Hike #1207; Poughkeepsie Area Loop

Hike #1207; Poughkeepsie Area Loop

3/17/19 Poughkeepsie Loop with Jillane Becker

This next one would be a big loop in Poughkeepsie NY with just Jillane and I.
I’d gotten tickets to a Chadwick Stokes show up in Woodstock, and we agreed to do a hike together the next day somewhere up in New York. Jillane mentioned she liked the Poughkeepsie area, and I’d already had a loop kind of ready that I’d been wanting to do.

Impromptu Dispatch show

We’d seen Chad Stokes several times, the first time being 2009 at Riverfusion where his band State Radio was playing. I immediately liked them, but didn’t realize at the time that he’d already fronted Dispatch, and we’d listened to their stuff when I was in high school.
At this point, we’d seen State Radio three times, Chad and the Pintos once, Dispatch twice, and then Chad, his brother Willy, and bandmate J.R. previously at Woodstock.
The show was at Levon Helm Studios, Helm’s former home and studio now open as a very small venue for shows. The intimate setting is among my favorite I’ve ever attended.
It ended up being a great night, because Brad Corrigan of Dispatch made a surprise appearance, making it a Dispatch show.

I ended up having a long conversation with J.R., both before and after the show, and had the opportunity to meet Brad as well. I’d already met Chad and Willy before, so it was really great. Brad grabbed me by path ends of my blazer and said “MAN this is a GREAT JACKET!”

I thought it was really cool how gracious these guys are with their fans, and I was further surprised when I posted it on my Instagram that night, and Brad commented back, “Best blazer in the house!” almost immediately.
The venue is already such a personal experience to be part of, but it was so much better for me. J.R., who performs on all of the Dispatch and Chad’s solo albums, was very open to talking and was telling me about how excited he was that he was going to get to play Levon’s drum set on this night.

Vassar College

Afterwards we chatted some more, and he told me about how he had put another skin over the drum with duct tape as a trick to give it a little bit more Motown sound. It was almost as if he knew based on our conversation that I appreciated Funk Bros. arrangements. It was really special.
Jillane and I headed that night to Poughkeepsie where I’d reserved a room at the Days Inn, at the Arlington section of town.

Vassar College

I always prefer when we stay somewhere to walk directly from the hotel we stayed in. To me, driving in the morning of a trip, after staying somewhere, is almost counterproductive to the relaxing type of experience I’d wanted to have. It also saves a lot of time driving around and trying to make things perfect. I knew this place was right where we wanted to be to do the loop I wanted to do.
I’d already hiked some of the Dutchess Rail Trail through Poughkeepsie, as well as the famous Walkway Over the Hudson, formerly the main railroad crossing of the Hudson.

Big tree at Vassar

Looking at the maps, I found that I could do a loop with much of this, as well as plenty of other things including the campus of the Vassar College, which also had an attached environmental preserve on it’s south end with a surprisingly large system of trails looping around.
I came up with a couple of options that I thought might be winners where we could start and finish right at the hotel.
We got up in the morning and I got us the breakfast from the front. I thought it was quite excellent. They had the waffle machine, which is always a popular thing to have anywhere, but also had a huge thing of scrambled eggs with a very generous amount of cheese in it. I ate way too much of all of it. A couple of waffles, and then completely stuffed myself on the cheesy eggs. I also grabbed as many of the cheese danish and apple or lemon breakfast claws I could and crammed them into my backpack (those breakfast claws lasted me until March 31st, believe it or not!).
We headed out, followed Rt 44 west a bit, then turned to the left through parking lots heading to the south, toward the Vassar College campus.

Vassar College

We came out to a circle at the intersections of Raymond Ave, Fulton Ave, and Collegeview Ave, where there were lots of little gentrified looking stores and such around.

Vassar College

We crossed the circle, and then entered the southeast side of it on a path into the huge campus of the Vassar College.
Beautiful, historic Vassar College Campus consists of over 1000 acres and 100 buildings of diverse architecture from Collegiate Gothic to International styles, and makes for lovely walking.
Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women after Elmira College. These were the first of the "Seven Sisters" colleges developed strictly for women, although today it is co-ed and within the national average.

Big Sycamore

Vassar is now considered on of the finest liberal arts colleges in America.
We headed along some open areas parallel with Raymond Ave, and passed by a couple of stately huge buildings. The campus also had a great collection of trees on it, some of them quite huge. One in particular impressed me where they had put the sidewalk around the outside of the tree rather than through it more directly.
There was a giant Sycamore I had to have a closer look at, because I was curious if it was actually a Sycamore or the similar looking London Plane Tree.

