Hike #1011; Teatown Lake to Pocantico Hills
2/5/17 Teatown Lake to Pocantico Hills with Sean TheRed Reardon, John Kosar, Gregg Hudis,
This would be another silly romp that would end up going well over what I’d anticipated it would, but was so fun I don’t think anyone really minds all that much.
I typically don’t like to post hikes on one single trail. It gets boring. Instead, I’ll take part of the route and stick something else to it. This time, I looked at the 6.5 mile long Teatown-Kichawan Trail, put in by New York/New Jersey Trail Conference several years ago. I remember when I first read about it in the Trail Walker newsletter. At the time, I had not yet connected my hikes to the area, but figured I’d one day do it. This seemed like the right opportunity to attach that rail route to the first part of this hike.
Teatown-Kichewan Trail map
We met at a parking lot off of Saw Mill River Parkway on the east side of Tarrytown NJ, at the east side of the Pocantico Hills. We’d shuttle north from there to the Teatown Lake Reservation to start the hike.
I’d hiked Teatown Lake before. The first one was a section on the Halloween hike several years back.
Island bridge at Teatown Lake
It’s really a beautiful place, and in some ways the trails are actually kind of overdone. There are stone steps, boardwalks, bridges, all over the place looking like some of the best work the NYNJ Trail Conference does.
We parked at a lot on Blinn Road on the east side of the reservation after spotting Terri’s car at a supermarket in the town of Millwood. We started walking a wide trail on down hill to reach the east side of the lake. There was then a fenced garden type of area. All of the benches and fences and such were a polished cedar or similar coniferous material made in Adirondack style.
Trail at Teatown Lake
The area of Teatown is actually quite interesting. Following the US Declaration of Independence in 1776, tea was of course very scarce. The taxation from the British tea was a course a subject recounted through history countless times.
At the time, a man named John Arthur moved to northern Westchester with a lot of tea he’d been holding onto, and thought that he’d sell it off at a huge profit. A group of women known as the “Daughters of Eve” demanded that Arthur sell the tea at fair market value, and when he refused they went to harass him at his home. Eventually, they broke him down, and Mr. Arthur agreed to sell the tea at fair price if they would back off. The area has taken the name “Teatown” ever since.
Trail at Teatown Lake
The land that is now the reservation passed between several owners who constructed buildings now used as their nature center.
In 1923 General Electric President Gerald Swope purchased the land and laid out a network of trails for his horseback riding. In the late twenties he build the dam which turned a former wetland meadow into the present lake.
Swope died in 1957, and his heirs donated the first 163 acres of land to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in 1963 as a preserve and for community outreach. It’s since grown to over one thousand acres.
We continued through the little garden area, then along the beautiful south side of the lake. I had done this little part on that past Halloween hike, across the boardwalk to the Briarcliff Peekskill Trailway, where we turned right.
This trailway was intended to be a superhighway, the Briarcliff Peekskill Parkway. Some of it was built, and is now Rt 9A, but the section that never came to be from around Ossining north is now designated as the linear trail route.
We wouldn’t be on this trail too long this time. Instead, we followed the nice pathway that remained on the shore of the lake heading to the north, to the low concrete dam.
Big tree
When we got to the dam, the triple blaze for the start of the Teatown-Kichawan Trail was there. We turned left to begin following it along the outflow of Teatown Lake. There was an interesting giant tree along the way that Justin, Red Sean, and John had to climb inside of.
We passed over some very nice puncheons along the way to the north, and eventually rejoined Briarcliff-Peekskill Trailway, and reached Blinn Road. Here, the Briarcliff-Peekskill went left, and Teatown-Kichawan went to the right along the road for a short distance.
Soon, we turned left into the woods into John Hand Park, named for a county Legislator.
The trail was a wide former road. To the left, we passed a few stone ruins, which were probably barns, but I can’t tell for sure.
I watched closely for a side trail to the right that was to lead to the top of Bald Mountain, which reportedly had a nice view. I planned to do the side trip, but the trails are marked horribly except for Teatown-Kitchawan. We managed to find the horribly marked spray painted side trail, which is on an old woods road most of the way, taking a circuitous route up Bald Mountain by going around it and then switching back.
It was a good thing we visited this spot in the Winter time and not the Summer, because there would have been no view whatsoever. There were a few people going by on mountain bikes, and they were very courteous. Other hikers passed, and commented that I was wearing a suit.
