Hike #642; Helbing Farm to Central Valley

 Hike #642; Schunemunk Highlands; Helbing Farm to Central Valley

7/29/12 Schunemunk Highlands; Helbing Farm to Central Valley with Jillane Becker, Derek Baker, Jason Kumpas, Amanda Murphy, David "Captain Soup" Campbell, Jaque Melo, Joe Tag, and Sue Bickford Martin.

The group at the Schunemunk Megaliths

My next hike would be something very special. For many years, I had thought to lead a hike from the Helbing Farm near West Point Military Reservation, just outside of Mountainville NY. In years past, my family had spent Thanksgiving at the home of my cousin Dorothy, who lives in an amazing house surrounded by

West Point Military land, and on the edge of Black Rock Forest. For some reason I just never put it together that the Highlands Trail, a trail for which I served on the steering committee for it's extension, passed not even a mile from her home. Additionally, Joe had been telling me for years to do a hike at Schunemunk Mountain, his favorite mountain of all. I kept stalling on it, waiting to connect it with my other hikes.

After looking at maps, I somehow realized that it's not far from being connected with my other hikes at all, and in fact the Schunemunk Hike and the Helbing Farm hike would be one and the same!

I felt foolish for not doing a trip there earlier, and even worse for not visiting Dorothy in so long. She is an amazing resource for local history, which is intertwined with my family history, much of which I did not even know or remember.

I met the group in the morning in Central Valley, then shuttled cars north to Dorothy's house. I remember visiting there in the past, but it had been many years since I had driven up there. It looked much as I remembered it, with the Helbing Farm sign at the base of the driveway near the creek.

Dorothy greeted us warmly and invited us all into the lovely house, which was designed by her father, my Great Uncle. It was modeled after the family's barn nearby she told us.Cousin Dorothy told us a great deal of the area history with enthusiasm and a way about her that a favorite teacher would tell it. She gave us the entire history of the area, and then weaved in the history of the family and how they came to the area. I had not known that the Helbings were boarders, and that there were so many guests that came to stay at the farm going back to the early twentieth century. Dorothy told us that people of all walks of life passed by, and many were well known prominent citizens. I wish I could remember everything she told us so I could just inject it into this journal entry, as it was an excellent story, and such a well told chronology.

Before saying goodbye and getting on with the hike, we filled our water bottles with mineral springs water right from the tap. The water was indeed very tasty, better than most bottled waters we could have picked up. Of course the road took it's name for the mineral springs which Dorothy explained was believed to have healing qualities that one time healed the eyes or workers on the railroad in the valley. Whether it's fact or a tall tale, the water was great.

Joe, Sue, and Jillane got in Joe's car and headed to Schunemunk Mountain in order to begin the steep ascent early, while the rest of us began on the hike from the house.

We walked Mineral Springs Road north heading up hill, then turned right on Old Mineral Springs Road. The road had been re-routed, and the original road remained a very narrow, quaint road with a few residences. We followed it until the Highlands Trail appeared on the right, emerging from Black Rock Forest. We continued following it straight back out to Mineral Springs Road. From here, the trail had been re-routed recently onto the road, but it originally went through Black Rock Fish and Game property to the left and across the street. The turn blaze was still there on a utility pole where it turned off of the road.We opted to try to follow the old route rather than the road walk because it was proposed to be re-opened anyway. After the turn blaze, we couldn't see where the trail was. We started climbing up hill, but got a bit lost. Since I knew I wanted to make better time, I called Glenn, the HT supervisor up on his cell phone to ask him what the trail used to do. He was able to explain it very well; it skirted the mountain to the left, with a swamp to the right, then picked up an old woods road. He explained the trail was still blazed ahead for a while. We were able to get on it and follow it with ease ahead.

The trail remained quite nice. The woods road was rather tough to follow when we got to an area that had been recently logged. We were able to follow it through this section, then to the right where it left the woods road and became a foot path. There was another trail that broke away from the HT here, but it was painted out, and there was a sign that read "trail closed".  No such signed was in the HT, and we continued on down hill and across a stream. The trail wasn't maintained in a long time, and so it was somewhat tough to follow. It was actually very similar to following the Ridge and Valley Trail north of White Lake.

After the stream, the trail climbed steeply via switch back to the top of a mountain. There were even a few stone steps built nicely for the trail. At the top there wa sa view looking to the northeast. Unfortunately, the group ran into a Yellow Jacket's nest on the way up. Jaque got stung a couple of times, and Derek got stung on his lip, which continued to swell for the next half of the day. That must've sucked.We took a bit of a break, then continued along the trail as it followed the short ridge ahead. Glenn had told me most blazes were removed from here heading down to Long Hill Road. We would have to follow painted out blazes. We were fortunately able to follow them, but it was really difficult because he used a really good blockout paint.

