Hike #593; Yonkers to Sleepy Hollow

 Hike #593; Old Croton Aqueduct (Yonkers-Sleepy Hollow) and Vicinity

10/30/11 Old Croton Aqueduct; Yonkers to Sleepy Hollow and vicinity with Jaque Melo, Eric Pace, Jack Lowry, Susan Duncan, "DJ Ray" Cordts, and Cory Salveson (and Flip Flop/Zip Line)

The group along Old Croton Aqueduct

My next hike would be a point to point finishing in the legendary Sleepy Hollow, NY.

The previous Halloween Costume hike had been on the west side of the Hudson, around Nyack and Piermont NY. I had announced to the participants at that time my plans for the following year were to connect previous hikes with Sleepy Hollow NY, and to have the next year's costume hike end up there. Things fell into place, and so it happened. The only problem was the night before we were hit by an intense winter storm, the earliest I'd ever experienced.

I was expecting a huge group, but everyone was backing out, thinking this would be awful in the snow. They were quite wrong. Although a lot of people were out of power, and the drive wasn't the best (several cars had driven into barricades and off the roads on my way, and there were bad patches of black ice), the snow wasn't so bad. It was cool driving across the Tappan Zee Bridge for the first time, but then on the east side there were closed roads and I had to drive far south before I could get back to Sleepy Hollow.

My plan was to meet the group at the Philipse Manor Metro North train station to take the 9:10 train to Yonkers. Only Jaque and Eric showed up there, but we were able to just barely make the train. We ran across a foot bridge, and then to the machines that distribute the tickets. The train arrived on time, and we boarded.

On the ride, a girl ended up falling on the wet floor and twisting her ankle. I had to run to another rail car to get a conductor to help her. She got off at Yonkers for medical attention.

The Hudson River in Yonkers

Once we were off the train, we found our way to a set of steps that took us below the tracks and out. We turned out to the waterfront, and began our hike by checking out an amazing view of the Palisades on the NJ side. There was a giant cargo vessel that looked almost military in appearance close to the NJ side. We then walked to the right heading up stream along a walkway.

View of NJ Palisades from Yonkers NY

Walkway along the Hudson in Yonkers

The view up the Hudson was incredible. We could see the massive vertical igneous intrusive basalt cliffs of the NJ Palisades, and on toward the NY line. When the walkway ended we turned right, and then had to backtrack a bit I think back to Dock Street where we could head east. We followed the road out to Broadway. It was a one way street at this point, which was uncommon for this famous and historic trade road most known for it's lights in downtown Manhattan. Truth is the road actually heads north beyond Sleepy Hollow as Rt 9, called "Broadway" most of the way except a few times when it's prefixed with "north" or "south".

View down Lamartine Ave at the Hudson and NJ's Palisades

We turned left on Broadway and followed it for a ways up hill. We followed it up hill to the corner of Broadway and Ashburton Ave. It was near this intersection that the Old Croton Aqueduct came out to Broadway. We stopped here at a mini mart to get some snacks and such. Inside, there was a large black woman wondering what we were up to. Eric was dressed normally save for his orange hat; Jaque was wearing a Witch's costume, and I was wearing a maroon fluffy shirt with my black cape I'd worn the previous year and some tight pin striped pants (I broke out some new shoes too, ones that survived the fire!). The lady was wondering if we were on our way to a party, to which we replied, we were doing a costume hike. When she heard we were walking all the way to Sleepy Hollow she was blown away and had to tell everyone in the immediate vicinity all about it. I bought some powdered sugar donuts and a can of Arizona iced tea, but before we could leave the lady ushered us into the laundromat next door to tell them inside how crazy we were. And so ended our crazy experience in downtown Yonkers. The marble monuments reading "OCA" welcomed us.

The Old Croton Aqueduct went through a vacant lot to the right of us, and then crossed Broadway. We could see where it went along the backs of people's houses, but we couldn't walk it. We continued from here on to Lamartine Ave and turned left. There was a blue turn blaze on a pole showing us the way. There was also a very nice view down to the Hudson and across at the Palisades.

The aqueduct route was really cool to trace. I find it amazing that it's route is still so intact, having been opened in 1840 and now pretty much abandoned other than by trail users.

The aqueduct was once an incredibly important commodity. In 1830, prior to it's construction, 1 of every 39 people died as a result of diseases from unclean water. The 41 mile aqueduct stretched from the Croton Dam further north to the present site of the NY Public Library where a reservoir once stood.

