Hike #749; Shawangunk Cross Ridge

 Hike #749; Shawangunk Cross Ridge

1/20/13 Shawangunks: Jenny Lane to New Paltz with Brandan Jermyn, Jennifer Berndt, Justin Gurbisz, Cory Janusz, and Marcello Maiorani

The group on Old Minnewaska Road

Our next hike would be a point to point over the Shawangunk Ridge. I had been planning for a long time to connect the town of New Paltz with the previous hikes I'd done in the Gunks, and with no more snow in the forecast and minimal accumulation up there, I was ready to do it on shorter notice. I had off work for MLK Day, and so as I usually spend my holidays, I went hiking!

I only posted this hike, which I anticipated might be very difficult, on my Metrotrails group on Meetup.com, not the NY/NJ/PA hiking group that I also have permission to post through. I was glad to have a smaller group that could both move along fast and be up for some extra challenge.

We met at the Stop and Shop in New Paltz, on the east side of town in the morning, then shuttled to the Jenny Lane trailhead off of Rts 55 and 44 where we'd started the last Shawangunks loop we did last year. Only about a mile of this hike would be repeating what I'd already done, because by doing so we didn't have to pay an entrance fee to the parks.

We headed up the now pink blazed Jenny Lane Trail. The old rail that goes up the mountain, and crosses over the Sanders Kill Creek was  now pink blazed as an official trail, and what was a more difficult stream crossing now had giant rocks placed in them for stepping stones, though the third one was very loose. I think each one of us had a surprise when we stepped on it, and Brandan got the last shot at it, when it was most loose. We all made it without getting wet though.

Once at the top, I asked the group which way they'd like to go. We had the choice of taking the High Peter's Kill Trail which followed nearer to a cliff, or heading along the Awosting Falls Carriage Road to check out the falls, then take other trails from there. It seemed like we were overall more into the falls because come the Summer they might be dried  up. We headed across to a parking lot, then followed a connecting road out to a park entrance. Some lady was working the booth with an SUV running outside of it, but I don't even think she noticed us walking by. We turned left on Awosting Falls Carriage Road, which only had a slight layer of snow on it. There were some nice cascades along the Peters Kill to the left of us, and we soon reached a side path over to the top of Awosting Falls. It was quite beautiful, and high up. Justin of course got right up to the edge despite the ice. We found out by the time we reached the bottom that even if he fell he'd probably survive it because the water is deep enough, he just might be hurt, cold, and at least a little unhappy.

We made our way down hill along the carriage road, and the falls looked spectacular. It looked like a near perfect place to swim, though of course swimming is prohibited. We also checked out some ice caves that had formed because of rock overhangs to the right of the trail. We spent a little time climbing through those.

Awosting Falls Carriage Road changes names to Trapps Road when it enters the Mohonk Preserve, and we took a left turn on an unofficial trail that led us back out to Rt 44 and 55 across from the park office entrance road. We walked in here, stopped at the restrooms, then continued on the Red trail to the white blazed Bull Wheel Trail. This trail was actually more of a woods road as well at first. There was also I think a blue with yellow striped trail that intersected with it not shown on my map. Bull Wheel Trail remained as a woods road until we reached the height of the land where there were footings for what was probably at one time a tower. We headed down hill from here and the trail became a simple foot path.

It wasn't long before we reached the High Peter's Kill Trail. We turned right on this trail which led down hill over some nicely built stone steps. On the way down, I spotted an opening to the left of the trail that I thought might offer a good view. We went off trail a bit, and sure enough, there was a fantastic overlook from which we could see the extent of the ridge, and the Trapps across from us, as well as the gap the highway goes through on it's way over the ridge. We could also see Skytop, the rocky outcropping with the Smiley Memorial Tower on top of it in the distance. We didn't yet know that we'd be on top of that tower later.

