Hike #1135; Schunemunk Mountain to Chester

Hike #1135; Schunemunk Mountain to Chester NY

6/21/18 Schunemunk to Chester NY with Edward DiSalvo, Jessica Anne, and Janet Lynn McCourt-Finsen

My next hike would be another Thursday ordeal that had to do with my work schedule; I would work ten days straight (which required me to do a night hike for one of the weekend ones), and then I'd be off for four days.

View on the Western Ridge Trail

Like the previous year, I'd do Thursday and Saturday day hikes during these times.

Beware of .... hunters

Typically, I text message a few friends to see if there's anything they'd be interested in doing on these days. I was messaging Pete Wilcox about exploring some more rail beds, and then Ed DiSalvo about different trails in NY area.
For this one, I sent a message to Ed to see if he was interested in doing one of a few suggestions. Both of us had not finished the Highlands Trail and the Long Path off of the Schunemunk Ridge, and so we decided to do that.
Amazingly, this is the only bit of the entire 170 plus mile Highlands Trail I had never done, so it was kind of a big deal for me, even more so since I work in a couple of parks it runs through.

Catskills from the ridge

I put together a hike that would be between Chester NY area and the north part of Schunemunk Ridge, which would also incorporate some of the former Long Path.
Several years ago, the Long Path was rerouted onto Highlands Trail and some of the Orange Heritage Trail, which is the old Erie Railroad main line, to eliminate the long "Orange County Road Walk" as it was called. The old Long Path along the western ridge of Schunemunk was renamed Western Ridge Trail and reblazed orange.

View to the Hudson

I made the starting point the parking area for East Coast Athletics, which has a large lot I figured we wouldn't have a problem with west of Chester NY.

Megaliths

The drive up there was actually pretty nice. I was by myself, rambling through the Vernon Valley of NJ to the Warwick Valley of NY, and stopped off at a convenience store along the way. I discovered on the trip that the old
Lehigh and New England Railroad's station where the Glenwood Branch turned off was still in place and repurposed, which was a cool little sight. I had made some wrong turns following by car the old railroad lines, but still arrived on time at the exercise place. Only Ed was there, and we had to wait for Jess and Janet to show up.
When everyone had arrived, we shuttled to the parking area for Western Ridge Trail at a little camp type of lodging place.
The parking area was rather obscure, with only tiny wooden signs to show the way. We parked, and began looking for the trail through the grass in the back. After first looking at a foot bridge over a small stream, we found it to the left of another building going up hill with a "beware of hunters" sign. The trail was rather steep at first, but then picked up an old carriage road of sorts. It switched back and forth on it's way up the ridge, with occasional stone steps. When I got to the first overlook area to the northwest, I waited for everyone to catch up.
There were blueberries in bloom at this spot, which were delicious, so it was a good spot.
The trail continued to climb gradually to the top, and then we came to the intersection with the Trestle Trail, which goes to the north to a view of the Moodna Viaduct.

View west

I had done some of the secondary trails on the ridge before to the east, but we decided this time we would simply remain on the orange blazed Western Ridge Trail. I'd not done most of this before, and it's probably the least used trail in the entire Schunemunk system.
Most of the views are west facing, but a few east facing ones offered views of Storm King Mountain and some of the lands in West Point. Butter Hill is the peak on the near side of Storm King most prominent from the trail.
To the northwest, we could see out to the Catskills beyond the Shawangunk Ridge. The Shawangunks were visible all the way from there south as far as High Point New Jersey. I could recognize the High Point Monument from afar and showed everyone. At one point, we could even see the Hudson River to the north of Storm King, but it never came in view again for the rest of the trip. For most of the east facing views, we were looking across at the main ridge of Schunemunk Mountain.
We also passed an enormous Garter Snake, one of the largest I'd seen while out on a hike.
While on a rock outcropping section, we met up with a guy and girl who were also hiking to the south, but they were doing the route mostly off trail along the slope of the puddingstone conglomerate rocks. Across the little valley between the main and western ridge, the Megaliths came into view. These are a giant rock formation just off the Long Path and the Highlands Trail we had visited on a previous hike.

