Hike #813; Kingston, Bluestone, and Hurley Loop

Hike #813; Kingston, Bluestone, and Hurley Loop!

11/16/14 Kingston, Bluestone Wild Forest, and Hurley Loop with Justin Gurbisz, Omri Afir, Cory Salveson, Linda Whiteford, Jamie Lynn Taylor, James Quinn, Sarah Jones, Dan Lurie, and Sue Olivar!

Group on the old Ulster and Delaware Railroad.

Our next hike would be a loop beginning in Kingston and following a very strange route through the former Bluestone Quarry areas to the west of town, as well as the section of the former Ulster and Delaware Railroad that stretches from where we last followed it in Hurley to Kingston, where we left it earlier this year.

This hike was the most important in terms of connectivity of all of them I'd been planning. Through my weekly hikes, I have walked over 12,000 connective miles through NJ, NY, PA, MD, and DE, and I have a few of them that are not connected with the others I've done. About 150 miles I've explored in the Catskills region was unconnected until the completion of this hike. It's a great relief to feel the connection between the land. It's indescribably how it makes me feel to have that physical connection, and to know and understand how it all fits together more personally. As of this year, 2014, I have hiked more than half the distance around the Earth in cumulative connected miles.

I also realized a few other things when looking at my back "body of work" in terms of how far I've been. First, I had been telling everyone that the farthest east I'd traveled continuously was a point near Brooklyn on Long Island, but that is actually false. Almost exactly a year prior we had hiked 63.4 miles from Albany to Kingston, and it turns out that Albany is the furthest east I have ever connectively hiked, much to my surprise. The farthest north I've reached isn't too far from there, Yankee Hill along the old Erie Canal, beside the Mohawk River.

I was also rather shocked to discover that the farthest continuous west point I'd reached was our previous hike, to Duncannon PA. I hadn't realized that it was a farther longitude than York PA or Baltimore MD. The farthest south has been Cape May Point, which is actually a farther south latitude than Baltimore, surprisingly.

I rode to our meeting point, Kingston Plaza, a shopping area, with Justin and Jamie. When we arrived, Cory and Linda were around, and Omri had just arrived. Some of the group was running late, and I opted to change the hike a bit, to a loop rather than the original planned point to point. We'd have finished much sooner if we'd gone with my original plan, but I think the route we had was really pretty nice.

When everyone arrived, roughly about 9 am, we began the hike directly from the mall. We remained in the parking area and just followed it to the west, parallel with the former Ulster and Delaware Railroad. The rail line began it's life in the 1860s, stretching from Thomas Cornell's steamboat landing in Kingston across the Catskills to Oneonta on the Susquehanna River. It was advertised as the only all-rail route to the Catskills. When we hiked this section earlier in the year, we followed the U&D from the ferry site across Kingston to the plaza where we parked. From that point we turned left on the former New York, Ontario, and Western Railroad right of way, now Marbletown Rail Trail and headed south to High Falls. This time we'd head out on a weird route through the foot hills of the Catskills, then return on the Ulster and Delaware Railroad from where we began following it near Onteara Lake. We walked around the front side of the stores, then made our way to the back when we got toward apartments.

There was a paved pathway behind the apartments we were able to get right on. It was a trail following the top of a flood prevention berm beside the Esopus Creek. We continued along the top of this, which had nice lights along the way, right on back to Washington Ave, where we turned right. I went down below the bridge to check it out, but found homeless people living there, so didn't bother with it much.

We headed across Esopus Creek, then beside some retail places like the only Quick Chek I've ever seen in NY, then crossed the road to check out an old Ulster and Delaware Caboose sitting to the left, which was sort of a tourist information stand now. We continued up the road a little bit from here, and a paved path broke off to the left, around some trees, so we followed it.

