earth, the flora and fauna...

[00:21:37] Brett Barry: Michael, can you tell me the process? Someone decides I'd like to give this a shot. How does it—how do you start it and keep track of everything, and how do you voice those intentions to the club?

[00:21:52] Michael Bongar: We voice the intentions by going on the website and paying $10 to register, as that's your yearly aspirant fee, and then you just make a list [33 mountains]. For that, you repeat in the winter. Winter is defined by December 21st to March 21st. Hopefully, you'll meet some hike leaders. The first thing we want to let people know about is leave no trace and wilderness ethics, which are more and more important now because of usage, but also hike leaders are awesome at telling people about gear equipment. My wife will say it's all about the gear somewhat derisively, but yeah, you do want to have the best boots [the best backpack and boots vary from person to person], but we hike leaders really know how to recommend that stuff, so you've completed the challenge.

[00:23:04] Brett Barry: No time limit?

[00:23:05] Michael Bongar: No time limit. You get your list together, and you submit it to our membership committee to David White, and David's awesome. You will get a wonderful letter from him.

[00:23:22] Brett Barry: And then you become a full member with a number?

[00:23:24] Michael Bongar: You get a number.

[00:23:25] Brett Barry: A patch?

[00:23:27] Michael Bongar: A patch, a sticker for your car if you so choose, and then it's time to work on your winter membership, which is—should be starting all over again and hiking all 33 between December 21st and March 21st.

[00:23:48] Brett Barry: What percentage of hikers go on to do that?

[00:23:51] Michael Bongar: I'm going to say close to 25%. That's a guess, and we really encourage people to stay involved with the club.

[00:24:02] Brett Barry: Yeah, so once you get that patch, you can continue to pay your $10 a year, and what is—what are the privileges of membership at that point?

[00:24:10] Michael Bongar: You get our wonderful publication called The Canister, plus you can come to Winter Weekend, which you do every year at the end of January, and our annual dinner. You can become a lifetime member at the reasonable fee of $200 if you choose, and we encourage folks to be involved.

[00:24:41] Brett Barry: Michael, once you completed the 3500 Club requirements and the winter [3500 Club] requirements, it's not like you're not still drawn to the trails, right?

[00:24:53] Michael Bongar: Yeah.

[00:24:54] Brett Barry: So there's a sense of accomplishment, but then how do you choose, or how have you chosen once those requirements were met, which ones do you go back to [is it ones that you enjoy or do you still try to diversify]?

[00:25:05] Michael Bongar: I try to diversify, and I try to gauge it towards what I think an aspirant is going to want to do. You know, I love meeting aspirants. I love meeting people that have never done one before. I vet people pretty, pretty clearly...

[00:25:24] Brett Barry: And I made the cut.

[00:25:26] Michael Bongar: You made it.

[00:25:26] Brett Barry: Yeah.

[00:25:27] Kathleen: And I got to...

[00:25:28] Brett Barry: And Kathleen made the cut.

[00:25:30] Michael Bongar: Kathleen, last minute, so I try to do—I don't do the marathons. I try to do things that normal people would enjoy and then learning about the people you're hiking with.

[00:25:46] Brett Barry: Michael, do you have a favorite trail in the Catskills?

[00:25:50] Michael Bongar: You know what? What I love is being in the boreal forest. It's always a good 10 degrees colder than down in the valley, and it's a fir-spruce forest, and that's what we have here when we're on top, and just the smell—the peacefulness—it's fantastic.

[00:26:21] Brett Barry: Getting ever closer to the summit of Southwest Hunter, I asked Michael to describe that canister we'd be looking for.

[00:26:29] Michael Bongar: So a canister—I think they were originally like coffee cans. Right now, it's a PVC tube with a lid, a very tight-fitting lid, and there's a baggie inside of it with a little notebook at the summit of the bushwhack formally trail-less peaks. Canisters have been maintained by Jim Bouton for 17 years, and he now has a very able assistant, Mike Suede, and those two gentlemen are hiking these mountains on a regular enough basis to make sure that the notebooks are refreshed.

[00:27:15] Brett Barry: And so that is proof that you've made it to that trail-less peak?

[00:27:20] Michael Bongar: Yeah.

[00:27:20] Brett Barry: And it also, I imagine, is confirmation to the hiker that you've made it to the right place.

[00:27:25] Michael Bongar: Yeah, historically before GPS, there were people. This in particular, Southwest Hunter. I have friends that had to come back three times because it was very difficult. Now the DEC uses that information to gauge usage. By the way, they used to be gray a couple years ago. We started to paint them orange. The trouble is the orange peels off a little bit, so they have to be refreshed and repainted.

[00:28:02] Brett Barry: Since this was a new peak for Kathleen and I, Michael left it to the two of us to discover the canister, and that's all Kathleen had to hear before bolting ahead of us in the final stretch, and then we heard her distant exclamation of discovery.

[00:28:18] Michael Bongar: Oh, we're lost!

[00:28:21] Brett Barry: And about a minute later... I found it, Michael. Good thing it's orange.

[00:28:30] Kathleen: This is so cool. You better take pictures. Am I going first?

[00:28:34] Brett Barry: You go first. You found it first.

[00:28:35] Kathleen: I found it first. Oh, look at this!

[00:28:38] Brett Barry: Kathleen and I proudly signed the register, and then it was Michael's turn, and since he's no stranger to this summit, I asked him, "You know, what's it like to hit this summit one more time?"

[00:28:51] Michael Bongar: The weather's always different, and I'm delighted just to be here now: fog, mist, trees, boreal forest, moss green, July 13, 2025.

[00:29:18] Brett Barry: For a list of all the Catskill 3500 Club peaks, including Southwest Hunter and 32 more, head over to catskill3500club.org. Signing up as an aspirant grants access to guided hikes with experts like Michael Bongar. Since our hike together, I've managed to check two more peaks off my list, and I'm looking forward to adding more this fall. In fact, now is the perfect time to join the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference's Annual Trail-A-Thon, a community-driven fundraiser that helps preserve tomorrow's trail lands. Trail-A-Thon is a four-week hike-a-thon-style event in October that's open to everyone and completed anywhere, whether you hike, bike, run, or stroll. Every mile you track and dollar you raise supports the Trail Conference's mission to protect and maintain public trail lands in the Northeast. Getting started is easy. Set a personal mileage goal, rally your friends and family to support your journey, and then start moving. Log your miles anywhere, whether on forested paths, city streets, or even on the treadmill. Along the way, you'll earn awesome rewards, from Trail Conference maps and gear to exclusive prizes for top fundraisers and mileage milestones. Trail-A-Thon runs October 1st through 31st, and registration is open. Register now at bit.ly/gotrailathon to join the movement this October. Trail-A-Thon: Where will your challenge take you? Kaatscast: The Catskills Podcast is a production of Silver Hollow Audio. I'm your host, Brett Barry. Transcripts by Jerome Kazlauskas. Announcements by Campbell Brown. If you're enjoying Kaatscast, and we hope you are, please rate and review wherever you get your podcasts, keep in touch at kaatscast.com, and follow us on Instagram [@kaatscast].