Hike #809; AT Fahnestock State Park to Bear Mountain/Fort Montgomery
11/2/14 Fahnestock State Park to Fort Montgomery with Ed DiSalvo, Gregg Hudis, Jen Berndt, Julie Strohmaier, Stephen Argentina, Justin Gurbisz, Michele Valerio, Teun Ott, Ken Lidman, Serious Sean Dougherty, Terri Allen, Cory Janusz, Cory's buddy, Annika Krystyna, Wei ?, Antican Wang, Cisco ?, Typhanie ?, Angela Castro, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, and Eric Pace.
The group at Old Albany Post Road.
Our next hike would be a point to point, mostly on the Appalachian Trail in the Hudson Highlands, something very out of character for most of the hikes I do.
It's very uncommon that I'll host a hike on one trail for an entire day, and especially not the Appalachian Trail. The most popular hiking trail in the world, it can be sort of annoying when people ask "Do you hike the AT?". They even assume that if I'm hiking I must certainly be on the AT. This, however, is a somewhat different kind of section because it doesn't lend itself as well to loop hikes. The majority of this section is a linear route with fewer side trails, and so it would get a lot less traffic. It made more sense to do this one as a point to point trip solely on the AT.
Also, AT hikes tend to attract more participants than others. My friends and I know that the best places are usually well off and away from the AT, and that the popular route usually bypasses the greatest views and most interesting points, but those who know no better will gravitate toward such hikes because of the familiar name. I wanted to post something that might attract some more newcomers. I have to make sure that Metrotrails sustains a healthy influx of people.
As I stated in my recent hike journals, Metrotrails is indeed a selfish thing for me, my endeavor to connect trails and experiences with a network I've been building on for nearly 18 years. I do my thing, and I invite my friends to come along on the journey and get from it what they will, and hopefully we all benefit from the experience. What I failed to illustrate in these statements is my personal need for this.
Of course, hiking, nature history, these have always been passions I've held dear to me. Being social is also important. However, I do love spending my time alone outside. I'll often get labeled as someone who needs to be around people, who needs everyone to like me, to be the center of attention. Most of my friends who know me today don't see the struggle I have coping negative thoughts, and how my forced responsibilities are necessary to keep me happy.
Before organizing hikes, I would sit alone, sometimes for days and draw or paint. I would act ridicules, have fun with friends, but when those options were not there, I created visual art solely because of the positive attention my talents would attract. I gave up creating visual art when I realized it was only a form of in-fulfilling intellectual masturbation that gambled on my ability to gain notoriety for it. Except for the bit of it that truly entertained me, I gave up creating visual art altogether.
The hikes were a way of living artfully, of expressing my passion and sharing something dear to me, while allowing participants to hold onto whatever aspects of it they found important. Sharing these experiences with so many people has been the most amazing experience of my life, but the experience has also had a more dire need.
I love getting out and spending time alone, doing trail work or short hikes. I do this often. However, I am very susceptible to negativity, so much so that it can hold me back from doing anything at all. I'll battle within my own mind whether I should leave the house and do anything or not. Often times I just want to go to sleep and not deal with anything. By posting a hike or other event, taking on responsibility where people are counting on me for guidance, I have created my own therapy.
On the Friday before this hike, Halloween night, there was a Metrotrails night hike and get together at my friend Gregg Hudis's house. I had had a rough day of running around at work, and I'd been faced with a lot of negativity as of late. I got out of work a bit late, and would run quite a bit behind reaching Gregg's house to hike. Jillane didn't want to do anything with me, and I was just feeling horrible. I sat down on the couch and fell asleep, unable to get myself up to do anything at all. I was not needed; Gregg had organized the event and my presence was not necessary for it's success.
Gregg texted and called me until eventually I was coerced to come out, and I'm glad I did because it was a nice time. Another friend from work texted me to come and see his Jesus costume, and so I went there afterwards. It was nice to feel my presence was wanted.
With the coming of the cold weather, I needed to post some hikes that would attract more people to Metrotrails and yet still cover interesting places I wanted to see. The Appalachian Trail section through the Hudson Highlands of Putnam County was just the trip to do for this year's Halloween Hike. It proved to be the right decision, as well over thirty people RSVP'd for the event.