It stayed close to Washington Ave, which on the other side of Kingston Traffic Circle (one of the weirdest circles we've been to) becomes a road called Onteara Trail. The pathway came right back to the road, with a crosswalk, then we continued on it heading sort of northwest. We crossed Interstate 87, then turned sort of to the right off an exit, then crossed over an off ramp to reach City View Terrace. We turned right and followed it through farmland and light residential area parallel with 87 north.

I was really happy to have so many people out for this hike. It's so far to go, especially for something that was something this random. Not really the Catskills, not really a total rail theme, it was a crucial connection of points I'd really wanted to see. I didn't know what to expect, and the craziness of old roads started as we reached the gate to the former quarry lands at the end of City View Terrace. I was surprised that there were no "no trespassing" signs. The entire area was open and the gate was unlocked. We walked right on in, and there was another route heading slightly to the left. Rather than follow the more main, obvious route which had tire tracks on it, we went to the left. At the end of an open area there was an abandoned woods road that ascended the edge of an otherwise steep wall of shale type material.

Abandoned old quarry road

Heading up hill on the woods road, we could see the northern end of the Shawangunk Ridge jutting up from the earth. We could see on to Kingston on the southeast, and due east to the more level lands of the Hudson River Valley, and the hills beyond. We followed the woods road to the crest of a hill, and went just beyond for another view to the northeast. We then turned back and took another side woods road that went due west, the direction we needed to go.

We hit another north-south woods road, and turned right. This took us out to the other main road again, but I spotted a truck parked along side of it. I turned everyone back and we bushwhacked up hill away from it through the woods, and emerged on a power line clearing. From here, we turned left to follow the line south for a bit. It too led us to a rather nice overlook toward the Shawangunk Ridge and Rosendale. To the left of us, a rather puzzled looking hunter in an orange vest looked on at us, but didn't say anything.

Power line view in old Bluestone area

This area also looked to have been quarried at one time, as it was full of Bluestone, but much of the area industry has died. We headed down hill on the power line, then part way down reached an old side road to the right used by ATVs. This took us to a simple ATV trail leading down hill to yet another more prominent woods road. We turned right to follow that through a probable former quarried area.

Old Bluestone Quarry

Although Bluestone was used locally by Native Americans and settlers for various buildings prior to 1830, it wasn't until 1831 when entrepreneur Silas Brainard discovered it's potential and began to seriously quarry it and ship it up and down the Hudson. The Kingston Bluestone industry at one time employed over 10,000 workers. By the 1850s, the city of Kingston was laden completely with bluestone sidewalks, and the product was shipped south to NY City and points beyond.

The business flourished until the cement industry picked up at the turn of the century. At this time, most sidewalks would be constructed of more manageable cement; the advent of Portland Cement (rather than the mined cement from nearby Rosendale) further served to end the heyday of bluestone in the region.

Bluestone

Many of the former quarries are now under the waters of Ashokan Reservoir, but much of the former industrial properties survive in above water areas such as Bluestone Wild Forest, an over 3,000 acre section we were about to enter. I took a photo of the map with my phone in order to try to get us through, and we'd use our phone GPS to get through sections without trails.

We continued north on this old quarry road until it began to turn to the right. We then cut to the left, heading up hill off trail. Once at the top, I found an informal trail following along the edge of a little ridge. I followed it to the left for a bit, following my phone gps. We were now following the border of the Bluestone Wild Forest. We turned to the right when I reached the corner as to remain on the public property. We reached and crossed another woods road, and made our way northwest until we eventually came to Wood Road. The road that continued into the quarry lands after City View Terrace was called Wood Road and this was more of it. My google maps didn't show this going on through, though we'd find later it did. There was a truck and two hunters off to the left, and I asked them if a rock cairn near us with a trail going into the woods was the yellow trail. According to the Bluestone Wild Forest Map, which I did not have this section of at the time, the trail in this area was supposed to be yellow, called the Jockey Hill Trail. We opted to just follow it anyway. It was unblazed, and obviously used by mountain bikers because it was all over the place.

