Wittenberg is the gateway to the Burroughs Range, and the ledge near its summit is the payoff that draws hikers all year. Hikers usually climb it from Woodland Valley on the red-marked Wittenberg-Cornell-Slide Trail, part of the Slide Mountain Wilderness. The round trip from that trailhead is 8.85 miles with 2,514 feet of gain, moderate at first and much rougher after the trail junction at 2.39 miles. Parking at the DEC lot costs a fee in spring, summer and fall.
The reward is a two-step rock ledge looking out over the Ashokan Reservoir from an open, rocky summit. Starting early also beats the weekend crowds. The rock here is Late Devonian, and the summit has the profile of a roche moutonnée, a rounded knob of the kind glaciers leave behind.
From the top, Bruin's Causeway leads on toward Cornell Mountain, named for the tracks left by animals along its narrow spine. Many hikers make a longer loop that includes both peaks. Winter trips call for ice axe, crampons and snowshoes, and the route is in high demand on fair-weather weekends, so a weekday start keeps the trail quieter.