We met at Fort Montgomery near Bear Mountain, at their supplemental parking area to the north of the outlet of Brooks Lake into the Hudson River. We'd met here for a Bear Mountain loop hike before, but never got to hiking the AT northeast of the Hudson. I had decided I wanted to try to connect the hikes to the Connecticut border by way of the AT in the near future.
After meeting at Fort Montgomery, we shuttled in as few cars as possible north to Fahnestock State Park, on Dennytown Road. The area is named for the Denny family who operated an iron mine east of here in the 1800s.
We had few newcomers, Anti, Cisco, and Typhanie, and they all handled it very well and fit in nicely with our eclectic group. Also, my old friend Julie had made it back out for the first time in several years, having just moved back to the area from Vermont. The lot from which we started was an open area where a couple of trails diverged. The Catfish Loop, which made a loop with the Appalachian Trail, and Three Lakes Trail both left the lot. At the north side of the lot were masonry ruins of what appears to be a chapel, but according to the guide book, it was actually constructed by an amateur stone mason as a chicken coop! It's true history may be lost, no one seems sure. There are two structures, both reportedly built in the 1920s or 30s.
Fahnestock State Park, or Clarence Fahnestock Memorial State Park was donated by Dr. Ernest Fahnestock as a memorial to his brother Clarence, who died during post World War I influenza epidemic while treating patients.
Chapel/Chicken Coop at Fahnestock SP
We began walking along the AT southbound from the lot, which was actually more west at first. The trail immediately began to ascend on switch backs. There were some seasonal views as we reached the height of the land. The hills of the Hudson Highlands are very beautiful, without too many sharp rocks but enough continuous ups and downs to give a good workout. The area is also scattered with many old stone rows, some of the most extensive we've ever encountered on my hikes.
We continued along the trail through and parallel with Putnam Valley, and left Fahnestock State Park. The trail alternated between foot paths and old woods roads, with many more stone walls around. We eventually came out to South Highlands Road, a paved narrow road over the highlands. We re-grouped here a bit, then continued on across the road and up hill. There were even nicer old stone walls throughout this section. Much of this area was the site of encampments and stockades associated with the American Revolution. We continued past more impressive walls, one of which was so wide and large that a compact car could fit on top.
Remnants of Continental Army innoculation site
Before reaching Canopus Road, we passed through old masonry ruins dating back to the late 1700s. These were the remnants of a Smallpox inoculation station for the Continental Army during the American Revolution. The trail crossed the road, descended a bit, then ascended Canopus Hill on switch backs. Because there are no loop opportunities here, the AT remains rather narrow, and the leaves scattered are not beaten down. The seclusion of the site was quite nice. We did pass one other group on our way through along the AT. The people, all mostly middle aged to older, were all dressed in serious hiking gear, but we looked rather strange. I was wearing dress pants, black dress shoes, a bright shiny red shirt with a bright pink blazer. Serious Sean was wearing the Cat in the Hat costume he'd used last year, and others had only slightly silly things, like Terri had black and white striped pants. Not nearly as many were into the dress up this time.
View from Canopus Hill
The top of Canopus Hill had a rather nice view back in the direction we came. We continued over the hill, and down the other side with a bit of a view through the trees to the north. We descended for a while and reached the dirt intersection of Old Albany Post Road and Chapman Road. This was a lovely intersection, with both roads remaining unpaved. Ed found a gnome statue next to the side of a yard, with a little pond and a bench the neighbors apparently have set up for through hikers. We waited here to re-group everyone.
The Old Albany Post Road in this section is a 6.6 mile stretch of one of the oldest remaining unpaved roads in North America. It was a nice place to hang out for a while, but it was also cold after a short time of sitting still. Regardless, we hung out until the last few caught up. A girl came driving by as I was about to take the group photo and offered to take it for us, which was nice.
View from Denning Hill
The trail continued on from here across a wet area on a puncheon, then began to climb along the southern edge of Fort Defiance Hill, another Revolutionary War fortification. We headed up hill with some seasonal views to the south and east. The trail continued to another ascent, to the top of Denning Hill, with an immediate good view to the west.