The trail led us around countless turns and up and down hills. We never came across any blazes on it, and it took us through a section of land that according to the map was not supposed to be part of the wild forest. Somehow, we did end up on the official trail we were supposed to be on according to the maps. My gps was showing us in what seemed to be the right area. Still, we spent way more time on Jockey Hill than I'd thought we would, and so I made the executive decision that we'd need to get out of there quicker and cut off trail.

We went down hill through a wash area, then headed south again. We ended up picking up an old woods road that took us back to the direction we'd come from.

Bluestone Wild Forest Map

The woods road seemed to abruptly end, but then there was this large open grassy hill ahead. I don't know what it was, but it had the looks of a landfill. There were pipes coming off of the top of it, and it stuck far above the surface of anywhere else. We came out to the edge of it and turned right on a woods road thing that went around to the south side. Justin immediately ran off to the top of it, followed soon by Cory and Omri. I walked around the outside to check out a strange arched frame building that resembled an aircraft hangar.

Hangar building and strange mound

The building was wide open at the sliding doors on one side. I think Justin ended up in first. There was a lot of junk laying around, but nothing really valuable. The only thing even remotely interesting as I recall was a lipstick piggy bank that was missing the bottom. Someone had shot the building up pretty bad, and some of the roof was coming in.

Cory's on line maps he was using on his phone differed from mine somewhat in that it showed the woods road going on through. Google maps did not show this, and so we continued on the road, but to the east mistakenly. After maybe ten minutes I realized it was the wrong way and we had to turn around. We passed the mound and the hangar again, then continued slightly to the left on the old woods road. We passed the same hunters yet again, who were now both sitting in their truck, probably fuming that we ruined their hunting day. I often forget that I'm wearing a suit when I see these people, which of course makes it all that more bizarre.

Along Wood Road

The woods road was just a gravel surface, but drivable.I figure they must just seasonally let hunters drive back. We continued along as the road weaved back and forth a bit, and there were stone ruins around us. Obviously quarried lands sorrounded the roadway, though not deeply. There were some masonry foundations along the way, and at one point a perfectly round dip that might have served as some sort of well. This area was apparently known as Wintergreen Ridge (Wintergreen is known more locally as tea berry and is edible).

Ruins in Bluestone Wild Forest

The woods road went by a regular Catskills parking area, but no trail register. We had come across two places that trails broke away from the road, though the map only shows one. The one yellow trail, the actually Jockey Hill Trail, was blocked by a truck, and the other one was yellow and green marked, and apparently the blazes were stapled onto the trees. Only one remained and had been removed, probably by hunters who didn't want anyone walking by their stands.

The road soon reached a gate and became lightly residential. There was a house with two bear carvings at the entrance, and a couple people working in yards. We didn't have to go far on Wood Road before we came to a cul de sac at the end of the current Jockey Hill Road. Google maps shows this as being a through road to drive, but it now ends. This came as a surprise to me, but not un-welcomed. We turned left around a gate on the abandoned portion of Jockey Hill Road through the woods heading south. 

Old quarry pond off Jockey Hill Road.

We soon came into more old quarry areas. There was one particularly lovely one filled with water and a little camp site. I would love to come back to this place. So very nice. There were ATV trails all over the area, but I tried to follow what I could see more prominently on my google maps.

We turned right at an intersection where Jockey Hill Road continues slightly left. Our right turn took us past another old quarry area and then into some pretty woods. It split along the way in two directions, and for some reason I chose the left one. This took us a bit further south than what I was anticipating and bordered private land closely. In retrospect, it's a good thing we came this way because the other route would probably have spat us out in someone's back yard. The route we chose took us too far south, but then we cut off trail to the right to head due west to Morey Hill Road.

We passed another old masonry foundation, and we had to descend steeply down a leaf covered slope into a dry ravine that might one time have served as a quarry or something. That familiar lush green moss I have come to associate with the Catskills covered all of the slash wood laying on the forest floor near the bottom.

