Hike #696; Southern Minnewaska StatePark

 Hike #696; Southern Minnewaska State Park Gunks Hike

4/28/12 Minnewaska Gunks Loop with Jillane Becker, Matthew Davis, Frank Meloi, Oscar Alvaredo, Brandan Jermyn, Stephen Argentina, Julie Valasquez, Lyz Hagenbuch, Ric Giantisco, Giuseppe Di Caro, Michele Valeroo, Daniel Yu, Tamara Sapilak, Tim Wood, Theodore Wright, Mike S?, Esra ?, Randy Salani, ?, Fernando ?, Bernie Fitzsimmons

Our next hike would be another connecting section on our way north into the Shawangunk Mountains. We had last left off on the northbound route through there at the High Point Trail section at the carriage way to Lake Maratanza. This hike, which went to 22 miles, a bit more than I had planned for, would be a nice loop a bit further north.

We met at Jenny Lane, a short abandoned road connecting the current route 55 and the Old Minnewaska Road. The lot ended up being very very small and could not hold everyone that showed up.

We ended up having to have Ted, Lyz, Ric, and maybe a few others park at the main lot and pay the entrance fee because we just couldn't fit everyone.

The rest of us followed Jenny Lane to the Old Minnewaska Road and followed it right past a nice big tree and former home site. It descended to cross the Sanders Kill, a small creek where the bridge for the old road was now missing. We crossed the spot and continued to ascend on the old road, which had obviously not been used in many years.

When the road came out to Rt 55, we crossed to a parking area at Lower Awosting Carriageway. The woods roads in Minnewaska are locally called Carriageways. Many of them as we understand were developed by the Smiley family when they ran the Mohonk Mountain House nearby.

After meeting up with the others in the group, we followed the Lower Awosting Carriageway a short distance, then turned left onto the Mossy Glen Trail, a lovely foot path that paralleled the carriageway for a while, then descended to cross the Peters Kill. We goofed off here for a bit, because a line had been put in place to assist hikers across using a log.

Once we were all on the other side, we continued on the foot path following Peters Kill up stream. It was amazingly beautiful, and the water simply slide gradually down hill on exposed flat rock faces. The trail often followed these rocks between sections of coming in and out of the woods.

We followed the trail to the intersection with the Blueberry Run Trail. A few of us went to the right briefly to view volunteers or workers building a new bridge over the creek to the north, then headed south, up hill to the green blazed Upper Awosting Carriageway. We turned right onto the carriageway for a ways, and came to an overlook of Rainbow Falls.

Rainbow Falls was actually a very small falls, like a spring cascading over a cliff face, but it was still quite beautiful. We went a little further beyond here, then turned left onto Rainbow Falls Trail which ascends steeply up the ridge with  more views that include the Burroughs Range of the Catskills.

The trail soon came to one of the most outstanding overlooks of the trip, the Litchfield Ledge. 180 degree views included Lake Awosting straight ahead, the Catskills to the right, and more of the Gunks and the Hudson Valley to the south and east. We took a nice break here. We found out that Frank and Julie kept going straight when we reached Upper Awosting Carriage Road, and followed Blueberry Run foot path beyond, so they had to go ahead, and didn't end up catching up with us, though they followed the same route behind us.

The route we were following was the old Long Path. Up until the end of 2012 it still was the Long Path, but the new route was moved onto the Mine Hole Trail further to the southwest, which Jillane and I hiked the last time we were in the Gunks.

We followed the trail to the Castle Point Carriageway, then turned right. The trail followed the base of Castle Point, which was outstanding. The vertical cliff faces towered above us as we followed the old roadway to the next intersection, Hamilton Point Carriageway. The trail, still the former Long Path almost crosses here, and became a foot path heading down hill.

The trail had some steep spots, but the best part was the cave. It passed through some narrow places in rock, and went under a big overhang, but then turned hard right and through a natural cave. It was quite tight, and we had to take our packs off to shove them through. On the other side, we crossed another path and continued to climb up hill rather steeply to where there were more overlooks.

Eventually, we came to Murray Hill, with great views to the east as well as back toward Castle Point. We could see both Storm King Mountain and Breakneck Ridge in the distance from up there. The trail took us to near the Awosting Carriageway, and Jillane opted to hold back and follow that. She'd meet us and cut a big corner we would be making by heading to Verkeerderkill Falls.

The trail continued away from Lake Awosting, then climbed a bit more, and descended to cross the outlet of Mud Pond, also known as  Haseco Lake, on puncheons. It then climbed to a bit of an overlook above Mud Pond. We followed more open ridge from here out to the intersection of High Point Trail, the new Long Path. Most former Long Path sections were painted over with new colors, but a few were missed.

Much of the group went ahead to see Verkeerderkill Falls, while the rest held back. Verkeerderkill would mean an out and back half mile distance more. The rest of us followed the High Point Trail section of the Long Path northwest. I'd done this section before, at dusk with Matt.

It was nice to see this section with more light. Bernie and I were making awesome time, and went way far ahead of the rest of the group. We could see them behind us making their way along the outstanding ledges. We continued and waited when we got to High Point on the trail. It's a nice spot with views both of the Catskills, and in all directions over the dwarfed pines and off to the Hudson Valley area.

Once we were all together and rested up, we followed  High Point Trail to the Berry Picker Trail, also now the Long Path route. We followed this trail to it's end, passing the view of the Catskills where there used to be a tower, then reached Smiley Carriage Road.

Here, we turned right to reach Four Mile Village site. I'd never followed this trail beyond this point, so on we went. It seemed like it went on forever. We crossed both Stony Kill and Little Stony Kill, as well as Fly Brook. There were ups and downs, and when we reached Fly Brook we could see where the piers to the former bridge were. There was also carving into the rock outcroppings as we headed into the valleys.

I went far enough ahead to meet up with Jillane. She wanted to show me something she'd found. It was an awesome old cabin.

We went up to the cabin and were checking it out, but little did I know that she'd had Frank and Julie wait inside to scare me when I got there! Quite funny. A lot of us checked out the old cabin before we moved on. It was hidden on an interesting side road.

We soon reached the Awosting Carriageway, and turned left along it. At the next intersection, those who joined the group from further up walked the Upper Awosting Carriage Road I think back to their cars, while the rest of us followed Lower Awosting Carriage Road, which was closed, up hill for a bit. When we got to the closed part, it didn't seem bad until we got to where it crosses Fly Brook. The old bridge had washed out badly, and there were large earth movers still there from the construction going on. We simply crossed the site, then turned left onto the Jenny Lane Trail. We had no problems.

Jenny Lane Trail ascended for a bit, but then mostly leveled off. One more trail, the other end of Blueberry Run trail intersected with it, and we continued on Jenny Lane Trail. It was a nice, easy gradual down hill from here to the end. We were all running low on water. I'd left my camel back with Jillane when she took the short cut, but then when I ran out of water I ended up drinking out of the streams. Fortunately I did not get sick. The water really is pretty clear.

Brandan has come a really long way since he started with us, handling almost the entire 22 miles with ease until the very end when he needed a bit of water and nourishment. We made our way down hill and across the Sanders Kill before coming out on Rt 55 right by the cars.

It was a brutal day, and it didn't really turn out the way I wanted it to keeping the group together, and with it being too many miles, but overall it was still really good. The scenery is absolutely amazing. I just wish I didn't have to be so responsible. I think the next time we do a hike up there, I will have to do a better job scaling things off, and arrange for the tough foot paths only in the morning with gentle carriage roads on the return trip only. I may also have to arrange for better carpools and more relaxing stuff like swimming. I'm confident that our next trip to the Gunks will be superior and a much better time.