NYC and Hudson view from Denning Hill
To the south, the Hudson River came into view, and beyond it we could see the skyscrapers of NY City. This is the northernmost point on the Appalachian Trail where the NYC skyline is visible. We took another nice break here and admired the view while others caught up. We couldn't wait up for everyone at every turn, so we continued on after a good amount of the group had caught up. The trail became a woods road at some point ahead, and we followed a blue blazed path to the right, up hill to a seasonal overlook of the Hudson River. It was quite nice.
View of Storm King Mountain and Breakneck Ridge.
Storm King Mountain and Breakneck Ridge were in view to the north, with the river passing through. Had we been out here only a week ago this view would probably have been obscured by leaves. It was the perfect time to be there, and the perfect lighting. We continued back to the AT and continued west over Little Fort Hill.
My guide book read that an orange blazed trail would go to the left to a view and to Graymoor Friary where camping was permitted, but we did not see this trail. There was some pink trail off to the left at some point that was not shown on the map or mentioned in the book. Soon however, there was a blue blazed trail on the left, which I assumed would lead to another overlook.
We headed up the trail, and it led us to lovely stone steps.
Side trail on Little Fort Hill.
I wondered if these spot could be some sort of remains of the "Little Fort" from the Revolutionary days. The area seemed to be at the top of a hill and on a flat enough location. There were a lot of rocks, obviously modern makeup with mortar holding steps in place. At the top, there was a sort of memorial with a sign that read "De Los Inmigrantes". I figure the site must have had something to do with the Graymoor Friary nearby, and their trail system. There were plastic roses atop stone steps with mortar on them, in a platform at the top.
Camp site and memorial on Little Fort Hill
Just below, another colored trail, yellow I think, descended, and there was a fire ring with lots of seasoned wood near it for campers. This would be an outstanding campsite if we were backpacking through. The site could easily have been something to do with the historic fort, because there would have been some masonry in place, and it could have been incorporated into the current memorial. We hung out here for a lunch break because it was such a nice spot. After a bit, people ended up going by us on the AT below. We descended and resumed on the AT west.
We made our way across the Catskill Aqueduct, the water source that feeds NY City out of the Catskill reservoirs, which just looks like a woods road. Past it, we crossed a dirt road with blue blazes on it, and Cory and his buddy found a chair and a bunch of junk to sit on just off the trail. We all continued on, and the AT led us across the property of Graymoor Friary. We went across a wide open grassy area with a red building to the right, then descended more over puncheons and through woods with more stone rows.
We descended to cross a small road followed by an intersection on Rt 9. The small unpaved road was Old West Point Road, which led north to Benedict Arnold's headquarters in Garrison. This was the road on which John Andre, liaison to the British Army was taken en route to be hanged after the attempted treason was uncovered in 1780. The AT crossed the concrete median on Rt 9 right in front of the most convenient convenience store I've ever seen on the AT. It was called The Appalachian Deli-Grill-Pizza. I had no idea it was going to be this good. It wasn't mentioned in my guide.
YUM!!!
The place had great pizza, but also had my favorite Arizona RX Energy, Pineapple Four Loco, plenty of other beers, eggplant parm, chicken marsala stuff, and more. I bought two slices of pizza, and Serious Sean gave me a slice of Buffalo Chicken. We hung out outside at the picnic benches and ate and drank in merriment. Someone picked up some IPAs which were good too. We had a nice long break and everyone caught up. Eric decided to cut out at this point because the terrain was much tougher than anticipated. Mr. Buckett went with him. Ken was going to go too, but then he backed out at the last minute and said "You know what? When am I going to get back out here again? I'm doing it!". He chased us out across the puncheon on the other side as we continued on.
The puncheon just off of Rt 9 was in some rough condition. This one had obviously been there for a while and got a lot of traffic. On the other side, I wasn't at the front, and so everyone turned left along an old roadway parallel with the swamp. I soon noticed that there were no blazes and called everyone back. The trail went right on the old road, not left! We followed it up hill into Hudson Highlands State Park.
On White Rock
The trail ascended on both woods roads and foot paths, first with a yellow trail to the right, then a blue one leading further into the parks. The AT ascended to a mountain top area called White Rock, and there were a few places with side paths to the right from which we had some nice seasonal views of the Hudson River below. I checked out most of them as we walked along.