After a while of heading down hill, we lost the trail. But at that point it was easy enough to see Long Hill Road. We passed someone's outlandish hunting platform, then reached the road and turned right. Long Hill Road was a nice dirt road. The  HT used to cross the road and descend behind houses to Old Rt 32. We decided to just bushwhack down to Old 32, because we could see it, it was so close, then turned right on main existing 32. We could see the painted out  HT blazes at intersections. We regained the current HT route, which just follows roads and descends via Arcola Road to Mountainville. We turned left to follow the trail route along Taylor Road in Mountainville, and crossed Woodbury Creek on a bridge. I meant to take a dip in it, but there was a lot of re-bar in the water, so I didn't bother.

We continued across Interstate 87 on Taylor Road, then got to the small parking area for Schunemunk Mountain State Park where the Highlands Trail turned left off of the road. It was co-aligned with the yellow blazed Jessup Trail for most of the Schunemunk stuff. At first, Jessup and Sweet Clover Trails ran together up hill and through wide, open fields with nice views up and down the valley through which the Woodbury Creek passes.

It was really cool to be on another section of the Highlands Trail I hadn't done. It really wasn't that far from the southern end of Schunemunk down to the Appalachian Trail, and I would have to work to connect that section sometime soon.

Sweet Clover Trail turned left away from us, and we continued out of the fields and into the woods across a foot bridge over a tributary. We then ascended a bit to an old woods road which turned right and paralleled the former Erie Railroad, now a busy commuter train line to Port Jervis NY.

The trail remained parallel with the tracks, and then turned left and crossed them at grade (something we never see in NJ, unfortunately). The HT/Jessup Trails then climbed gradually up to the ridge of Schunemunk Mountain by following Baby Brook on the edge of Taylor Hollow.

The trail remained far from the creek most of the time, but it headed over to it once at a small waterfall. The water was running, but there was never anything we could jump in. I laid down in the falls to cool off, which was great, before moving on. Shortly after the falls, we continued the climb to the more open ridge of Schunemunk Mountain.The next spot we re-grouped and stopped was a view point to the north. The Hudson River came into view in the distance, looking like some sort of amazing huge lake. To the east of us, Storm King Mountain was visible. I had never been up this mountain, but I could see it's prominent size, as I had from other vantage points to the south and north. This was now the closes I'd been to it. The northern terminus of the Highlands Trail's continuous route is at the base of Storm King.

We continued on the trail ahead, passing more views. There was a girl on the other ridge across Taylor Hollow from us shouting out, asking our names and such. Schunemunk has two main ridges, which are separated by the Baby Brook.

We continued on and came to a note left by Jillane warning of a Rattlesnake just off of the trail. We didn't see him, and Jillane was waiting for us on a rock just ahead. Joe and Sue continued ahead from us at that point. The views to the north became less, but we continued to get more of them to the east across the valley.We followed the ridge southbound, with many more beautiful views. We passed other trail intersections, and then came to the white blazed spur trail leading to the Schunemunk Megaliths. Joe recommended we stop here, and he had head there to meet up with us. We soon found him on these giant school bus sized rocks with an amazing 180 degree view to the west. He explained the geology of the area, and pointed out other features. We could see High Point in NJ from this spot, as well as the Shawangunk Mountains across the great valley beyond us.Below the giant rocks were many little caves, which I just had to climb down and crawl through. I got in rather easily, but had to do a steep climb to get out a different way.

After leaving the Megaliths, Joe and Sue continued with us a short distance to the highest point on the Schunemunk Ridge, which I think Joe told us was around 1660 feet above sea level. That would have meant we had to climb over 1300 feet to reach the top. Not a bad ascent.

Joe and Sue left the rest of the group to close in a loop back at the parking lots, while the rest of us continued on along the HT southbound. There was more nice scenery and some good views. We stayed on the  HT until we reached the Long Path crossing. At the crossing to the right, the LP heads through the orange county section to the Shawangunk Ridge. I'd done it from the top of the Shawangunk Ridge to Minnewaska, and to the south I'd done it all to Harriman. This was another unfamiliar section, and it would be changing soon. The Long Path was going through a great many re-routes to eliminate the road walking. This section we were now on would be eliminated, and according to the signs, reblazed and renamed something different. I wanted to hike it before any of it could be abandoned, because some of it might be.

We turned left and immediately began descending on the Long Path. The character of the hike changed again from the open puddingstone conglomerate to a more dense, young hardwood forest. We passed one nice view on the way, where we had to descend into a deep saddle and then climb to High Knob. Jillane and I let the group get ahead of us and climb the other side. It didn't take long, and it was cool to see them across the big saddle. When we got to the saddle ourselves, I nearly stepped on a young rattle s nake,  basking in the talus slope rocks.

