Hike #1355; New Paltz to Walden

Hike #1355; New Paltz to Walden

9/13/20 New Paltz to Walden with Serious Sean Dougherty, Robin Deitz, Justin Gurbisz, Kirk Rohn, Professor John DiFiore, Dan Lurie, and Diane Reider

Dam in Walden

This next hike would be a point to point tracing the historic route of the Wallkill Valley Railroad from New Paltz to Walden New York.

Along Huguenot Street

It’d been a long time since I’d done any of this trail. I’d finished it between New Paltz and Rosendale, but there is still more of it to do to its terminus in Kingston, and there was still this section from New Paltz south to where it becomes active again in Walden.
I figured it would be a good one to do this time of year, and there was some other stuff along the way I wanted to see. There were some nice trails along the Wallkill River I’d never looked at in New Paltz, and so this was a good opportunity to include them in something as well.

Historic map of New Paltz from 1875

Almost the entire route was shown as trail, save for one section down in Shawangunk where there is a maximum security prison, but I didn’t realize that’s what it was when I planned out the hike.
We met near the end point in Walden, at the Hannaford Supermarket. I wandered around a bit at this pointed and checked out the dam on the river.
From there, we shuttled to the north to New Paltz to start the hike.
Rather than just do the railroad bed, I wanted to try to explore the Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary, which was close enough to the rail trail we’d mostly follow.
I didn’t know exactly where we would park for this one. Kirk was running behind, so doing an almost loop in Nyquist-Harcout worked out pretty well for him.
I found some on street parking in New Paltz on Front Street near the intersection with Huguenot Street, near the Jean Hasbrouck House.

Jean Hasbrouck House

The Huguenot Street section is the oldest part of the old town, and is actually an historic stockade district.

Bevier-Elting House

The town was originally settled by a group of French Huguenots who had for a short time taken refuge in Manheim, Germany, where it was referred to as Pfaltz. It morphed into Paltz.

Along Huguenot Street

There was barely any parking opportunities there, and a lot of people were walking around on the street.
Jean Hasbrouck was the founder of New Paltz. The Jean Hasbrouck House was constructed in 1721 by Jean’s son Joseph, possibly utilizing elements of the original homestead built by his father.
Across from this historic home was the Bevier-Elting House, which was also built in the early 1700s.
The house was expanded on a bit over the first few decades following its construction.

Dubois Fort House

It was built by the Bevier family, and then later sold to the Dutch Elting family, which is why it carries both of the names today.

Deyo House

Most of the homes look like they maintain their historic character, but one of the first ones I saw, I wrongfully dismissed as not quite as old. I thought it looked to be an 1880s structure.
This was the Deyo House.
Looking more closely at it than the obviously newer style upper section, the lower floors are made of the same type of stone as the other earlier structures found along Huguenot Street. This was originally built by Patentee Pierre Deyo in about 1692. Like the others, it was added to gradually.

Dubois fort gun holes

The original house was only one room, and it was added onto over the next couple of decades, and Pierre’s grandson Abraham added the third room.
The house remained in the family and passed to ancestors, and in 1894 it was expanded upward in Queen Anne style in 1894 by Deyo ancestors Abraham and Gertrude Broadhead.
The home remained in the same family until it was sold off to others in 1915.
The home remained in private hands until 1971 when it was purchased by the Deyo Family Associated to open as a museum. It was restored in 2003 and has 1915 era decor.

Dubois Fort

On the west side of the street from here is the Dubois Fort, also known as the Louis DuBois House. Originally only one and a half stories high, it was built in 1705.

Historic marker

It was believed that this building was part of the original fortification of the area, because of the existence of port holes for guns at the lower story. Some claim there is no evidence that these port holes were part of the original structure. The house was expanded to its current size in the 1830s. It has a gift shop inside, and there was a display outside about the native American habitation of the area, with a sort of wigwam or something set up.
Nothing appeared to be open at this time as we were walking.

Memorial plaque

Just past this point, we came upon an historic marker at the approach to a handsome brick church on the left.
The church was constructed in 1838, and is used by a Reformed Congregation that was founded in 1678. The lower south side edge of the porch of the church is the foundation of the second New Paltz church, built in 1772 to replace the original 1717 structure. The foundation still bears initials and the date 1772.
We continued across the street from the church to the Abraham Hasbrouck House.

The 1838 church

This building was built in three phases in the 1720s and 30s. THe first room of the house was built in 1721, the central section, but Daniel Hasbrouck.

