Hike #495 7/3/10
7/3/10 Shawankunk Loop/Roosa Gap/Spring Glen with Jillane Becker.
Taking a break just north of Philipsport NY
My next hike would be the next piece of the Long Path north, and the farthest continuous north any of my hikes had ever taken me. I guess I wasn't very surprised that Jillane and I were the only two to show up for this hike since it was so far north. We began this loop where I'd last left off on Roosa Gap Road, a small dirt road up the Shawangunk Ridge from Summitville NY.
Jillane and I had scouted the beginning of this in September of 2009, having gone up the trail to the old Roosa Gap fire tower and back. This time we'd continue north.
We ascended out of Roosa Gap and soon came to the great view over the valley to the south.
View from the Long Path, Shawangunk Ridge just north of Roosa Gap NY
We continued above the tree line here and met a trail maintainer along the way who was doing a pretty nice job of trimming back the tiny weeds that constantly scraped against our shins otherwise. We somehow overshot the Roosa Gap Fire Tower, and so I got out my gps and we bushwhacked back toward it, finding a woods road long the way to take us there.
In the old Roosa Gap Fire Tower
What we didn't know the previous time was that the tower was now some sort of radio tower that could possibly have fried us if it were transmitting. Good thing we didn't stay up there for too long this time!
Roosa Gap Fire Tower
We made our way back to the Long Path where we'd left off and continued hiking it to the north. There were tons of blueberries up here on this hike, and so the beginning of it was again really slow going as we took our time to pick all the juiciest ones. This location was a bit different than other places we'd seen; there were at least three different shades of blueberries we were finding. Each one seemed to be almost like a separate species. Some were big and blue, a normal looking blueberry. Others were almost a black with a slightly more tart taste, while others seemed like a combination of the two with slightly different leaves. I figured they could have been high bush, low bush, and huckleberries, but I thought they all ripened at different times.
We continued passing a few more views along the way, and descended for a bit of time into a saddle in the mountain filled with lots of nice old stone rows. It was here that we found, to my great surrpise, a Welsh Farms milk crate labeled "Long Valley NJ". Welsh Farms in Long Valley had been closed for many many years. It was already long closed when I was climbing all over the abandoned structure in September of 2002. In fact, my father worked at that Welsh Farms location in the 1980s.
Wow...really off the wall place to find a Welsh Farms crate! Long Path, Shawangunk Ridge north of Roosa Gap NY
I didn't drag it along with us, but it was neat to find. We continued to the north and eventually the trail began to descend to the north into a bit of a gap with Bear Hill Preserve and the giant rock outcroppings visible straight ahead. I think there were people hang gliding off of them or something but I don't remember it well. The view was spectacular though.
View of the rock outcroppings in Bear Hill Preserve from Shawangunk Ridge State Forest on the Long Path
The Long Path ahead started descending very steeply and turned slightly left following a flat rock spine. As we descended a view opened up toward Ellenville NY. We could hear some loud music all the way down in the valley and figured there was some kind of festival going on or something.
View from the Long Path on Shawangunk Ridge toward Ellenville NY
I was carrying my Long Path guide book with me and going over the route on it, which was accurate to a certain degree. It had one area that was a bit off, where a view point was described looking to the south but it did not exist, or the trail was rerouted around that site.
The next change in the book was the fact that the trail came to the abandoned former Rt 52 and followed it instead of turning off of it as described. We followed the blazes heading slightly down hill and around sharp corners, and we passed the left turn I wanted to make not knowing where exactly we were. My GPS and phone service were spotty here. We passed a giant dead tree and descended gradually on Old Rt 52.
Giant old tree along abandoned former Rt 52 south of Ellenville NY
We continued following the old road for quite a while. Along the way we passed an open field area on the left, the foundation of a former house site, and an old trailer. Some of the trailer was still in reasonable shape while a lot of it was a total wreck.
Abandoned trailer off of abandoned Rt 52/Long Path
After continuing on further I realized we were not getting where I wanted to end up at all. We decided to turn back along the Long Path and try to figure out where we went wrong. It seemed like forever backtracking, which I hate doing, but after ascending gradually almost all the way back to where we got on the old road, we realized where our right turn was on Old Mountain Road, the former connector between Rt 52 and Spring Glen NY.