We took a break on the top, but that didn’t last long because the wind was too strong. Rather than take the long way back down, we descended directly through the leaves on the steep slope to the main trail, which could be seen below. I think we all fell several times and realized we should just go with it and slide down on the leaves. Once we were back on the pink blazed Teatown-Kitchawan, it was much easier, with only gentle slopes.
Croton Reservoir from the Teatown-Kitchawan Trail
The Croton Reservoir came into view after we entered a wide open meadow, with a few Eastern Red Cedars starting to grow up. It was still somewhat obscured, but better than Bald Mountain.
At this point, it also started snowing. It was warm enough out that nothing was sticking to the ground, but it made for a very neat ambiance. We took another little break here.
The Croton Reservoir was originally a smaller one, dammed to bring fresh drinking water to New York City after they polluted the Collect Pond, Manhattan’s main fresh water source. The old Croton Aqueduct started moving water in 1842. The current reservoir was built for the New Croton Aqueduct (which we’d cross in a short bit, but I don’t recall it being very well defined).
The current dam holding back the reservoir, the Croton Dam, is second largest hand hewn stone structure in the world. It is second only to the Great Pyramid at Giza.
We continued on the trail, which picked up an old road and switched back down to the south edge of the reservoir. It followed the dirt road then heading to the east. We then passed over the southbound Taconic Parkway Bridge over the reservoir. I did not realize that the south and north bound lanes had their own bridges, each very different and quite far apart from one another. The first bride was a sort of deck truss or cantilever I think, and the second was a through arch truss.
The Taconic Parkway was the brainchild of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who envisioned a scenic highway on the west side of the Hudson River Valley to provide access to parks there. It remains New York State’s longest parkway today.
LOL
We were laughing a lot and just having a good time through this nice easy section.
The trail followed the dirt road beneath both bridges, then went to the right on Aqueduct Road. It took us up hill and parallel with the Taconic Parkway for a bit. The trail cut to the left into the woods near the top of a hill on the road.
We headed through the woods heading only slightly up hill, and the trail took us through some pleasant woods. It was in here somewhere that we crossed over the New Croton Aqueduct. We crossed a clearing of some sort, but I’m not sure if that was it or not.
Silliness
There was one section of trail that was up on a higher turnpiked sort of thing. I’m not sure what that was either, but it could have been it.
We continued through DEP lands heading to the east, and eventually crossed over Arclay Road. From there, we continued into the Kitchawan Preserve. This preserve was once another site owned by the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.
The woods through the area were absolutely full of the stone walls that separated pastures. It’s amazing how much work was put into these walls, as well as how hard it must have been to grow crops there.
A Justin thing
There was a yellow blazed trail immediately that went off to the left. I realized around this time that we had a very long way to go, and that our route on Teatown-Kitchawan was taking longer than I had anticipated. We couldn’t do any of those side trails. They would have to be for another day.
Soon, the other end of the yellow trail appeared to the left, and then a red trail broke off to the left. It too returned after a short while. I wonder if these side trails access overlooks or something. Others also broke off to the north, but we soon entered more open pastures, where the trail was mowed, and did not see the blazing for the side trails heading off.
Northbound Taconic Parkway bridge over Croton Reservoir
I turned around at one point to see Red Sean and John sprinting like crazy at me. Sean has the height, but John was running in a crazy zig zag and still kept up and even passed Sean, similar to a hyper off-leash dog!
John took a spill near me, and we’d thought he lost his glasses there for a bit (but that happened later).
Teatown-Kitchawan Trail went back into the woods after a section of pastures, and when we got to the intersection with another yellow trail, we turned. We only missed a tiny bit of Teatown-Kitchawan. From here, we were heading as best we could to the east.
Weird turnpiked pathway on Teatown-Kitchawan
The yellow trail took us from a bridge crossing at a small brook gradually up hill to another red trail. We turned left on this and continued even further up a gradual hill though a lovely woods with sparse to no undergrowth. Once at the top of the hill, we leveled off and intersected with a white blazed trail. Here, we turned to the left.
The white trail continued easily on a level to down hill grade until we got to a utility line clearing. I couldn’t tell which way the trail was supposed to go because there were no good blazes, so we just went down hill to the left for a bit.
Crazy Justin
It occured to me that there was no way the trail was leading to the old railroad bed from this way, so we opted to just bushwhack to it and climb the steep slope to the right of way.
We had to climb over a fence when we got to the grade, and people sort of looked at us funny. I’m sure the fact that I had the suit on made it even stranger.