Highlands Trail and Long Path together

The Western Ridge Tral left Schunemunk Mountain State Park at one point, and we descended slightly to the right through a saddle before ascending to more ridge areas. It looked like someone had tried to remove some of the blazes through these areas, probably hunters. We crossed a few ATV tracks that led up from private land below, and after making our way to the next ridge section, I could see an above ground hunting blind above the tree line.
I noticed a young Fir tree growing along the ridge, something we don't typically see this far south. They're more prominent in the Catskills.
We continued along the ridge, and eventually Western Ridge Trail dipped down into the little valley between the main ridge, then started climbing rather steeply. Most of the rocks were really dry, but when we ascended to the main Schunemunk Ridge, it started getting really steep. It at some points required some hand hold climbing. When we got past the worst of it, but were still climbing, Jess took a fall forward and hit her face on the rock. She landed with most the weight on her chin. She handled it really well, but the cut was pretty bad. When I looked at it and could see the split skin, I knew we had to clean it and put some bacitracin or some sort of disinfectant on it. It wouldn't be too terrible because it wasn't bleeding, but it was still a concern. Fortunately, I could honestly reassure that it was down below the chin level, so looking at her it would not even be visible regularly.

Even a band aid or bandage would be minimally visible because of how low down she split it. I was concerned whether there might be a further problem, and for a moment I considered going down hill by way of the Long Path if needed when we got to it, because it might be quickest, but fortunately she was handling it really well after covering it over, and we didn't have to cut anything short.
At the top of the main ridge, we turned right on the combined Highlands Trail (teal diamond blazed) and Jessup Trail (yellow blazed). The trail on the ridge there was delineated by stones placed on the rocks to show the turns better. Things like this and cairns were used on the Western Ridge Trail too, but to a far lesser extent. This route was much easier to follow.
We continued with more views to the west, and we came to where the Long Path joined from the left. It makes it's way up from Central Valley area after leaving the Harriman State Park area. I'd followed the Long Path from the southern terminus continuously to this point, but I'd been missing the secton beyond here. Similarly, I had followed the Highlands Trail right to this point from the Hudson River, and from the south side as far as Orange-Rockland Lake, but not this part in between.
We continued ahead on the trail following the ridge. Views to the western ridge became more widespread. We could still see everything from High Point NJ up to the Catskills. There was also a prominent little hump of a hill in much closer view in the near valley.

Old spring house...one of seven???

We continued on the trail south, which alternated between foot path on open puddingstone rock ridge and woods road that was quite easy. At one point, we passed by a cell tower and skirted it's enclosure to the east. Every time I figured the overlooks were over with, there would be another west facing one. The trail would go up onto an outcrop of rocks, and then descend to more old woods road again regulary. It eventually left Schunemunk Mountain State Park for the last time and continued along the ridge, which went through a Woodbury Town Park for a time. The last overlook we did come to was one that had both west. The east facing view was of the Woodbury Commons and the exits off of the NY State Thru Way.
At the overlook, we also saw black jackets and hats sat on top of some bushes. Hasidic Jews from a nearby Jewish retreat center were nearby sitting on a lower rock outcrop. We were checking out the upper view, and they came walking up. They were pretty young guys, and one said "You didn't use our clothes, did you?" as if we'd put those heavy jackets on ourselves. We ended up having a little conversation with them, and they asked me about the trails.
They seemed quite interested in where it went and how far.
We continued from here down the trail, which became more steep in it's descent. Some of the Jewish folks from the same place must use the trail relatively often, because the trail heading down was littered with the same grocery bags from a specialty store as the stuff the two guys were were just talking to.
The area was known as Gonzaga Park, and we turned right at a white blazed trail that led into whatever area they were coming from. We continued down hill, and the woods were far less sparse. We also started coming across old stone rows again from old pastures and such.
We soon crossed an abandoned paved road. I think this was once part of Seven Springs Road. There was some sort of facility with a gate in view to the right, and the Highlands Trail/Long Path went straight across down through woods. There was a very old building foundation to the left of the trail. The trail then went by a very old spring house, maybe one of the Seven Springs referred to in the road name. It appeared to be mostly dried up now though.