Old Croton Aqueduct trail in Yonkers

Old Croton Aqueduct Trail north of Yonkers

Old Croton Aqueduct Trail north of Yonkers

Unbelievably, the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail had pretty clear treadway today.

View of the Palisades from Old Croton Aqueduct

Old Croton Aqueduct trail north of Yonkers

View of NJ Palisades from Old Croton Aqueduct

Old Croton Aqueduct Trail with ventilation tower #19.

The trail began on this street again. There was a man cleaning off brush from his yard adjacent to the aqueduct route, and he commented how there were a lot of blow downs along the way. Looking on, it was pretty crazy to see all of the bright green leaves of Norway Maples, a bent over and snapped into the trail way. We would be able to walk through pretty easily, but we would have to walk around many many branches during the course of the day.

We walked along, and there was actually a good amount of seclusion on this trail, despite the fact we were still in  Yonkers. We passed by an apartment complex which beyond afforded us a view across the Hudson and toward the Palisades again. We continued on and crossed Wicker Street followed by Glenwood Ave. Ahead the trail would sort of disappear onto a road briefly, and then went strangely across the front yards of many houses next to a wall, and parallel with Phillipse Place. We then crossed Shonnard Terrace and the seclusion sort of resumed.

We crossed Arthur Street on a steep hill and then saw no more homes for quite some time.

The weir chambers were used to empty the aqueduct for maintenance by diverting the waters to a nearby waterway

View from Old Croton Aqueduct across the Hudson

Ruins along Old Croton Aqueduct

Blue berries?

Old gate along Old Croton Aqueduct

Old gate and steps along Old Croton Aqueduct

Ruins

Ruins

Ruins

Ruins

Ruins

Ruins

Ruins

Ruins

Ruins

Ruins

The next sections continued to get more secluded, and were mostly skirted by public nature preserves including Untermyer Park, Lenoir Preserve, and Draper Park, and crossed only by Odell Ave and Pinecrest Drive in a long stretch before reaching Hastings on the Hudson.

Along the way, we passed by ventilation tower #29 as marked in the guide I had bought from Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct by way of the New York/New Jersey Trail Conference. These ventilation towers existed roughly every mile or so it would seem. Some differed in looks from others, which made it a bit more interesting. They had numbers painted on them, and the first we saw was #19. I don't think they were numbered by original number, but by what is there today because further up there was one that had been demolished that was not given a number.

We did come across one cool other structure, a weir chamber. The weir chambers were used to empty the aqueduct for maintenance by diverting the waters to a nearby waterway. I'm not sure what this one went to, but there were many places we crossed on higher fills that went over creeks.

While in the deep wooded sections, I spotted a path going off to the right into dense weeds with blue berries on them. I'm not sure that they were blueberries. I tasted one but it wasn't very good.

Just beyond the little path, we came across a large shell of a building standing in ruins. Eric wanted to take a break, so I used this as my opportunity to go and check it out. I went back to the pat through the weeds, which opened up th rough a stone cut fence line, a sort of gate spot. I made my way up a deteriorating set of stone steps which led into the building site. I went in, and could see how there was once a fire place and several windows. It was rather obviously a two story structure, but it's use was uncertain. It was old, and had old stone work, but some of the top of it seemed to have a good deal of cement or something.

I exited the building on the north side and could see from there how a roadway used to go down hill to the front, the part where I first came up, down from the south and then ascending again to the north, parallel with the aqueduct trail. Just below the building was a nice, giant tree as well.

I went back into the building and made my way back down the steps the way I came up to rejoin Eric and Jaque.

Giant tree above Old Croton Aqueduct near ruins.

We continued on from the building and passed another ventilation shaft. The trail way changed from shelf to fill to sometimes cuts, very similarly to a railroad bed.

Ventilation shaft just south of Hastins On The Hudson

Abandoned building

Abandoned building

View of the Palisades from Old Croton Aqueduct near Hastings on the Hudson

Palisade view fro OCA Trail, Hastings on the Hudson

There were a few people walking the trail as we continued, but very few all day. As we continued, we passed another abandoned building on the right side of the trail. I'm not sure what this one was, but it was in much better shape than the previous one. It still had a roof, with windows in it, but most of the side windows were broken out. We could not get in because bars had been installed on all of these windows.

We continued on, and before coming back to the more inhabited area of Hastings On The Hudson, we had a nice view of the Palisades across the Hudson.