Once we reached Morey Hill Road, we took this lightly traveled but paved route north for a little bit past a couple of homes. Soon, there was another old quarry road leading up hill into the woods to the left. We headed down and up hill through more quarried areas, where obvious large oblong chunks had been removed from the Earth. When the woods road began to turn to the left, there was a less obvious woods road leading to the right, to the north. This was the route we wanted. We followed it it through some wetlands and then out to another intersction near a swamp, then turned left. I made sure everyone caught up because we still had not come across any trail blazes.

I admit I was getting a little bit nervous until we were in this area because of how far out of the way we ended up earlier. I had thought the traverse of Bluestone would be so much easier and straightforward, but it turned out to be this mess of routes that go all over the place. We turned around so much, either because of the routes taken by ATVs or mountain bikers, that I couldn't keep my orientation correct. The sun was behind clouds so much of the time I couldn't tell even a rough direction of which would be north or south.

At the intersection, I went ahead to be sure of where we were going while the others hung back and took a little break. To my surprise, two ladies with dogs were out walking there. I think they seemed just as surprised to see me out there. There were no blazes yet, but they said we were on the yellow trail. They were referring to the Onteara Lake Trails, of which there are red, yellow, and blue loops. In fact, we were not on the yellow trail yet. The turn for it was just up ahead and they had missed it as well. They told me to keep to my left in order to get out, don't turn right. I trusted this, but knew it didn't sound right. I figured they might be wrong, but if they were I had another plan. When the others caught up, we turned to the left on the yellow DEC disc marked trail heading south. It took us over some nice rocky outcrops as a hiking path, not mountain bike like the other ones.

Abandoned car

I saw the yellow trail turn off to the left, but it was I'm sure not what the ladies were talking about. The yellow trail ahead was a woods road, the one we'd been following. This one was a foot path with a turn blaze pointing to it. I'm certain they missed it. There was an abandoned car flipped on it's side at this point.

What was interesting was that the first lady of the two is a member of Metrotrails on Meetup.com! It's really pretty cool to know I have a community of people even as far north as the Catskills who know of our organization. It was a nice little feeling that put a kick in my step for the next couple miles at least.

The trail headed through rocky terrain over a knoll, then dipped down to near an old quarry lake. This one was known as Pickerel Pond, though we didn't know it at the time because it wasn't on any of the maps.

Pickerel Pond in Bluestone Wild Forest

The pond was quite lovely, with some deep approach areas. I would love to come back to it's shores and camp and swim in the Summer. It was such a lovely spot and I only wish we'd known about it when we did the camping trip a couple of months back. This would have been a nice place to hang out for sure.

The trail followed right along the shore for a time, then climbed up to the hillside above it. It eventually moved away from Pickerel Pond closer to Onteara Lake, which we began to see through the trees. The trail continued south and then came to a very sharp turn to the north. This would have taken us to the north side of Onteara and then back around to the parking area we'd used when we camped there, but I opted to just remain bushwhacking along the east side of Onteara Lake. A google earth track showed that a trail once went through here. I was able to find some of the dug out of the trail as we walked, but it disappeared from time to time. We eventually came to the driveway entrance to some sort of existing quarry property, and followed it out to the highway, Onteara Trail. We had to go around the fence to the right. At the other side of it, there was the remains of a bog bridge or puncheon, with much wood missing, where a trail once came in from the highway. We just went around the west area to come out on the highway, then followed it to the right.

We followed the highway slightly up hill, and soon came to the Hobo Deli. We'd stopped here on the last trip, and I stopped there on the way home with Justin on the previous Catskills trip and rather liked it. This was the perfect spot to stop I figured, but we just got here a lot later than I'd anticipated we would. My original plan to follow more of the official trails within Bluestone Wild Forest didn't go as planned, and so we were quite late coming out of the woods. Still, it was a good stop and we all enjoyed sitting down in the heat and eating.

