Hike #659; Teatown Lake to Sleepy Hollow

 Hike #659; Teatown Lake to Sleepy Hollow NY

10/28/12 Teatown Lake to Sleepy Hollow with Jillane Becker, Jamie Becker, Scott "Tea Biscuit" Helbing, Amanda Lance, Jaque Melo, Ted Wright, and Diane ?.

Group shot on the Aqueduct

Our next hike would once again be the annual Halloween Costume Hike. For weeks in advance, I promoted that it would once again be a hike finishing in Sleepy Hollow, NY, this time from the north. We would finally finish the Old Croton Aqueduct trail, and begin others. I had well over thirty signed up for the trip, but the weather forecast did not work out in our favor.In the days leading up to it, a hurricane called Sandy was on it's way to hit NJ and NY. NJ State Parks had closed as of noon on Sunday, but I of course would not skip my hike. Unfortunately, most of the participants backed out, all but eight of us.

It was cool to have my brother Tea Biscuit and his girlfriend Amanda back out with us on something other than the anniversery hike, and we had two newcomers from a meetup group that I tried posting on for the first time.After meeting at the Philipse Manor trains station where we'd met for the hike the previous year, we shutted north with two cars to Teatown Lake Reservation. The drive itself was pretty too, and when we neared the lake, we could see the boardwalks out on the water, which was pretty cool looking.Jillane had the idea to dress up as sort of Amish, and she'd made her own costume, but wouldn't end up putting it on until later. I had black pants, white shirt and suspenders, a black jacket and hat. Tea Biscuit was the most stand out, with Nintendo's Mario costume. Amanda had a skirt sort of thing, and Jaque was wearing a sort of butterfly costume. Jamie was a crazy cat lady; I lent her one of my kitten shirts, and she had all sorts of cat stuff all over her pack.We started walking along the east shore of the Teatown Lake, and then turned left to pick up the Briarcliff-Peekskill Trailway, a long trail between the two areas on a right of way that was once proposed as a super highway. The route is now a simple foot path with dark green blazes.In the Teatown Lake Reservation, the trail was easy to follow, but it became tougher as it continued north. The paint blazes were not easy to see, and there wasn't really enough of them.The trail crossed I think it was Applebee Farm Road, and another trail, I think the Teatown Kitchewan Trail went right. Our trail continued across the road along high above the water of the creek below. It was quite pretty.

The trail continued through nice woods for a while, and reached some large blow downs. There, it became tough to follow. We all spent a while looking around for the next green blaze, but we couldn't find any. I pulled out my phone GPS and compared with a map I had downloaded of the trail systems, and sure enough found the trail route had turned left near the top of a little hill skirting private land. It then descended for a bit and followed some nice little puncheons. It then came out to Quaker Ridge Road and crossed. The trail continued from there on closed Croton Dam Road. Only the beginning of it was open to traffic. We headed out and got to the top of the New Croton Dam, completed in 1906 (and consequently, our friend Brad Anesi's Great Grandfather was Baldassaire Anesi, a master stone cutter who worked on this project).The dam offered a nice view of the New Croton Reservoir and the Croton Gorge below. We made our way back to the south side of the dam, and followed a pathway down hill to the Old Croton Aqueduct and trail. The original aqueduct is now obliterated under the waters of the reservoir to the north. The original Croton Dam was further up stream, now submered with the original portions of the aqueduct.To the south of here, it was intact and good to hike. We took a break while I ran down to the bottom to photograph the amazing dam and spillway.

After the break, we began following the old aqueduct south. The thing was designed to lose about 18 inches of elevation every mile on it's way to Manhattan, so I figured this would be a pretty easy one, and it was.The aqueduct in this section is still used once again, reactivated in the 1990s to serve the town of Ossining with water. We continued on a high shelf above the Croton Gorge below. This was the most secluded section of the aqueduct trail. It was also where the first Tarzan movie was shot, way back when. We passed ventilator shafts every mile or so, just as on previous OCA hikes. We also met a lady on the trail who was soliciting us for trail work days coming up, but I live too far away for sure. Jillane spotted mile markers well off of the trail at different locations during the trip, maybe from days of the aqueduct's construction, showing the mileages, but there were discrepancies between them. Hard to say what they were for. The trail took us through cuts and along the shelf much in the way a railroad bed would have, until we had to turn off of it at I think it was Quaker Bridge Road. At this point, the aqueduct goes through a school property and the trail needed to go around it into Crotonville.The trail led onto a bit of a hill and skirted that school property opposite a chain link fence, then down to Crotonville where we passed the old school house before passing beneath Rt 9A.

Once on the other side, I think Ogden Road led us back up to the aqueduct. We followed it for a bit, but then came to where we had to go up a steep slope, by a ventilator shaft and over a road. I found it strange, but it must have been tunneled through! We then passed through some yards back on the grade, and continued out to cross Rt 9. Jillane found some old barbed wire, with the rounded, twisted shape rather than twisted wire. Just before coming to a clearing with a beautiful old house, Jillane spotted the largest White Oak tree I'd ever seen. The thing was the size of a Sequoia, and it was somewhat obscured behind the trees and other vegetation along the trail. We absolutely had to go on up there to inspect it further. We couldn't believe the size of it. In fact, the aqueduct route was lined with many giant trees, but to me, this one was the most impressive. There were also some really nice views across the Hudson of the Palisades from time to time.Another thing that kept showing up was teal diamond blazes with HT shown on them. The  Highlands Trail? I had already done it to it's end at the Hudson River in the north, and I knew sections were supposed to be extended to the north, but where did it cross, and where is the official route? It merits further research; I had never seen these markers before.We continued across an open area and as we neared the town of Ossining, where we would plan to have some lunch, we passed a small weir, a structure that was meant to drain the aqueduct for repair near stream crossings. I've seen many of the old weirs at this point, and this one was the smallest.