We descended into an area of old stone rows and former pastures that we would soon learn were part of the Enderly family farmstead. The next thing we came across was the old Enderly family cemetery, last used in 1918 I believe. The trail ended at a parking lot just beyond here, and we crossed over Clove Road. There was a closed parking area and toll booth here as well, but no one around. On the other side of the road were more ruins of the Enderly family farm. The first was the foundation of their barn. The interpretive sign next to the foundation showed what it would have looked like, and I saw a well in the drawing off to the left of it. If that were done accurately, I thought, there might be an old well there. I went off trail a bit and sure enough found the round, stone lined well hole, though it's long been filed in with trees growing out of it.

We continued back to the opening and then passed the Enderly homestead site. I could also see some sort of ruin further off in the woods behind the home site, but didn't go over to look around. The creek, the Coxing Kill passed through a deep cleft in the rock with a small but lovely waterfall here. Justin approached and climbed down and around the thing in several locations, as well as onto a tree overhanging it.

From here, I gave the group another choice again. We could either take Old Minnewaska Trail which on the map appeared to be a foot path, or Shongum Trail which led to two carriage roads we could take. The others opted for the Old Minnewaska Trail, but this actually turned out to be a woods road for most of the way too. The entire thing was probably once a roadway connecting from the Mohonk Mountain House area, but it's been badly washed away at higher elevations so it appears more as a foot path. The lower end is very obviously a road, and where it crosses a creek there are abutments to where the bridge used to be. As we ascended, views opened up to the north of the next section of the ridge, sections called Ronde Barre and Rock Hill, and then soon after we began to get views of the Catskills to the north. I think the main peak we could see was Peekamoose Mountain. We also had a good view of the Clove Valley below us, which actually had a couple of private residences in it. We followed the trail to the Laurel Ledge Carriage Road.

Once on Laurel Ledge Road, we turned right. By this time, we were commenting on how the hike was nice, but far more relaxing than we'd anticipated. We passed some nice rock outcroppings, then remained on Laurel Ledge Road to the intersection with the Overcliff Carriage Road near it's end. We turned left on it across Rhododendron Bridge, a small stone structure, and then turned left on Old Minnewaska Road. This section went up hill, but even it was not all that bad. It led us to the Home Farm section of the Mohonk Preserve where we got a view out toward the Hudson Highlands. I pointed out that we could see the Twin Sentinels, Storm King Mountain and Breakneck Ridge where the Hudson passes through. Corey kept his eyes opened for wildlife, but there was surprisingly not very much save for a few deer at the home farm area.

From here, we could see clearly see the Smiley Memorial Tower on Skytop above us, directly ahead. We were going to be turning right to head down toward New Paltz, but we had enough time and so we voted to go check out the tower. Rather than make the right turn on Home Farm Road, we continued ahead, and then went straight on Lake Shore Road, then right on Forest Drive to reach Spring Path. There was a little building near the intersection of the path where we turned. The map showed "rough path" on the map, and we didn't think much of it. We continued on Spring Path to a right turn onto one of the "rough paths", which was marked with red arrows painted on the rocks to show the way. There was snow on the rocks which made it difficult to see some of them, but there were a few foot prints to show where to go. There was a sign strung across the start of the path saying this path was closed for the season, but we went anyway.

We reached an intersection where paths went left and right, we we continued on one straight, and Justin found the route ahead. It went directly up "The Crevice", a narrow cleft in the rocks with ladders all the way to the top! This was not what I was expecting to find. All the talk we'd had about how the hike was an overly easier route than we'd previously thought was made up for by this great trail. Justin went first, and then got off the ladder to take an insane route along a rocky ledge. I continued up ahead of him with the others following behind. There were sections where it was absolutely impossible to get through with a backpack on. I had to take it off and slide it on through the rocks ahead of me and then climb up.