Beesmer Road shit hole

After eating, Omri and I checked out the wine store just down the way and got some stuff for the return trip. It took a little coercing to pry everyone from the comfort of the Hobo Deli, but eventually I got them going. We walked a short distance up the highway from here to reach the Harley Davidson place, where Beesmer Road turns off to the left. This road was the definition of shit hole; it was a pot hole filled mess that no standard non 4x4 vehicle could ever make it through. I couldn't believe it was a labeled street. Even on the google maps, it didn't look as though this route would go through. I turned onto it first, and a guy with a big truck and a light on top went by me, no doubt puzzled that a brown suited man with a tie was walking down his road. I feared that it might only be a driveway now, but it wasn't.

The rest of Beesmer Road from the turn away from the highway was actually paved and quite nice. They probably kept it a mess intentionally to cut back on through traffic. On the last trip, we walked the highway a bit more to West Hurley to get to the tracks. This time, we just crossed the road from Hobo Deli to follow this other road. The tracks go into a rock cut that was rather overgrown the last time we were out, so this time we did not bother with trying to get through that, and just cut the corner. I was just happy I'd now connected all of my Catskills hikes with the rest of them.

Old Ulster and Delaware Railroad bridge site, Hurley NY

We made our way down the road, past the ramshackle home of the guy in the truck, then closely paralleled the former Ulster and Delaware Railroad. I found a good spot and climbed up the fill to begin following the tracks, and everyone followed. We turned left to follow them to the southeast, which was relatively clear and in good repair.

Ulster and Delaware Map

To the right of the overpass at the next road were the masonry abutments of the original U&D line from before the completion of the Ashokan Reservoir. Much of that older line lies now under the waters of the reservoir. It was moved around 1910 to it's present location. I believe the line comes back to it's original alignment somewhere up near Boiceville judging by aerial images, but the Boiceville Trestle had masonry abutments, which means it could possibly be older. I'm just not sure.

I had wanted to get to this point earlier to get better pictures, but at least we'd still have a bit more daylight. It was already after 3 pm.

Later alignment of U&D along Ashokan Reservoir

The tracks were much clearer this time than when we had followed the section to the north. Since our last hike up there, volunteers from Catskill Mountain Railway, who have the lease over the land from Ulster County now have cleared much of the right of way for light weight small engines. I'd been in contact with Ryan Lennox of CMRR regularly as of late, having made the connection through the abandoned rails forum on Facebook, and found that we had visited many of the same places, and even taken the same photos, which was really cool.

Historic train wreck at West Hurley. Note the bluestone.

I also found a page for "Friends of the Catskill Mountain Rail Trail". I had heard they wanted to make the entire line into a trail connecting Kingston with the Catskills. Obviously, I was quite excited by and supportive of this at first, but then when I read into it more I changed my mind.

I had found out that the county was sitting on FEMA money put aside to repair the existing tracks, which Catskill Mountain Railway would use to run excursion trains between Phoenicia and Kingston. I would not be supportive of a trail beside the active rail, which could be feasible but a lot more work to put together. I just don't see ripping up usable rail for a bike and hike path when the existing rail trails out of Kingston don't get that much use as it is. I felt inclined to write letters of comment to the two local papers. As of now the "Freeman" had rejected my article because I didn't put the town I lived in (excuses), but the Kingston Times published mine in their comments section.

Here is what I wrote to them:

Nov 14, 2014

As a staunch supporter of Rails to Trails, and President of a trail advocacy non profit, I was initially excited at the concept of rail trail all the way from Kingston to Ashokan. What trail enthusiast would not be?
At Metrotrails, we are proponents of trails, but not at the expense of a viable, sustainable facility that showcases our heritage more accurately than a trail.
In fact, the entire right of way technically already IS a trail, as per the county’s agreement with Catskill Mountain Railroad:
“The Lessee shall allow the public to use the right-of-way for walking, cross-country skiing and fishing provided such activity does not interfere with its operations.”
The county is claiming “rails with trails” is not a viable option, yet their official records show that just such agreement is already in place. Furthermore, it might take longer, but a parallel trail route within the right of way would not be hard to develop.
The rail infrastructure was constructed as a means to carry people to tourist destinations cheaply and efficiently. Imagine….take an excursion train to Phoenicia, then a paddling trip back down to Mt Tremper….two for one price…or imagine taking a train from Kingston Mall to Phoenicia to spend a nice hiking or skiing weekend. All uses could compliment each other.
Once these rails are gone, opportunities for county tourism disappear as well.
Furthermore, the O&W Rail Trail from Kingston Mall is beautiful, and as much as I love it, it gets next to no use. County government should be dedicated to creating sustainable facilities at maximum benefit to tourism, but limited cost to tax payers.
Ulster County has an absolute gem of an opportunity. I bring large groups up from NJ to visit, please don’t mess this up. I hope to both ride and walk the rails again in the near future.