Old date marks below the church

Daniel Hasbrouck was the son of patentee Abraham Hasbrouck.
We continued on up the street from here, and checked out construction going on at this Hasbrouck house. There is apparently some kind of restoration. The date plaque on the place says it was built in 1712 originally. The sign said it was once the site of cock fights, which was a rather oddball thing to see.
Just down from this building was the Freer House, built by around 1720 by Hugo Freer, another of the original patentees of the town of New Paltz.

Abraham/Daniel Hasbrouck House

We walked to the north on the street, past the next intersection, and toward the entrance to the Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary.
This was a rather odd situation. There were people waiting to go into the park, and there were signs saying to be courteous and wear a mask.
I had been feeling like the covid19 crap was finally starting to die down. We had been going to places where it was no longer necessary to be so careful, and people were not so uptight about it.

1830s brick church

I even go into the convenience stores around where I live, and no one is looking for anyone to be wearing a mask. New Paltz was something entirely different.

Cock fight sign

Everyone was wearing masks, even outside on the trails.
I got ahead of the rest of the group, walked past one couple, and down the trail into an open area in the wildlife preserve. There was a wooden bridge over a wetland.
A lady was coming over the bridge while I was there, and she paused for a moment on the bridge, and frantically tried to put a mask on. I told her it was okay, none of that worries me. She responded “I know, and I’m outside...”, but continued to do the mask thing.

Freer House

The others caught up with me, and we all headed down over the wetland. This was really quite a beautiful little preserve, and there weren’t tons of people around.

Huguenot Street

We turned left after the bridge, which took us over along the wetland with some nice little viewing spots. Others walked up past us walking dogs, but frantically moved over to cover their mouths.
This was like being on a different planet.
We continued through another wooded section, and the trail started making its way out toward the Wallkill River. The trail emerged on a high slope above it. We turned to the left, and continued walking out to a community garden area.

Whoo boy

We then walked the access road back out toward the Huguenot Street.
Kirk finally met up with us when we got to the street. He had fallen behind, and was heading to meet up with us along the road.
We turned slightly left and then right to check out the old cemetery. A sort of reproduction church, which reportedly includes portions of the original church from 1717 still stands in the cemetery.We then headed to the right and paralleled some apartment complex lands where we walk between tree lines.

Sanctuary view

We made our way through the tree lines and into grassy area, then skirted one of the buildings to the left a bit before heading up to the parking lot for it.
The building was kind of odd in that the entrances to the place were up high, and every front door to every apartment was accessed by way of a bridge. I joked that there was no point in doing anything like that unless they were to have a moat. And with that type of work, there is really no excuse not to have one. We continued across the lot to an informal path to reach the trail.

Nyquist Harcourt Preserve

Once on the rail trail, I realized just how crazy this area was with the covid19 stuff.
Basically everyone was wearing a mask, on this very wide rail trail.

Muck

Almost nowhere we go do we find people wearing them outside, but this was a whole lot of college kids and such, as well as hippies.
Some of them, especially the older folks, gave us looks of deep disapproval as they walked by. People would veer way off the trail as we went by. At one point, a couple of older folks went by, and the guy gave us a look of disapproval while shaking his head in the “no” fashion. To me, the level of fear in people is both sad and disgusting. I’ve come a long way regarding how I feel about the whole thing.

Path in the preserve

I suppose at the start I had some slight concern, especially for my grandfather being 87 and all, but since that time I now have no concern about this at all, especially in the government management of it.
If it were as dangerous as what our media is telling us, there are multiple occasions when places like where I work would have been shut down altogether. Coworkers coming up positive with the virus, and then having to stay home for fourteen days, but those of us who worked with them...no problem.

A view toward Minnewaska and the Gunks

It burns me up that friends who work in retail or whatever end up having to close up their stores or work places entirely for two weeks when someone has it, but in government, they make excuses like “it could have come from a sporting event”.

Wetlands

There’s no way to know something like that for sure, and working in a campground restroom with people from Ohio, Florida, Rhode Island, Ohio, and basically everyhwere, it’s just insane to make a claim that there’s no way any of that could be related.