As we descended on the old road there was one really nice view off to our right.
We descended along the road, and came to an abandoned bridge frame with a completely rotted or removed deck.
Bridge site on Old Mountain Road near Spring Glen NY
Old bridge, Old Mountain Road on it's way down the Shawangunk Ridge to Spring Glen NY
We continued along and came to a turning area where the old road was now vehicle accessable somewhat. Just below here we passed a house on the left and continued down hill. We were soon passing a few houses, and at the last one before reaching Rt 209 a couple of people were outside. The one lady who had a dog there offered us some beer and refilled our water for us, quite a nice group of people!
Also along the road I saw what I believed was one of the former railroad beds through town, but it wasn't looking very good to hike so we kept going. We turned right and hung out for a while underneath a creek bridge along Rt 209. It was good to cool off a bit here. We then decided it would be nice to walk along Old Rt 209 into the village of Spring Glen to find some food. My google maps application on my phone said there was a general store there, and so we were off.
The town was pretty much half abandoned, every other house seemed unoccupied. There was no sign of the loud music we'd heard up on the ridge. We walked up the main street and soon got to a yard sale on the left side. We stopped to have a look around, but this was not your average yard sale. Everything we were interested even remotely in purchasing was haggled in one way or another. A middle aged Jewish man was trying to sell us all sorts of junk making claims of the great value they held. We were slightly interested in a couple things, and the guy, while very friendly, was totally clueless on how to sell something at a yard sale. He told us he was from the Jersey shore but that a friend of his had this property he thought would be good to have a yard sale. Right there I knew the guy was a little off his rocker. No one in their right mind would look at Spring Glen NY and say "I think I could make some good money having a yard sale there!". I don't think more than two or three cars passed by us the entire time we walked Old 209. We left the guy soon and walked to the general store in town. It had promise judging by the outside, but they didn't have much variety inside. I was surprised to see an Indian proprietor that far iinto NY. In my past experiance, in areas including this part of NY there was very little racial diversity, but then there wasn't much normal about Spring Glen.
After a snack and drinks, we walked back down Old 209 past our yard sale buddy again. He ended up giving Jillane a Sega system or something, as well as I think a movie in return for us helping him pack up all of his yard sale stuff. She took the thing around the side of the building to plug it in, and it didn't work anyway. I eventually started getting annoyed with the guy, though I didn't show it, and we moved on back to Philipsport Road and headed south.
I knew the Delaware and Hudson Canal used to parallel us along this section of road. I remember seeing possible remnants across people's back yards, but nothing we could walk. A family was having a great smelling barbecue we wished we could have joined in on, and although they stopped to talk to us we didn't get any offers. Just ahead we came to a large abandoned hotel complex on the right, and a fenced in open area on the left with a sign reading "Happy Land"!
Happy Land, NY? This is on the south side of Sprng Glen near the abandoned hotels
We continued up the road admiring the awesome abandoned building and looked at it hoping to see a way in. Although it probably would have been easy to get in, there was a security guard on duty behind a large chain link fence so we didn't even try. We continued along Spring Glen Road with a beautiful view of the Gunks behind us.
Hiking Philipsport Road, Spring Glen NY in the 'Gunks
After passing by Meyerson Road on the right, we soon came to a small dirt road on the right where there was a set of stairs going to nothing near it. I concluded it must be the remains from a house that burnt down. Indeed it was, a charred pile of wood laid on the ground and only a set of steps remained probably made of pressure treated wood. We walked back the lane and straight ahead was an abandoned building of some kind, so we went in. It looked like it must have been some sort of lodge or something, and the front of it looked like a stage although it was a mess. There was stuff everywhere, apparently it'd been used for storage. We moved on turning left down the lane from the road and paralleled it. Ahead was an abandoned motel on the right. This place was a mess as well, but it was back off the road enough to obscure us in vegetation. We were able to go into every room in the place. Inside them were things that made us believe it had not been used since at least the seventies, though i think the state of decay would have been much worse if that were the case. One of the rooms had an original Star Trek poster. There was junk scattered or broken all over the floors of every room. Behind the building was a giant mess of broken stuff, mainly televisions that I guess were part of each room's facilities. I don't know why they'd go to all the trouble of dumping them directly behind the building in a heap, but it was interesting to see.