We continued to climb up the other side, and then headed out to an outstanding view point over the big valley. We could see north all the way up to the Hudson once again, and the ridge we had crossed before crossing the Woodbury Creek, and we could see to the south down the valley with the bumpy hills of Harriman State park and more.

After the break here, we descended on the Long Path to Little Knob, with more excellent views down into the town of Woodbury.

There was quite a steep descent, but we managed rather fine. The foot path and tread way required some caution, and Derek and I got to the front of the group, though we were both feeling the strain in our knees. Soon, the trail picked up an old woods road and it was easy going down off the mountain. The trail turned left on what appeared to be the right of way of an old rail siding, then headed out to the active railroad tracks. The trail followed the active tracks then to the south to a large trestle over Woodbury Creek. The trail descends from the trestle to another path, passes beneath the trestle, then descends to Rt 32.Once at the bottom, the trail crossed, then did stuff my guide did not warn me of. I could see painted out blazes going right, but the trail went left.We turned left along Rt 32, then the trail turned right off of the road and steeply climbed up over a guard rail, after crossing the Woodbury Creek on the road bridge.

The trail climbed and passed near some hick's house with junk cars and garbage strewn about, then continued along a high slope above the creek, and emerged on the mowed grass along interstate 97! I couldn't believe the trail did such a thing, but then NY does some weird stuff. We walked south along 87, and then the trail turned right back into the woods. Jason started dancing with his giant youngling umbrella along the highway, but he was done before I could record it.

He managed to get a honk or two.The trail descended a bit past some nice big trees, then followed along the edge of a storm runoff wash to the edge of the Woodbury Creek. I was blown away when we got right back to the underside of the trestle we had left a bit ago. It was terribly hot, and despite gross bubbles in the creek, I took a dip, which felt great.As we were relaxing, a train came by at what must've been 90 mph over the bridge. The bridge shuttered a bit, and Jillane pointed out all of the metal stuff from the bridge laying in and along the water below. I now wanted to get out. We moved on, climbing up the embankment below the bridge, and then turned left on what appeared to be another old rail bed. There was an abutment next to the existing trestle, I guess for the abandoned line. The Long Path followed this old rail bed, now also a gas line right of way, closely heading south. I noticed at the point of a lovely cascade on the Woodbury Creek and trestle, that there seemed to be some sort of abutments on both sides other than the railroad. Dorothy had showed us pictures earlier showing that there was a dam by the railroad trestle. Could the cascade be the remains of the former dam? Possibly, but I will have to check with Dorothy, I'm sure she'll know the answer.

There were a lot of nice big trees along the small Woodbury Creek to the right of us in this stretch, but rather inaccessible.

We continued on the suspected rail bed out to Pine Hill Road. It was a nice easy stretch, muddy but alright. At the road, the Long Path turned left and passed beneath the railroad tracks. It then follows a long road walk before entering Harriman State Park. I would plan on doing this section soon as well. The section might become abandoned with the reroute of the Long Path, I'm not sure.

From here, the lower rail bed seemed to end. There were foundation ruins and a basement area that still had a top to it, which Jillane found. Maybe the lower right of way was only for the station. It seemed to end at the road and went nowhere else. We all headed onto the active tracks and began to follow them further south. It wouldn't be far to get to Central Valley from here. The railroad was on a fill above lovely swamp land for this stretch. Just as we got to the overpass over Smith Clove Road, a train come from ahead. I'd heard it barely just a bit earlier, and then felt the vague vibrations on the rail. The train came by, probably at about ninety miles per hour.We walked on up Smith Clove Road to return to the cars.Everyone else left, but Jillane and I stayed in the area to hunt down food and to have a look around. We found an old cemetery just to the south, which Dorothy told us was called the Coffey cemetery I think. It was a family farm that was now turned into outlet malls, but the cemetery was preserved.

We had a tasty dinner at a local diner before heading home.

This hike built even more interest in this area. We had barely scraped the surface of what Harriman had to offer, and yet there is still so much more just a bit further north. It is so easy to connect all of this with previous hikes, and it's just so interesting.My biggest issue is that there are so few people in my group who are from the area. It's always been that way, where I just don't have the NY following enough, and when I post hikes anywhere in the north I get far less participants. I just don't understand, because there are so many more trails in NY than in Philadelphia, and yet I have a much stronger following from Philly and South Jersey. Am I just not finding the locals through Metrotrails? I don't know. Still, I must continue exploring these new places, and I hope to have meet more interesting people on the journey.