View near Hastings on the Hudson from OCA Trail

Big tree along Old Croton Aqueduct, Hastings on the Hudson

We continued along the Aqueduct route, which was now getting a bit wet. The snow had been melting making for a muddy surface. Eric had gotten his feet wet, and one of mine was a bit wet, but it wasn't bad. The trail itself, the tread way I mean, had barely any snow on it while areas around it had a little. The fact that so many leaves were still on the trees kept much of the snow off of the ground, but also served to snap the branches under the added weight.

We soon reached Washington Ave as we came into Hastins. We then reached Broadway again. There was a closed A&P market at this crossing, also the intersection of Broadway and Farragut Ave. We crossed both, and looking back to the closed A&P we had a lovely NJ Palisades view beyond.

We continued a few blocks distance more when Eric decided he didn't want to go on. He needed a break, and he decided he would try to catch a train and skip ahead a couple of stations. Jaque and I tried to convince him otherwise, but he wouldn't listen, and turned down hill toward the nearest station. Jaque and I continued on a few more blocks and entered the village of Dobbs Ferry.

A Keeper's House in Dobbs Ferry NY, Old Croton Aqueduct

The trail crossed Broadway again in this town, and we came to the headquarters of this state park, the Old Croton Trailway. There was a "keeper's house" which sat along the edge of the aqueduct route, which would have once housed sort of a caretaker to the Old Croton Aqueduct. Apparently there were once many of these, but this was the only one that was considered "extant".

Aqueduct Keeper's House, Dobbs Ferry NY

The building was pretty cool, but it looked completely unoccupied. I  had expected it would be some sort of a museum open to public. Instead, it was under development as such, and a trailer across Walnut Street ahead was temporarily serving as the visitor's center. Unfortunately, this was also closed. I went up to the porch to look for literature, and an old lady opened the door to let us know it was closed. I told her I was just looking at the map hanging on the door, which didn't really matter since I had a copy of the same one, and she then asked if we needed help with something. I told her we were alright, and were on our way.

Pretty soon, the aqueduct was built over by roadway and parking lot for a couple blocks distance. We were able to just walk through, and it resumed as it should just north of Cedar Street. Jaque and I took a side trip here to the right on Cedar to find some food. We ended up finding a pretty good pizza place where I had a chicken parm slice. We hung out here for a bit, and then I got a call from Jack. He and Susie (and Zip Line) were on the aqueduct a couple blocks away. We hurried on out and made our way back.

Old Croton Aqueduct, Dobbs Ferry NY

Together, we continued on the trail heading north. We passed through some nice woods and then came to the Mercy College. DJ Ray and Cory were trying to meet up, and we had walked just beyond the Mercy College when they figured out where they were and were able to park there. I turned back in order to find them. Cory, despite the cold, was wearing just a tee shirt. DJ Ray had a Jigsaw mask from the "Saw" movies and a blazer.

Octagon House near Mercy College, Irvington NY

Old Croton Aqueduct

Scarecrows on Lyndhurst Museum grounds

We continued walking the trail way heading north away from Mercy College. Along the way I spotted the famous Octagon House on the left of the trail, a private residence which was once the home of a famous tea merchant. I tried heading down the fill of the aqueduct to the left and took a good fall, getting a slight abrasion on my face. My friend Tara called me to ask if I had a generator (everyone seemed to be out of power except me for once) and I wasn't paying enough attention and slipped.

When we reached Main Street in Irvington, we were rejoined by Eric who had taken a train there. The town of Irvington was named for the famous author, Washington Irving who wrote those great stories including the Headless Horseman and Rip Van Winkle.

We continued on as the aqueduct crossed the Lyndhurst Museum grounds. Lyndhurst is an 1838 Gothic Revival mansion which I wish we'd had time to explore, but we didn't. The grounds were interesting enough because they were covered over with hundreds of scarecrows which looked really cool.

Scarecrows on Lyndhurst Museum grounds

Lyndhurst Museum grounds

Big tree on Lyndhurst Museum grounds

Big trees on Lyndhurst Museum grounds

Old Croton Aqueduct

Old Croton Aqueduct, Tarrytown NY

Old Croton Aqueduct, Tarrytown

View from Old Croton Aqueduct, Tarrytown

OCA trail in Tarrytown

Old Croton Aqueduct in Tarrytown

Sleepy Hollow High School

We lost the trail briefly on the Lyndhurst property because it was pretty much just open fields. Eric put on his Burger King mask which was pretty funny.We ended up walking along a service road briefly, and I used my GPS a bit to get back on track. We passed by some impressive huge trees and were then back on the aqueduct as it headed back into the woods. The aqueduct made a dramatic turn heading northeast for a bit here, and we were soon back out to Broadway. The aqueduct was inaccessible on the other side, and so we had to turn left and then cut to the right up hill on a road called Gracemere to regain the route.