Along the Wallkill

If that weren’t bad enough, those who are coming up “positive” get two sets of results saying both negative and positive. My sister in law had that happen, then another co worker, then a co worker’s girlfriend. It just keeps happening over and over.
One would think that if they want the public to have faith in this management, some verys simple steps could be made here to keep the questions to a minimum, and yet this keeps on happening.
On top of that, the outright lies, about why certain places are closed and such. When I see some news thing put out there about where I report to work, and it’ just not true, it’s maddening.

Wallkill view

I’ve never said there was no virus at all, but anyone who dies from it always has some sort of other underlying condition. Doctors I know personally are afraid to speak out because they might lose their licenses.

Big tree

It seems like whenever I bring something up, people are so caught up in what they’ve already decided to believe that they won’t accept anything I’m actually experiencing.
Because of the sensitivity of some of my work stuff, I can’t detail a lot of it, but reading false stories about my own life, I’m living through some pandemic fan fiction, and my mask or face covering is my LARPing costume.
I look at my own life and how much things have changed; I never would have thought that someone who used to be so outspoken against the Republican party during the GW Bush years, would be so against Democratic management now.

Historic 1800 brick home

The truth of the matter is, there have been so many obvious lies that I have either witnessed myself, or those close to me have witnessed, and so much horrible mismanagement, that I can’t believe how firmly people dig their heels in.
There is a constant sharing of all sorts of media, and so much of it is completely untrue. Often, there are tidbits in there that are true, but I can’t even pose a question to friends about what aspects of it might be or not, because some of them are off the deep end.

Historic reproduction of the original 1717 church

The latest thing that had just come out regarding all of this virus management at the time of this hike was the reorganization of counties for counting positive infection numbers.
It used to be the Warren, Sussex, and Hunterdon were together, as they should be, but our numbers were looking too good. In response, our governor changed it up and stuck Sussex and Warren in with Bergen and Passaic, and Hunterdon in with Mercer. The Freeholders were really going off on this one, because the only reason someone would do this is to screw with the statistics. It has undermined the integrity of the entire management.

New Paltz Station then

After that last move, I don’t know how anyone can have any faith in any of this. The first rule of statistics is that statistics can be easily manipulated.

Not much of a view anymore!

I always used to love New Paltz, but with all of the crazy mask wearing and shaming we started getting immediately, I really wanted to just get the hell out of town immediately.

New Paltz

We took the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail south to the main street where the station is still standing. I had found an historic postcard image that I wanted to try to emulate.
Unfortunately, it had grown in so badly that I couldn’t get a very good now photo of it, but it was something.
The Wallkill Valley Railroad began in 1866, stretching from the south at Montgomery where it connected with the Erie Railroad main line. It was originally built in the six foot Erie gauge.

New Paltz station

The line extended north through Walden, then Wallkill, Gardiner, and was extended to New Paltz in 1870. By 1872, it bridged the Rondout to Rosendale.

Wallkill Valley Rail Trail

Steamboat magnate Thomas Cornell purchased the line and extended it further north to Kingston. It was operated by the Erie for ten or so years, but then after that eventually became part of the West Shore Railroad as a branch line.
Conrail took over the line, and it was discovered that the piers of the Rosendale trestle had shifted, and it was not worth the expense to fix them. The line was abandoned, and most of it was removed in 1983-84. A section of team track remains in Kingston, and the southern stub from Walden to Montgomery, and an extension south to Campbell Hall is all the remains.

An old rail spur

I’d been wanting to do this next section for a long time.
The trail surface was really quite nice. There was some kind of surfacing, but mostly it was very pleasant for walking, not the crushed stone aggregate that is super hard and hurts the knees after a long time.
As we headed south from town, I spotted some rails still in place to a spur to the left, and then there was an interesting stone ruin along the Wallkill River to the right. I’m not sure what any of that was or what it served.

Ruins along the Wallkill

There were several little side paths to the right closer to the right, very close to the rail trail. I figured we might have to come back just to explore some more of those.

Rail spur

We crossed Plains Road after paralleling it for a bit, and the trail moved off away from the Wallkill River.
We headed through some lovely woods and across Cedar Road.
Pretty soon, we crossed Plains Road again, and then a lovely little creek on a bridge that also crossed a dirt road called Boppy’s Lane. I forget what the creek is called.
There was an outstanding view from this point as well as a bench. The view featured the Shawangunk Ridge beyond, which is part of Minewaska State Park.