View from White Rock area.
We continued along the AT which led us along a sort of ridge section, which was very pleasant. The sun was going down more all the time, but we were still doing alright. There were several more views through the trees of the Hudson River and valley.
We continued along a sort of ridge, then made our way onto Canada Hill. This section was pretty nice, with some seasonal views that were a bit more open than previous ones. We could see the hillsides of Camp Smith across South Mountain Pass as we began to descend Canada Hill.
The trail led us steeply down over rocks with interesting clefts in it. We eventually came out to South Mountain Pass Road, a lovely dirt road. The trail turned right on the dirt road for a short time, then turned left onto another dirt road which leads into Camp Smith. The AT didn't follow it for long before descending to the right from it.
I don't know why the AT wasn't just left on the road. We went a long ways down hill, then back up through a gully to almost the level of the road again, visible by it's rock retaining wall. The trail continued up hill from here rather steeply. Teun had gone quite a ways ahead of us while we were at the convenience store on Rt 9, and we caught up with him here. At the height of the land, there was a good view through the trees to the north of the Hudson River and Storm King Mountain, and Breakneck Ridge.
Hudson view
It was starting to get darker, and we reached the intersection with the Camp Smith Trail. The AT became much more worn here as the route to Anthony's Nose a short distance up Camp Smith Trail is well visited. We didn't take this side route this time because it was going to get too dark. We headed down hill on the AT, which soon became an old woods road with a gradual descent to Rt 9D. At the bottom, we waited sitting on the guard rails for everyone else to catch up. Teun was last coming down the mountain on the AT, and Annika, Gregg, and Ken had taken South Mountain Pass Road out to Rt 9 for an easier route back to the Bear Mountain Bridge. They were also visible on the road ahead. All together, we continued down the road, which the AT follows to the Bear Mountain Bridge.
Historic view; Bear Mountain Bridge
By the time we reached the bridge, it was dark. The lights shone from the suspension structure above enough to see. It was incredibly windy going across. The view wasn't nearly as good as it'd be during the day, but it was still nice. I was surprised the toll at the bridge was only $1.50 when the GW Bridge to the south was a whole $13 to cross.
Bear Mountain Bridge during construction
The bridge is quite an amazing structure. It was completed in 1924 because of the overburden of preexisting ferry services due to the opening of the park in 1916. At the time of it's completion, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. With over 7,000 miles of cable used in construction, it is now considered a national engineering landmark and a precursor to the more modern suspension bridges.
Bear Mountain Bridge
We crossed the bridge, and on the other side the rest of the group (except for Cory and his buddy who went off ahead earlier) waited for me at the historic marker about Fort Clinton. Once together, I had to try to find where the Twin Forts Trail turned away from the highway. I'd thought it was at the clearing, but it was not. It was directly at the edge of the bridge. We all went back and descended between fences and down stairs to the base of the bridge, then along the Hudson up stream, and the confluence with the Popolopen Creek. We crossed over the Popolopen on the pedestrian suspension bridge to the site of Fort Montgomery, and climbed to the visitor center, then to Rt 6. We turned right and followed the sidewalk back to the parking lot from here.
Some had to head home, and some of us went to eat at a barbecue place near Fahnestock after getting our cars. Annika bought me food, but I couldn't eat it or I would not be able to stay awake to drive home. I've lately had a problem with blood sugar or something which causes me to nearly pass out if I don't remain active immediately after eating (I had it for breakfast the next morning, it was good).
This was a great, and challenging section to hike. We covered a lot of ground, and I now have an idea of what to expect on future Hudson Highlands sections of the AT to come. The next northbound AT hike I have planned will connect Fahnestock State Park with the Taconic Mountains.
I hope that the experience of this hike was enough to inspire and not deter participants to join the next one in the series north whenever I decide to post it, or to join more Metrotrails hikes in general.
Truthfully, this hike wasn't nearly as interesting to me as many of them I post, yet it was the one that more people were going to sign up for. It was still quite beautiful, just a little too conventional. The rest of November promises to have even better hikes I'm looking forward to, and I'm very grateful that each of them already have people signed up for them. Just by being there, you help me more than you realize.
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