We followed the aqueduct only to a road called Sheldon Rd and had to turn left heading back out to Broadway because Rt 87 and Rt 287 had cut off the old Aqueduct.

Cory and I watched the new episode of "Salad Fingers" while we walked this section of road. We then turned right on Broadway and headed under the  NY Thru Way. On the other side, we stopped into a Hess station store to get some more nourishment. I got a Reece's Fast Break and a Joose drink.

We turned right on White Plains Road and were soon back to the aqueduct. We knew where we were because we immediately passed a ventilation tower. We headed across Prospect Ave, but when we reached Leroy Ave we again had to turn left away from the aqueduct back to Broadway. Here, we could see the route went across the front yards of the houses to our right.

I think it was on Franklin Street we were able to regain the aqueduct again. There were still the blue blazes at turns, but instead of a double blaze they were a single blaze with an arrow pointing us. This next section of the trail was really interesting because it literally went right through people's back yards and such. At one time we walked right by kids sleigh riding down the hill of the aqueduct to their own back porches.

We headed several more blocks out of the developed portion of town, and then through a wooded area before reaching Sleepy Hollow High School, where we knew we had officially reached the famous town. Unfortunately, the school itself had been built over part of the aqueduct, so we had to turn right around the building to get back on it on the other side.

Headless Horseman trash can at Sleepy Hollow High School

Even the garbage cans around the edge of the school bore the image of the Headless Horseman on the side, and the proud name of the folk lore town. The Old Croton Aqueduct continued from here atop a berm heading north. We walked for a little ways and came to some caution tape either at  Pine Close or Maple Street. We stepped over, and then heard a shout out that there were live wires down. Jack didn't think they were really electric, and being an expert on these things (owner of Strikesound) I figured we'd be fine stepping over. The guy out there got pretty mad and announced he was manager of the state park, and that we couldn't cross. We finally agreed and he calmed down, and we walked out the street back to broadway and walked a couple blocks north to Gory Brook Road to regain the trail.

Interesting road in Sleepy Hollow

Even the street signs were personalized with Headless Horsemen insignias, and bore these strange names. We turned left onto the aqueduct again, and continued through woodlands until we could see part of the Sleepy  Hollow Cemetery come into view on the left. This was a very nice section, parallel with what the maps call Douglas Park until we reached the cemetery. We walked along the edge of it for a while before turning off.

Old Croton Aqueduct in Sleepy Hollow

A path and a gate led into the cemetery itself. We made our way along the cemetery road and then across a bridge over the Pocantico River. This stream and the hollow must certainly be "Sleepy Hollow" itself. A sign along the way soon insured us that this assumption was correct. There were famous people buried in this cemetery, including Washington Irving and Andrew Carnegie, but we did not see their graves as we walked.

Just before exiting the cemetery, there was some sort of shindig going on where they were selling pumpkin beer. A lady came up to us with a plate of doritos, which was quite nice. We were surprised to see this type of thing going on, the distribution of alcohol in a cemetery, but who were we to question it?

The beer actually wasn't great, and I could taste no pumpkin in it at all.

Headless Horseman Bridge

The entrance to the cemetery was next to the famous "Sleepy Hollow Bridge" where Ichabod Crane fled from the  Headless Horseman in the story. I read that the original bridge was just adjacent to this, up or down stream near a church, but I could not see the single remaining abutment referred to in the literature. We walked across the bridge and back.

Me in Sleepy Hollow

We headed down Pierson Ave to Devries Ave and into a small ball field park where the Pocantico comes out into the Hudson, thinking we could get through to the next street. I walked in on a path that soon disappeared into a flood plain, and we all turned back rather than head through more of a mess.

We turned onto Munroe Ave north, followed by Palmer Ave heading to the west.

How ironic that DJ Ray, dressed as Jigsaw found a tricycle.

Along Palmer Ave, DJ Ray found a tricycle to goof off on. Ironic that he found this because the character he was dressed as rode one in the "Saw" horror movies. Quite disturbing.

We turned right when we reached Riverside and were shortly at the Philipse Manor station where we had met in the morning. The sun was setting beautifully over the Palisades on the west side. We all got together and went out to dinner at a pizza place close to the Tappan Zee Bridge before shuttling back to the other cars to close another fun day.

Sunset across the Hudson from Philipse Manor Station