Michael Helbing
President
Metrotrails

Ulster and Delaware train

I received a comment back thanking them for the 'reality check'.

The truth is, I don't think Ulster County and it's government realize the huge undertaking it is to maintain a rail trail like what they are planning. When I worked for Hunterdon County Parks, two of us had to spend at least one day per week to maintain just seven miles of the Columbia Trail, a former rail bed. The drains would get clogged, weeds would grow, trees would fall down. The maintenance burden was constant. Ulster would have to do what Hunterdon did, hire employees specifically to maintain the rail trail. This is overhead they don't need.

With the existing rail, they have a dedicated group of people who will work harder than any employees they could find, and keep the right of way in a good state of repair. The partnership with the railroad would mean the lowest cost to tax payers and highest recreational value. Further, the lease with the county by CMRR states that the lessee shall keep the right of way clear and open to walking, cross country skiing, fishing, etc. as long as it does not impact the workings of the railroad. In that way, the tracks are already a trail anyway. It's just not so amenable to cyclists at this time.

We walked the tracks south for a bit, through a nice cut, then beside a building that at least used to be a church. We went over a fill with a nice wetland on either side. We soon neared Rt 50 and a grade crossing, but on the left side was a nice old abandoned house, which of course we can never resist exploring.

Abandoned house

The house was quite old, but we didn't see any hand hewn timbers. It appeared to be all sawmill cut, and lath from inside the walls were all exposed. The house had been refurbished for the purpose of storage, obviously, as the missing floor planks were replaced with rough stuff so that it could be walked on. One room, to the left, was separate from the rest of the house, and two main rooms made up the bottom floor. The top floor was rather inaccessible, as the stairs were pitched to the left and obviously ready to come down. A ladder pulled out from the basement hatch was used by Justin to scale the steps and see what was up there, but it was nothing.

There was a ladder up against the back of the building but it didn't go to a window. After having a look around, we made our way back out to the tracks and crossed Rt 50 at grade. There was one concrete abutment of what was likely the former road overpass of the railroad. This would have been abandoned at some point before 1990. The tracks through this area have not been used since 1976, but have been kept clear using very small gas powered rail cars like the one driven by Ryan Lennox.

Rt 50 crossing. Note former road crossing abutments.

We crossed and entered a bit of a cut with some back yards to the left of us and a steeper slope to the right. A small tributary that was part of the outflow of Onteara Lake and another nearby swamp made it's way into a deeper little ravine next to the railroad bed, separating it from Rt 50 just beyond. It had a beautiful old stone retaining wall that was warping out of shape along the steep banks with an eerie look. I found an abandoned hunting cabin just up hill from the rail bed too. This was quite a nice little spot.

Old Ulster and Delaware Railroad near Mile Marker 8

We re grouped, then continued walking along shelf and cut, past more old mile markers for 8 and 7. The right of way got wider from time to time, where a trail could easily be developed along the side. At some points it actually went across people's back yards, but no one came out and gave us a hard time. Most of the vegetation was down enough on it that walking was pretty easy. Some Eastern White Pines were growing a bit out of the tracks, and in other areas some young Eastern Hemlock was nice to see rejuvenating despite the blight killing it off in many areas. The worst part was the Japanese Barberry which at times could be rough to deal with.