Just ahead, we could see the magnificent through truss bridge that once carried the Putnam Division Line across the Croton Reservoir. Even though it was somewhat out of he way to where we were going, we had to go check it out.
Crazyyyy
Justin climbed up one of the trusses on the one side, and Brittany started climbing up the other. That was a bit nerve wracking since she claims to be the most unbalanced person in the world.
The bridge looked amazing with it’s high truss. Much of the old Putnam line can actually be pretty boring, so this is one of the high points of the entire trail.
The “Old Put” as it is often called, started out in the mid 1800s like so many other railroads, with multiple charters and mergers. It was intended to connect with Boston and Albany by way of other lines, and this would connect the Bronx in NYC with Brewster by the Connecticut border. The main branch we would be following was completed in 1880.
Putnam Division map
The line became part of the New York Central system in 1894, and because it had no tunnels on it, it made it the perfect choice for carrying oversize load trains.
Like all of the other railroads, it had it’s rise and fall. The line on the east short of the Hudson has remained in service, so the need for this one for passenger service after the advent of the automobile was marginal.
Abandonment of the line first started in sections starting in 1958.
The New York Central merged with the long time rival, Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968 to form the Penn Central, and the decline continued. By 1976, the bankrupt Penn Central was taken over by Conrail, and the the remainder of it was ripped up shortly after.
After our break at the trestle, we turned around and began following the right of way to the south, which soon went parallel with another finger of the Croton Reservoir. We passed beneath Rt 134 through a giant pipe underpass and continued the pleasant walk to the south.
This section was totally easy compared to others we had done, and we’d make good time on the remainder of it, but there was still quite a huge distance left to go. I knew it was going to be a rather late night even at this point.
Croton Reservoir trestle
We continued along the line south, and then took a break at the Rt 100/Saw Mill River Road bridge overpass where there was a nice little fire fighters 911 memorial.
The walk to the south from here to the town of Millwood was actually a good distance, but it went along quite fast for us I think.
Millwood is a nice little hamlet, and was where Terri left her car to cut out early. It’s a very old town that had many names, but the present name is from a grain mill that stood in present day Echo Lake Park on the south side.
Historic view at Millwood
Millwood used to be a station stop on the old Putnam line. When the original 1880s structure burned down, the Briarcliff Manor Station had been replaced, and so the old one was loaded onto a train and moved to this location.
Old Millwood Station
It reportedly stood after abandonment as an office, and at another time a garden center, but then had some damage and was deemed too costly to renovate.
The old station was demolished in 2012. We only missed it by a few years.
A railroad station is always a sort of signature spot for a town. A huge part of history everyone loves having. I can’t believe a town along a rail trail would allow for the destruction of such a quaint little structure. The cost of renovation couldn’t have really been that much.
We followed the rail bed through Millwood, and the trail turned away from it to the right at some point, where the grade went as an access road or something into a private area. We continued on the trail parallel with Rt 133 until we were across from the parking area where we had spotted Terri’s car earlier.
Bros!
Joe and Kellie both opted for the early oput opportunity with Terri at this point, and the rest of us all headed to the businesses available in the strip mall. We hung out in front of Tazza Cafe and some got coffe, but I went into the supermarket. This used to be an A&P until recently I understand. A&P was actually one of the big customers on the old Putnam line because they had a warehouse in Elmsford, but I believe that closed in the seventies. The place did remind me of A&P, only it was much busier than I’d remembered A&Ps typically being, and it looked somewhat cleaner.
I had been starving, so I went to the hot food bar and loaded up. $8 got me chicken parm, amazing mac and cheese, some rice, and some vegetables.
"Resting"
We hung out outside eating for a while, and then continued on, back across the street and onto the trail heading to the south.
The trail reached Rt 100, crossed on a crosswalk, then followed the wide shoulder of the road to the south. This was one of the worst sections of the entire trail. It looks to me like the railroad originally would have crossed where Echo Lake is, but has been obliterated by highway improvements.
We continued along the road through a rocky area, and I spotted where a quarry and rail spur might have been at one time. We crossed over again south of Echo Lake and there was a parking area for North County Trailway.
Fun
From here, the trail was a designated trail, but was still right along side of Rt 100, so it wasn’t too great yet. It continued out in the open t hrough this area for a bit, then cut off to the left through a wooded area for a bit.
Somewhere in this area John realized he had lost his expensive prescription sunglasses. We tried thinking over where he might have left them, but we couldn’t be sure. My thought was when he and Red Sean were sprinting around in Kitchawan Preserve, but we couldn’t be sure.