Side trail foot bridge

To the right, we could see the point where the Smiley Tower stands.
The Smiley family owned and operated the Mohonk Mountain House, one of the last of the great Catskill style grandiose hotels still in service. The tower is a memorial to the founder at the edge of a large and prominent cliff. I had done a hike up to the top of it several years ago, and it is quite a beautiful spot. We’ll have to do another one up there for sure.
We stopped at a bench here and enjoyed the view, which was probably frowned upon. I couldn’t tell if they were frowns because everyone was wearing masks.

Only one guy was friendly enough to stop and talk to us. He was curious about where we were walking to, and told us there was a great view just off the trail on one of the side roads. He said the trail ended, and the route you’re supposed to take does one thing, but to go another for the view.
I figured we would do that.
We soon crossed an access road and entered a wide area of a beautiful orchard. I think some of this has something to do with the Angry Orchard drinks as per whatever it says on Google maps.

This particular one was the Dressel Farms from what it says on my map.
There was one apple tree close enough to the trail that we were able to pick and eat some. The rest of them were well off to the side so we didn’t bother trying.
We next crossed Old Ford Road, and then passed thorugh a nice section of woods. I could see where the railroad ties used to sit at times through the stone surfacing along the stretch.
We soon skirted a bit of a development with a few huge houses to the left.

View to the Shawangunks

There was a bit of a wetland separating us, and a pretty pavilion thing out in the middle of the swamp accessed from one of the houses.

A view toward Smiley Memorial Tower

We crossed Bridge Creek Road next, followed shortly by Forest Glen Road. The walk remained quite pleasant and we soon crosssed Phillies Bridge Road.

Shawangunk view

We crossed Steve’s Lane, and then passed the Yard Owl Craft Brewery, but we found that it was closed at the time we went by, so we missed out on this one.

Takin a break

After another swath of woods, we soon reached Gardiner NY.
Gardiner was another town founded by French Huguonots, but it didn’t become a separate municipality until 1853, and grew along with the railroad a decade later.
This was my planned lunch stop.
We had to look around and see what options we had, and I left it pretty much to everyone else where we would stop.
I think the place we settled on was the Gardiner Liquid Mercantile, which was a bit past the railroad bed to the east and on the left.

Wallkill Valley Rail Trail

Serious Sean joined us in Gardiner for the rest of the hike, and sat with us for lunch.
I ordered a “Beyond Burger”, actually thinking it was just a big beef burger with a lot of stuff on it, but it turned out to be a vegetarian thing!
I’d had soy burgers before and thought they weren’t bad, but this burger was actually outstanding. Not made with soy, it is made with peas apparently. I had that and some sort of IPA beer, which I don’t remember what kind it was.

Orchard view

The place only had outdoor seating along the edge of the building, and it was extremely limited, so we were lucky to get in there at all.

The trail in the orchard

Gardiner wasn’t as bad as New Paltz when it came to the mask hippies, but it was worse than the middle of nowhere stuff we had been in between.
I had some historic photos of the old station in town, but I couldn’t figure out where it used to be exactly. The station only burned down in 2002, so I figured there would be a foundation or something, but I still don’t know quite where it was.
We headed out from town, back to the railroad bed, and started heading south.

View to the Smiley Tower

The buildings in Gardiner had some interesting art painted on the sides of them at times. The trail was pavers or something as we started to the south a bit.

Orchard walkin

We soon passed over Farmer’s Turnpike, and then passed the local library on the left, which was built somewhat to resemble a railroad station with its awnings and such.
Sean brought some Two Floyds beer, which was an old favorite of his that was unavailable in NY and NJ until recently, which was nice.
The trail was less used south of Gardiner. It skirted both some woods and often fields to the left. We crossed over Sand Hill Road to the south of town, and paralleled it for a little bit.

Shawangunk view

We eventually came to the southern end of the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail at Denniston Road.
Google maps seems to show that the best route for biking is to the west, if the bicycle function is enabled, but the right of way is still shown like a trail to the south of this point out through the fields.
There was a very low electrified fence on the other side, and it looked like we could probably get through, then make our way out to another road further on. I didn’t want to leave the rail bed at all.

Evidence of ties

I considered the options for a few minutes, and when no one was really opposed to going straight on through, we all stepped over the electric fence and continued on the rail grade.
It was obviously not surfaced like anything we had been on, but it was very clear. There was lots of cattle out in the fields to the right of us, and as we walked, they moved through those fields ahead of us.
Before we could reach the end of the fields, the cattle all ran like crazy out across the railroad bed ahead to shift to the east side of it. It was neat to see them all running where we were about to reach.
I didn’t think much of it, but we were apparently approaching the Shawangunk Correction facility, which is a maximum security prison! When I realized where we were, I planned to walk around to the right away from the rail grade a bit.
We reached an access road to the jail, and even though google showed it like it was still a trail and a through road, there was none of it clear. There were weeds growing through it.