U&D Railroad

We continued ahead as it grew increasingly darker. We were on a high shelf parallel with the highway, Onteara Trail, through the Stony Hollow. There was some sort of quarry operation across, probably some of the existing bluestone stuff that's still in service. Cory was pretty close to the front with me much of the time, closely followed behind by Justin then Linda.

We soon reached Hurley Mountain Road. The right of way went through a mowed yard just before the road, then continued into a cut. It was pretty nice through this section, but then we got to the surprise of finding some railroad cars parked. I was not aware that we'd find any so soon. We continued walking around them to the left. As we walked, I started to see a flash light. At first I thought it was just another road crossing. Then I saw more lights. There were people walking toward us, quite a few of them. I thought "Oh no...we're in trouble...police are out". This was not the case at all, but rather volunteer workers of the Catskill Mountain Railroad, still hard at work on the line after dark! What dedication!

There was some sort of engine after the few cars, and beyond there were several replaced railroad ties. I had planned this trip with the idea of seeing the old passenger coaches that had been parked on the tracks near Rt 206 for decades, but none of them would be there. These workers had just moved them! It turns out we were walking this section at an historic moment; it was the first time a train had run over this section of track since 1976! The coaches had just been moved because the line would be opened up as an excursion line for a "polar express" themed thing! I was delighted to find out about this the next day.

I introduced myself to the workers, and they were all pretty friendly, and just warned us to be careful because of some of the dips in the right of way. Knowing they were out there working after dark further cemented my feeling that the right thing to do is to leave the rails in; the county would not find dedicated workers like this to maintain their planned trail. They should work with CMRR to find a way of opening such a parallel trail, because they will probably be helpful and supportive if it means they can continue with their livelihood with the excursion line.

We said goodbye and continued on along the tracks beyond Hurley Mountain Road, and then along a section of lovely fields. There were big lit up stars on the hillside we could see behind us as we continued east. We soon reached and crossed Rt 206, which was much easier than I'd anticipated it would be. After crossing, we continued on to the nice through style truss bridge over the Esopus Creek.

The bridge was pretty easy to walk over. The railroad ties were extra thick, some of the thickest I've seen, and the spaces between them were some of the closest together. Only a few of them were wide. I got across quick with Justin. Cory went ahead to his car very fast and was out of sight. I helped Linda and Sarah get across, but Dan, Sue, and James went back to 206 to go around. I called up Cory and asked him if he could spit around to pick them up where the tracks crossed, which worked out fine.

Along the Ulster and Delaware line in Kingston

The rest of us continued on the tracks off of the bridge, then beneath Interstate 87. We continued along the tracks back across Washington Ave to the Kingston Plaza easily. It wasn't long before Cory pulled up with the other three. Some of the group went into Wallgreens with hopes to use the restroom, but they told them it was closed at 6 PM, even though it was only a couple of minutes past 6. Justin got his revenge for this misdeed by teaching them about Christmas Spirit.

We headed over to the pizza place in the Kingston Plaza for some food before heading off home.

And so the largest bit of all of my hikes that remained unconnected has been taken care of. I hope to finish hiking the entire former route of the Ulster and Delaware line in the near future, both the eight mile stretch between Mt. Tremper and Allaben, and the roughly 22 mile section from Bloomville to Oneonta. Much of it is on private land and would require parallel road walking, but there are interesting points along the way.

There is a sense of completeness I feel now thinking of not only this hike, but the others I had done in that series farther away. Having now made a physical connection by foot, the grounded reference point which anchors my memories, I look back on those other trips I've done with greater clarity and appreciation for where they fit into the world. I think about the old rail lines, the washed out trestles, the highway, the ascent of the Burroughs Range, and all of the rail bed I'd covered with Jillane in 2012 from Bloomville, with forgotten northern Catskill towns and book stores. No longer does it seem like an isolated island of my life, because now my feet have carried me all the way.

Christmas Spirit at Kingston Plaza