The trail came out to Rt 100 and crossed on another crosswalk. It then followed another wide shoulder of the highway into Briarcliff Manor area.
Briarcliff Manor station
The section really did no good for me to experience a settlement. It didn’t feel like we were passing through a colonial town or one with a rich railroad history. Reportedly, the old station that was built in 1910 is still standing and serves as a library now. We probably looked right at it from the highway, but there was no good interpretation like there is further south on the trailway.
We simply walked the highway over the Pocantico River, under the Briarcliff Peekskill Parkway, and then the next bit of trail opened up to the right, parallel with the highway still but not nearly as horrible to walk.
We continued south and the trail became nicer. It soon paralleled Saw Mill River Road. The trail had a tunnel underpass, metal fences when we were up on high fills, and a better seclusion from the road as we gained elevation from them.
It was somewhere in this area that the original route of the Putnam Division line broke away to the east. I was looking as we went by, but I don’t recall seeing the old route departing to the right.
The line had actually been moved two different occasions for the bit south of Briarcliff Manor to where we were parked. It originally ran through the Pocantico Hills directly.
North County Trailway
The route crossed over the high East View Trestle over the valley which is now Tarrytown Reservoir, but that was abandoned and the line was routed around the west side of the lake.
Still, the northern leg of the Pocantico Hills route was the same, and the subject of annoyance for John D. Rockefeller who’s estate the line passed through.
The Rockefeller family, at their own expense, funded the rerouting of the Putnam line to the east edge of the Pocantico Hills and away from their land. The reroute opened in 1931.
Earlier Putnam alignments through Pocantico Hills
Three stations were eliminated through the removal of the line through Pocantico Hills: Tarrytown Heights, Tower Hill, and Pocantico Hills. This actually aided in the decline of the line, as it served fewer people and generated no freight traffic.
Historic view during removal of East View Trestle
The earlier alignments clearly would have been more interesting because of their topography and structures. We hiked some of the earlier Old Put in the Fall of 2015 because much of it is now part of the trail network in Rockafeller State Park.
We continued along the trail heading south, and this section seemed to drag on for the longest. It was getting colder, and we were splitting up. Not everyone was able to keep the same pace going toward the end of it all.
I pointed out to Justin where we had cut up into the woods on the previous hike into Rockafeller State Park, the last time we had done any hiking on the Old Put. Just beyond that point, there are still rails along the trail to the right.
Early alignment of the Old Put, historic USGS map
The trail turned from following the smaller road to following the Saw Mill River Parkway. Red Sean was hurting pretty bad, and was falling behind. We waited up for him once, but then the next times we were so close to the cars we wanted to just keep moving.
Eventually, we crossed over Saw Mill River Parkway on a former rail bridge, then crossed Old Saw Mill River Road. The parking area was just past here on the right side. John kept us going in those last few miles playing some good songs on his speaker he’d gotten for his pack.
I remember listening to some Pink Floyd, and despite the fact that I love it, they didn’t care too much for the version of “Have A Cigar” by The Foo Fighters featuring Queen’s Brian May.
It took Sean quite a long time to catch up with us. He was hurting pretty badly. The pavement on the trail really can be murderous after so many miles. He finally came limping across the last bridge to complete the hike.
Abandonment at east view historic shot
Our final challenge for this one was not a hiking challenge, but rather a car shuttle. Since everyone had left, we had only Justin’s car remaining at the ending parking area to get everyone back to Sean’s car.
It was decided it best that Sean could rest, and I could go with Justin to get his car and bring it back. Five of us would not have crammed well into Justin’s car.
I had no trouble getting there and back, and we all piled in, then headed to a nearby Wendy’s right down the street from where we finished. Sean had been scoping it out from the trail, where it was visible. I couldn’t handle eating all that much because I was so tired.
Along the Old Put
I probably slept for the majority of the ride back. My scaling shows that we covered about twenty one and one quarter miles, well over what I was planning on doing. For the future ones, I’ll have to watch more closely what the mileage could turn out as.
With only one more hike, we could probably complete the entire Westchester portion of the Old Put, and everything on this trail north of the Croton Reservoir is of better quality than what we covered on this one, because it’s so much more isolated.
Justin and I were chatting about how the hikes seem to keep getting better, and although this wasn’t as great a hike as some of the other recent ones, he noted that the right people tend to be coming together, which makes the overall experience greater. With the schedule of items coming up, it’s looking very probably that we’re in for a really great year, as long as I don’t have any other outside sources stand in the way.
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