Orange Rockland Lake

Soon, we came out of Gonzaga Park to Seven Springs Mountain Road, but I think we continued straight on just plain Seven Springs Road, which was sort of straight.
The road walk section was longer than I'd expected, but not too terrible. The road wasn't all that busy. We headed down hill and around a couple of corners, past a couple of houses, and then the trails turned to the right into more pleasant woods heading more gradually down hill. This next section was full of old stone rows, some of them particularly impressive. We passed through openings in the walls, and around some more rock outcrops on the way out toward Route 208. The trail skirted the back of the Orange and Rockland Utilities facility before emerging on the highway next to another old stone foundation ruin. Somewhere back in there, Janet got off the trail. Ed went back to look for her, and I didn't realize no one was behind me when I reached the road. I went back to find Jess sitting on a rock, and the other two missing. Fortunately, Ed found Janet pretty easily. She tried facebook messaging me instead of regular text or I'd have known earlier. Crisis was averted and we crossed over Rt 208 directly to re-enter the woods.
We continued down hill meandering on easier terrain, and soon came out to the shore of Orange-Rockland Lake, a pretty huge body of water. The trail turned right to follow the lovely shore line.
I got ahead again, and when I found a little peninsula where it looked good enough to get in, I went for a swim. It was kind of crappy right where we first got in because of the water vegetation, but once out past it was nice.
There was a house building and boats and such right on the other side, but no one gave us a hard time about it. In fact, we didn't see another person on this entire stretch. We'd only seen the two Jewish fellows and the young couple on the entire first section, so most of what we'd done was quite private.
When we were done with our swim, we continued around the lake on the trail and emerged at a gate with prominent "no trespassing" signs, which excludes trail use.
I didn't really see that sign at first, and so I continued walking over the dam to the right. It had some cool views, but I had to go out and around because I didn't feel like climbing down the spillway.
The spillway was quite nice, made of nicely laid stone, and situated at a curving angle.

Oxford Depot Cemetery

Orange-Rockland Lake is some sort of utility owned lake with recreation as a side thing, but most public access is from the south side. I’m not sure a lot of it’s history.
The trail went off onto Museum Village Road south. We followed it over a hill and soon crossed over Route 6 on the highway bridge. On the other side, we went immediately left and descended to the park and ride off Rt 17, adjacent to the Orange Heritage Trail, which follows the old Erie Railroad main line.
I'd followed this section once before, on a hike on the Highlands Trail from the south at Goose Pond Mountain, and we headed then east to the end of the trail by Woodbury. This time, we would follow the trail west through Chester.

Oxford Depot Station

We passed under Museum Village Road, which had some old abutments from an earlier bridge, and then continued to pass under Rt 6. There were nice views of Goose Pond Mountain to the south as we got out onto a higher fill.
Soon, we reached the Oxford Depot Cemetery on the right. This point is next to Craigsville Road where the southbound Highlands Trail departs and goes down to the road, although we still saw Highlands Trail markers ahead on the rail trail. I figure it might have gone that way in the past and was rerouted, or someone might have rerouted it and it now went that way, but I didn't see any turn blazes or anything except at the overpass by the cemetery.
We checked out the historic cemetery, and then continued on the trail again to the Oxford Depot. I had found historic photos of the place, and so I tried to match them up when we went by. The old depot building really just looks like a house. It might have been built at a time before there was really a signature railroad station look.

Oxford Depot then...

There was a long stretch of pleasant woods and adjacent fields ahead. We passed the Jack and Louise Birnberg Nature Preserve entrance on the left, a connecting trail by Orange County Land Trust. There's so much more to see there, we'll definitely have to make a return trip for more.

Oxford Depot Station

Just a bit further ahead, we passed under Greycourt Road where there was a gate to the right, and an abandoned building adjacent to the trail. We started walking by it, but then there was a sign in there that said "trail access", so we knew people were allowed to come from that way. When I saw the door to the building open, I had to have a look.

Greycourt Station

It was painted all blue inside, and there was art on the walls. I wouldn't by any means call this grafitti, because it was of people playing pool, table tennis, or musical instruments, as well as natural scenes. I later found out that this was all part of Camp Laguardia.

Greycourt Station historic postcard

Camp LaGuardia has quite the history, as well as a reputation with urban explorers.

Greycourt Station site today

The history begins with the New York Women's Farm Colony, a sort of prison for women when such things were uncommon. Work started in 1918 and by the early twenties, women were being brought in from New York City. Crimes among women were high at the time, blamed by some on absense of men during World War I, and they would be shoplifting and engaging in prostitution.

1880s Greycourt Station

By the end of the twenties, crimes among women had gone down, and in 1934 it became Camp Greycourt, a welfare camp during the Great Depression, a need that eclipsed the need for a women's jail. It was a project of then NYC Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, and so in 1935 it was re-Christened Camp LaGuardia.
The camp proved to be a good thing for the homeless until the 1980s when crack cocaine became substance of choice among homeless rather than alcohol or weed. At that time, there were attacks of people on the railroad tracks, there were muggings and lewdness. NY City was pressured to close the place, and under Mayor Bloomberg, they did. The property was sold to Orange County, and the history from there becomes boring with mundane government lingo.