The next building along the road was a larger one with a porch. We went in the front door into an eerie hall with chipping and hanging paint; the only graffiti was a single heart at the end of the hall. We looked around and I think got freaked out at the sound of a rodent in the walls.
Abandoned building at an old motel site south of Spring Glen NY
We left the building and came back out along the road to Philipsport Road to discover yet another abandoned building across the street slightly to our left. This one looked more secure, but the front door was unlocked. We walked right in, but the place was pretty empty. It looked like it might have been additional rooms for guests but there wasn't much of anything left. From this building, another building was obscured by branches. This one looked like a regular house, possibly the owner or caretaker's house for the motel property. I remember going into it but don't remember finding anything particularly interesting.
We continued walking the road to the south, looking into the valley to our left along the way for remnants of the canal. The only thing that might have been part of it was a large lake visible down a driveway. We soon reached Poplar Grove Cemetary, one of those very old hillside cemetaries, and since it paralleled the road we decided to walk through it. At it's south entrance there was a giant metal sign post which added to the old and eerie ambiance of it.
Poplar Grove Cemetary south of Spring Glen NY
We continued down Philipsport Road a little more and stopped for a break at the entrance to a quarried area up hill or something of the sort, a gated spot with a good place to sit.
Taking a break along Philipsport Road
From here, we soon began to enter a developed area with a few homes. The buildings were really cool as always, the little nuances of the area were fascinating us, like blatant Jesus proclamations on the sides of houses, a camp type of place. We continued walking through town to the intersection with Rt 209 where there was a tiny little pocket park with a small garden in it. We took another nice little break here. The old canal was now obviously alongside Rt 209, which was also paralleled by Minister's Flats Road above. We opted to follow the parallel Red Hill Road past a church, then the left onto Minister's Flats Road, above Rt 209 on a less busy roadway. Some of the canal prism was now a drainage ditch along 209 apparently.
Taking a break on former Delaware and Hudson Canal, Philipsport NY
When Minister's Flats Road descended back down to join Rt 209, we turned right, but to my surprise we didn't have to walk the highway for very long. A trail following the old canal turned off to the right almost immediately, and it was in beautiful shape.
We passed a beautiful old lock site, then continued south on the old canal which was in part watered, making it seem even more attractive. The next section was a secluded beautiful section of wide cleared towpath along the canal, with views out onto westlands and beyond to the Shawangunk Ridge to the left. I was really happy to be walking such a nicely preserved parcel. Unfortunately, it was starting to get pretty dark. I knew we'd be walking back up the ridge in the dark for sure.
Former Delaware and Hudson Canal just north of Summitville NY
The towpath section dead ended in Summitville on Summitville Road. I'd already walked the canal south from this point on a previous hike with Amish Paul and Kyle Zalinsky. We turned left, then passed a lovely possibly abandoned house, then turned right on Station Road and across Rt 209 onto the Roosa Gap Road. We were close to the old railroad right of way, then just as the road turned sort of east away from the rail bed Jillane waited off to the side out of sight somewhere while I ran as fast as I could up the ridge on the road to my car.
It was a tough stretch, but we finished just very shortly after dark and were in very high spirits, having proved yet again what a great team we can be.
Before heading home we stopped in Matamoras area to hang out with Jillane's sister Jenna and her boyfriend Tom Lanterman at a campground they had along the Delaware. I took a nice swim and had a few drinks.
Jillane and I were keeping the energy going we'd had during our backpacking trip earlier. It was a good, fulfilling energy. It wasn't crazy party atmosphere like the previous Summer I'd had running around with Kyle, DJ Ray, Skyler, and everyone else; it was a more deeply fulfilling energy. Our lives could have their times of craziness and partying, but also reflective and meaningful in a way that the previous Summer lacked.
Days like this one were truly among the happiest days of my life and the future was looking positive.
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