A scene near Gardiner

The prison was starting to come in to view. We hurried over the road, and then followed a field edge a bit to the right. It was out of sight from a lot due to topography.

On the trail

We continued along the field edge, and then into a swath of woods with not a lot of undergrowth, so it was some easy walking. We could see a guard tower through the woods to the left of us, and then there was a muffled voice that came over a loud speaker.
I didn’t realize until we were in these woods that we had lost Dan. He was further back behind us, and was held up from being enamored by the cows at the farm.
We figured he must have just taken the access road to head out of there or something.

On the trail

We exited the woods, and decided to stay in the fields below the tower that was above us to the left, to try to stay out of sight. If we could remain along the tree line, we might be good.
We headed toward a single barn out in the farm lands straight ahead, and used a bit of a farm clearing to get to it. Beyond that point, there was a farm maintenance road that went south, rather closely parallel with where the railroad bed was, but just a bit to the west. It ran directly out to River Road.

Hippie stuff in Gardiner

We got up to the barn area, and then continued along the road as planned. There was a secondary road to the left that went more in the direction of the railroad bed.

My beyond burger

The choice was to either go that way or to go directly out ot the road, which went to the Shawangunk Community Center.
Just then, I got a phone call from Dan.
He had been apprehended by a jail guard on the road we had crossed. I guess he was walking the road.
He must have been of some interest, because he was wearing these obvious pajama bottoms!
Dan said that the guard had told him this wasn’t part of the trail, and that he said “I’m heading out to look for the other six”.
“So um...you might want to hide.”, Dan said!
They let Dan go and get back out to the next road where he decided to Uber out, and the rest of us turned the left, and we started heading off the road and through weeds toward a little pond.
This turned out to be a mistake. Had we remained on the main gravel road out to River Road, we would not have ever even been seen.
The pond route was bad, and there was no way through, so we had to turn back to the road.

Moo Moos on rail bed

We were doing pretty well, passed the community center, and I was just about to the road, with a few in the group only a short distance behind us.

Gardiner NY

It was then that the guard showed up. He stopped and was talking to the few that were still behind. I figured I’d better go back and talk to him, and at least I could show him that the google map still showed this being a trail going to the south a bit.
This guard was actually really cool. He seemed almost entertained by our presence there, and said “They had you in their sights”, referring to the guards in the tower. I suppose the voice we had heard earlier on was someone up there calling to us.

In Gardiner

He said that people go wandering onto this section all the time, and they always have to chase them off.
I’d imagine he isn’t used to seeing hikers so much, because he referred to bikes coming through, and certainly he hadn’t seen any with guitars like Sean was carrying!
He went on to say that the trail actually used to go through the jail property, but that it had to be closed down. At some point, there was an escape, and the guy tried to get away on the trail.

In Gardiner

The guard then told us where to go to get back on the trail, and said we’d really like the next bit because it was nice and clear.
I already knew where to go, but I just listened to be cordial with him. He was about as cool as you could ask someone to be about kicking a bunch of crazies off of a jail property, so I was happy.
We reached River Road, turned left, and pretty soon we reached where the railroad used to cross. There was a house directly across to the north, and the rail bed was almost unrecognizable there.

In Gardiner

To the south though, it was totally clear, and there was a big mound of dirt blocking the entrance.
This was official trail, but it was not at all developed as such.
Somewhere in this area is the boundary between Ulster and Orange County NY. Maybe they didn’t want to spend the money here because it’s between two counties, or because they didn’t want to get it too close to the jail. Either way, it was good and clear, and the only surfacing was the old black cinder railroad dirt, which I love.

Sean's happy beer

This was a really nice section to walk, first along cultivated fields, and then through other fields in various degrees of succession.
The right of way eventually emerged at the edge of Penney Drive, where it becomes Railroad Ave next to some ball fields.
The road seemed to have been built over the railroad bed. We walked out this into the town of Wallkill, where there were several police cars around. I wondered if anyone radioed in to let them know this questionable group of people was coming to town!

Library made to look like station

For several blocks, we were on the road, and then crossed over Bona Ventura Ave to another developed rail trail section heading to the south.