As we neared Ossining, the route of the aqueduct seemed higher up, or it was more back filled or something. We had to cross a road and head up hill for a bit, over a high knoll. The trailway led us down over a slope to another weir, this one much larger and more like the others on the aqueduct, and the trail resumed with it's more common look, but crossed the giant arch over a creek below. This section was really cool. It's amazing to see something like this still standing and used as a pedestrian route. There was a viewing deck below the old bridge, so I went down to have a closer look at the masonry.The aqueduct crossed near the intersection of Main and Church Streets in Ossining. We turned left up the street as per the recommendation of a woman we met, and had some pizza at a corner place. It was actually pretty good pizza. Tea Biscuit was attracting the attention of onlookers in front with his Mario costume. Later in the day some guy would tell him that he saw him in Ossining, to which his reply was "Are you sure it was me?"After lunch, we headed back down  hill to the aqueduct route and continued south. The well manicured and somewhat overdone trail way through the town soon ended and we were forced to walk Spring Street which paralleled the aqueduct route, which was now in people's back yards. We got back on the route when we saw a ventilation tower to the left of us. We headed diagonally across a square park at Everett Ave, then crossed Washington St. to another park with paved paths around the outside of it. There were ball games going on, and we turned right to follow the edge of the park. I tried following my Old Croton Aqueduct map, but it was confusing at this point. It appeared to go through a new apartment complex on the east side, so we walked on it, but could find no sign of it. We went through a back parking lot, and then skirted a fence through some dense weeds in order to get out to another lot. There, I saw the aqueduct route and it's level grade with people walking on it. The map might have been somewhat inaccurate here.We turned and climbed to the right of way and continued south. We had a nice section through woods until we reached Scarborough, where we had to divert from the historic route once more because it goes through some development and golf course or something. We had to turn right down Scarborough Road to Rt 9, then hang a brief right and then left on Scarborough Station Road for the walking route. There was a nice old church on Rt 9 when we got to it. Along this stretch we met a guy who was out walking and chatted with him about the hiking group.The walking route led through a village full of mansions and then turned left on River Road which afforded us a few views of the Hudson, then turned left up Creighton Road, and left again on another part of River Road until we reached the aqueduct. It went across some sort of lodge property at the intersection, and we took a break at a playground and played on the swings. Some guy came out and tried to sell us raffle tickets for a hundred bucks a piece, but none of us were really into that. He also told us not to get hurt, and if we did not to sue them.We continued on along the aqueduct as it continued through Rockwood Hall State Park, and Jillane put on her Amish clothing she had made. We continued to cross Rt 9 on a pedestrian bridge where there was once a stone arch. The arch was removed because it did not accommodate large traffic. The stone that was once in the old arch was placed along the trail just before the bridge.We continued south into Rockafeller State Park Preserve, and again had a side path we had to take where the aqueduct route had been obliterated by Rt 117. We had to go left parallel with the highway, cross on a more modern bridge, and turn right to lead back to the aqueduct route. We passed one more large waste weir, and then crossed over the over the Pocantico Creek, the creek which passes through Sleepy Hollow, and the Headless Horseman was not able to cross.

Once on the other side, it was only a short distance further and I had completed hiking the entire Old Croton Aqueduct from New Croton Dam to Fifth Avenue in Manhattan (save for the section that is now under water at the north). We turned right on a side path into Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and began walking across. We headed along Pocantico Creek and crossed a little bridge, then headed up hill on steps to the upper part of the cemetery. Near the top of the hill, before we began heading south once more, we visited the grave of Andrew Carnegie, once the world's greatest industrialist. Jillane fortunately spotted the grave. We also passed by a Vanderbilt plot. I'm also told the Rockafellers are buried in the cemetery, but we did not pass their mausoleum which is supposedly further north. We continued south along the west side of the cemetery until we came to the view of the old church, built in 1697. I had read that Washington Irving himself was buried on the hillside in view of the church. We looked around unable to find it, but once again Jillane was able to spot the site, just when I had given up. There was a metal gave with "Irving" on it, and Washington's grave was right behind.We continued on to the church, with several lovely old trees along the way. We could have spent hours more in the old church yard, as each tomb stone was something interesting or unique. Unfortunately, it was closing for the night, and we had Super Storm Sandy on it's way.We crossed Rt 9 and continued on the back streets to Riverside Drive where we were parked. There was a nice view over the Hudson. The wind was picking up, but this was like the calm before the storm. Jamie showed me a picture her boyfriend John had sent her of Wildwood area, already under water from the storm hitting. It's amazing that we hiked all day with no rain at all.In fact, we drove all the way home with no rain as well. The storm wouldn't arrive to later Monday, and leave Jillane and I without power until later Saturday night the next week, but so many others have been out since, and as of this writing remain powerless. The storm curiously did not have much rain, and caused no flooding in our area, only to coastal towns. It is however the worst storm damage in terms of wind I have ever seen.Two weeks later, Jamie remains without power in Mt. Olive, an area usually less effected by such storms. Power companies and tree crews from just about anywhere east of the Mississippi (as I've seen anyway) came to NJ to help with cleanup and power restoration.