Historic image of Chester Station

Basically, there are various plans for the property that include a new Town Center for Orange, an industrial complex, a religious center, farm use, limited recreation, and more.

Interviews with government officials regarding the property and it's past uses border on sounding pompous and stuck up, and the county's purchase of the property is something that would be seen as extremely foolish where I live in Warren County. With all of the buildings, it's a White Elephant no government can afford or would want. They're better off working on a creative re-use that would satisfy all of the aforementioned plans.
There's so much more to that facility as I understand, and I'd love to explore more of it. All the more reason to come back.

Historic image at Chester Station

We continued ahead and there was a camera on the railroad bed, followed by a section with high fences on either side. It was kind of a weird "Big Brother is Watching" moment, and I felt like we were being herded. That ended just ahead when we reached the former eastbound juntion with the Newburg Branch of the Erie Railroad, which is clear and looks quite walkable. We did a section of this east of Washingtonville NY in the past, and I really want to do the whole thing. Plans for doing more hikes in the area seem to be coming together more so as I realize the other places I'd been wanting to visit.
As we continued ahead, rails appeared on the left. The next bridge, over the Seely Brook, had a second one next to it with rails on it. Those got clearer as we continued east, and we passed the former westbound connection of the Newburg Branch. This junction area ahead was known as Greycourt, and the rails in place are part of a connection with the Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad, another line that passes all the way across warren County and I have never finished walking.
Greycourt was an important point, and an early railroad junction. The Newburg Branch was completed here in 1849.
The Warwick Valley Railroad was completed to this point in 1862, and was a branch of the Erie Railroad. It broke away from Erie control in 1880, and then merged with other smaller railroads to form the Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad. By 1886, it was extended south through Belvidere and connections were made to the Lehigh Valley in PA, and to the north to Maybrook. It served as a major bridge line to bring freight between railroads in Lehigh Valley across the Hudson River until the Poughkeepsie Bridge burned in 1974. This proved to be a fatal blow for many of the area railroads, most notably the Lehigh and Hudson and Erie-Lackawanna. The Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad is still in use in this area, surprisingly, but tracks terminate just below Sparta Junction in NJ. The siding we passed earlier is still used to the site of the former Greycourt Station to store farm goods. We even saw one box car on those tracks as well as what I think was a piece of maintenance equipment.
We passed beneath the Lehigh and Hudson's bridge, and then entered the black dirt country, where all the sod farms and such are in the Warwick Valley. There were some nice views out to the right.

We continued through these lands until we crossed over Meadow Ave and reached the town of Chester NY. The old station was still standing to the left, a handsome structure built in 1915 to replace the earlier one. The railroad first arrived in Chester in 1841, and eventually saw millions of gallons of milk freight. When the rail lines began to fail, this old Erie branch fell into disuse when it came into control of Metro North. They abandoned the line in favor of the Graham line in 1983, and the tracks were ripped up in 1984.
We decided this would be a good spot to get some food. We were pretty hungry, and I was super thirsty because I was just about out of water. Just below the railroad line was the Rushing Duck Brewing Company, which looked like a must for a stop.

Historic image of Chester Station

They had a food truck serving items that included a really good deal on empanadas.

Chester Station today

They also had some kind of big hot dog I think it was, so I got both. Everything was great, and the empanadas were absolutely outstanding. I was able to get the water I needed, plus I tried one of their stronger beers, which was pretty good.

August 5th, 1950: Berkshire 3363 with train #83, an 80 car freight at Chester Station Photo: “Erie Memories” By Ed Crist

I considered going to their regular brewery area to get a pack of one of them, but then decided against it.

Historic image at Erie Station

We continued on from here and passed beneath Rt 94, then paralleled Hambletonian Road. There were more very nice views of the Warwick Valley as we continued.

The view today

We crossed over the Black Meadow Creek before reaching our turn off point between Old Chester Road and Rt 17M where there was trail parking. We simply followed 17M back a short distance to the athletics place to conclude the hike.
I really want to follow the old Erie line as far as Middletown, and the trail doesn't quite reach there yet. I think it would be great to see it before that actually comes to pass, but who knows what will happen. There's still so much more to do and not enough time to do it in. I'm severely limited with what I can accomplish through weekend hikes, and even this one I wanted to save for when more people could attend, but if I do that I'll just never get them done. All I can do is make the best of it and see as much as I can see despite adversity of scheduling. It's not working out all that badly overall.
Maybe we'll get around to the Middletown segment at some time this coming fall or Winter.