The long crack we climbed through took us out atop a rock with fantastic views down the ridge to the south as well as to the Hudson Highlands and the river passage we saw down at the Home Farm area. From here, the trail went across a bridge over the crevice, then up through more rocky clefts to near Skytop Carriage Road. I ran over to an overlook called Odell Overlook for more views along the road, then came back to the trail which went up steps to reach the Albert K. Smiley Memorial Tower. Since I was running around looking at other things and taking pictures, and Corey was looking for wildlife, we were the last to get up the tower. The others were already at the top by the time we climbed there. There was a former swimming pool I believe at the top we could see, and views up and down the Shawangunk Ridge, which ends just to the north of here in Rosendale, and in every direction. It wasn't the clearest day but the views were great. The Mohonk Mountain House looked amazing from this point, and is one of the most historic hotels in the eastern US.

The main structure of the house was built between 1879 and 1910 by the twin Quaker brothers Albert and Alfred Smiley. The property has been owned and operated by descendants of the Smiley brothers since 1869. Unlike so many of the Catskill resorts to the north that either burned down or were torn down, this hotel retains all of it's grandeur and ambiance, and was just an outstanding sight to see. It's unfortunate that there are no rooms in this place for under $600 a night!

We made our way from the tower to find a way down other than the crazy ladders we came up on. We walked some of the Skytop Road, and then cut down from it on an informal path to a lower section of the road, past some bedded down deer. We then got on a rough path called Mohonk Trail which led toward the Mountain House, and then hit Reservoir Trail. We turned left on that, then right on Skytop Path by the pavilion and ice skating rink. We went down to the lake shore area, and checked out some nice overlooks of the Mountain House, then descended to Lake Shore Road. We turned left off of this onto Spring Path which took us back to where we had gotten onto the Crevice Trail.

Once back on Forest Road, we turned left and continued gradually down hill. We stayed on Forest Road until we reached the red blazed Duck Pond Trail. Although this sounded like the easiest trail, it was pretty rocky as it descended beside a branch of the Kleine Kill. The trail ended near the Duck Pond itself, and crossed Oakwood Drive along the way. We followed Klein Kill Farm Road from the lower end of the pond, and checked out the spillway area. There was a tunnel into the dam that Cory found, and so we checked it out. There were valves that opened the dam inside, but we didn't mess with them.

Along the woods road heading down stream along the Kleine Kill we passed some stone building ruins, and Justin of course had to climb to the top of the chimney. Cory climbed up to the fireplace. From here, we headed down hill, and turned right onto the Glory  Hill Trail, which someone had vandalized to say "Glory Hole Trail". We followed this trail down hill and across the Catskill Aqueduct, then headed down hill to more ruins.

There was an enclosed room made of concrete on top of the masonry structure ruins, and Justin climbed onto the edge, trying to get into the concrete room. He could do it, but getting back out would be much more difficult. Marcello said it best, that "we could find him another useless concrete cube".

We headed down hill toe Lenape Lane, an old farm road that is now one of the trails in Mohonk Preserve. The road descended out of woods to lovely farm lands, and then past a farmstead that looked vacant but also actively used, if that makes any sense. From here, we passed through completely opened fields with great views of the Shawangunk Ridge and Skytop with the tower behind us. The road continued out to Butterville Road, but we went a slight left to cross the road on a bridge, to what became the old Gate House Road.

The gate house road was paralleled by a newer gate house road off to the left, but this one was a nice gravel lane, an alley with trees lining both sides leading toward the spectacular gate house to the Mohonk Mountain House, which was erected to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the wedding of Albert and Eliza Smiley, by their guests according to the sign.

We continued from the gate house out to the end of the road, and turned left onto Rt 299. We headed along the road from here into New Paltz, and crossed over the Wallkill River on a through truss bridge. The Wallkill had still waters but was much wider than the sections I knew in NJ. It's an odd river, flowing south to north beginning around Ogdensburg. We soon crossed over the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail, which would be the subject of my next connective hike from here. The station was still standing and it appeared to be a well used trail.

The town is quite nice, and I'd been wanting to connect everything I'd done to here for some time. It was nice to reach this point, and nice to know I had only two more hikes to connect with where we'd left off in Kingston to the north. With those sections, I'll have hiked a connected route between almost every hike I've done as far north as Canajoharie NY. It's really great to have tangible dreams, and actually making them come true.