At the moo moo fence

This part of it was not known as the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail, probably because it’s disconnected. Instead, it’s the Shawangunk-Walden-Wallkill Rail Trail.

Wallkill Valley Rail Trail

This last rail trail segment was totally paved, which I’m not a fan of. It had all been pretty pleasant until that crap. I figure it must be an Orange County thing.
We continued into woods on the trail, as well as skirted some fields.
We crossed Lake Osiris Road, and started to parallel the pretty Tin Brook on a shelf through some nice woods. After that, we paralleled a business to the right, and reached the end of the trail.

A barn view near the jail

The trail reached what probably once went through on a section of Woodruff Avenue. The rail right of way continued ahead, but the trail turned hard left and switched back uphill left.

On the trail

This was beyond ridiculous and looked like a costly, crazy thing. All within a tight area, just tons of tight turns.
I walked all the way to the top of it even though that was not at all where we were continuing. I wanted to continue on the railroad bed.
Once at the top, I took some photos, and we headed down and onto the railroad bed ahead, which was easy enough to follow. A few trees down here and there, but otherwise it was pretty clear.

Entering Wallkill

Pretty soon, we reached a former bridge site where the railroad would have crossed the Tin Brook. We turned left and climbed down to the other side, and it was easy enough to get across the brook where the bridge used to be.
The stone abutment was in nice shape, and the bride also once spanned Rt 52 beyond. The other abutment was also in place.
I climbed up the other side after crossing the road, and then came across rails still in place. This was the point where the connection was still used from the south.

Railroad Ave is the rail bed in Wallkill

There was a beat up old jeep sitting next to the tracks, and then a yard a little beyond there.
This was where we would have to leave the right of way. Some of us climbed out onto the roof of a building, being all goofy.
There was a place called the Walden Animal Deli here, which I have no idea what they are getting at.
We walked from here right into the middle of downtown Walden, which is a nice little town.

On the rail bed

Walden was first settled in 1736, but Jacob Walden, for whom the town takes its name, was a shipper in 1820 who convinced his partners to build a woolen mill on the Wallkill River here.
Most of the woolen mills eventually failed, but the site became known as Walden’s Mills at first anyway, and then simply Walden in 1855.
Town leaders convinced knife makers from Dutchess County to establish factories in Walden, and it became home to three knife factories in the years ahead.

The rail trail

The town became colloquially known as Knifetown to some.
President Grover Cleveland opened knife trade with Germany which nearly killed the American knife market, but tariffs imposed by President William McKinley restored the market. Thomas Bradley of US Knife Company erected a statue of McKinley in town that remains today.
We continued to Oak Street and turned to the right heading downhill gradually. There was a nice old car for sale with signs in it that said “not to ask” if it were for sale.

Former Tin Brook bridge site

We had actually made pretty good time getting back to the shopping center in Walden, and so we all walked down to the Wallkill at the large dam site again.

Active tracks start up

I waded across the Wallkill and climbed to the top of the dam on the other side, and then walked across the top of it to the near side again.

Roof fun

From that point, we simply headed back to the cars at the Hannaford supermarket to finish the day.
It was overall a pretty good hike, and it sets us up for a lot more exploration I want to do through the region.

Stewart State Forest is just barely south of where we finished, with tons of trails we can easily get an entire day out of, and then the former Wallkill Valley Railroad can be taken south to Campbell Hall and connect with the Lehigh and New England.
There are a whole lot of rail lines all coming together in this sort of middle of nowhere Orange County, which somehow I have amazingly never finished connecting. The fact that all of these connections have gone so long without me doing them is pretty amazing.

The dam in Walden

Maybrook is also just south of where we finished, which was the northern terminus of the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway, and I’ve followed almost all of that.

The dam

The Erie main also comes through the area, as well as the New York, Ontario, and Western. I’d already hiked up to Middletown on the Middletown and Unionville, on the Erie as far as Chester area to the east, and both Lehigh and Hudson and Lehigh and New England as far as the NY state line, but never finished them. That might be a thing for me to finally get to this year or early into next year. None of this is all too far from home, which makes it that much more doable, since I’ll be heading west into PA a lot more often otherwise.

We all died

There is no shortage of stuff to do in Orange and Ulster Counties. I think maybe I’ll wait to do anything too popular until after the covid crap is over with, which means this railroad things might be the right choice.

HAM