Thompson Library

There was hardly anyone walking around anywhere, which made wandering through this campus particularly peaceful.
We soon came across what I thought was a church, but then came to find it was the Perpendicular Gothic Style Frederick Thompson Memorial Library​, which at first looked more religious than collegiate.
The structure was built in 1905 with endowments by Mary Clark Thompson in memory of her husband, Frederick Ferris Thompson, a former Vassar trustee and benefactor.

Thompson Library

The library was substantially expanded upon in 1918 and 1924 at Thompson's bequest, and further expansions were made using her endowment as well as other donations.

Giant Sycamore

Every building and every tree seemed to have something special about it. I knew this campus would be something special going into it, but it definitely exceeded my expectations.

Vassar College

We passed over the main entrance to the college, which had a prestigious old gate house to the right. To the left of us, the handsome main building, which had wings similar to the old state hospitals of the time, stood stately to our east.
We continued south past the Francis Lehman Loeb art center, and then approached the lovely Vassar Chapel, which was built about 1904. This church structure is reportedly the largest place of worship in Poughkeepsie, made of beautiful masonry.

Historic postcard of the main building

We went through a walkway overhang at the chapel, and then passed around it’s east side.

The main building today

The next point of interest was a very odd lab building known as “The Bridge”. This was short for Bridge for Laboratory Sciences at Vassar College. It was an odd but practical structure completed in 2016 that serves both as a lab area and bridge over the Fonteyn Kill.

Bridge Laboratory

We passed under the bridge Laboratory, and then there was a trail going off to the left on a boardwalk along the wetlands of the Fonteyn Kill.

The entrance gate.

The wetland area is known as the Edith Roberts Ecological Laboratory.
Roberts was a professor at the college, and she requested the use of the land for a laboratory in 1919. Plantings began at the site in 1922.
“This type of laboratory will never be finished. Its very dynamic character makes this impossible”, said Roberts of this natural area. She retired from the college in 1949, and management of it ceased for a time.

1904 chapel

The boardwalk path is known as the Priscilla Bullit Collins Trail. It was constructed in 1994, and the land was again maintained with the removal of invasive species. Today, the site is a study area on how to manage creeks in urban settings. The runoff from the developed areas is a major issue for water quality, and it’s great there is someplace like this.
We continued ahead on the boardwalk with it’s information signs and such.

The boardwalk

The trail broke off in a couple of different directions, and we continued on the straightest one out to a paved path that led left further into the campus or right into the south parking lot.

The main building

We turned to the right and headed up steps. The boardwalk trail’s other fork came out to the right of us. We headed then across the big parking lot heading to the south.

The chapel

We passed through an opening in a stone wall after a section of lawn that brought us back out to Raymond Avenue. We headed shortly to the south from here and reached New Hackensack Road, Rt 376. We crossed that directly and continued along Vassar Farm Lane to the south a bit, with some buildings around, as well as one old house to the left.
This farm preserve section of the campus is over 400 acres of very diverse habitat from agriculture, uplands, hardwood forest, stream side, swamps, and more.

Chapel

We headed down hill to a beautiful little pond where the Casper Kill Creek is impounded. The trail turns to the right there and passes over it by way of a little causeway.

Vassar

We headed over the pond and into a section of woods. I can’t quite figure out the names of the trails based on the map because their color coding on it based on what is actually on the ground is crap. The trails were easy to follow though overall.
Once across the Casper Kill, we turned right on a trail that passed above the water impoundment, and there was a piece of old farm equipment. This area had a lot of little berms that reminded me of something I’d seen on the Palisades just below Piermont NY.

The bridge lab

This section of woods and trail high above a tributary to the Casper Kill in Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve was where a settling field was constructed above the creek to deal with waste water. Proposed by 1870 Vassar graduate and water chemistry expert Ellen Swallow Richards, it was considered an innovation at the time. Prior to this, waste was let into the Casper Kill. It’s just another example of Vassar taking the lead in innovative environmental improvements of area tributaries.

The boardwalk

We followed the old retention areas, then weaved back around to the south, close to an open field and to where we could see some of the private homes on the west side of the preserve.
We passed a trail intersection that goes right back to the causeway, and continued straight a bit. We had to cross a small tributary, and then took a break in a wooded section that had a lot of puncheons over the ground in wet areas. Jillane shed some layers because it was getting a bit warmer here, and we took a short break.

The boardwalk

We continued along the trail from here to the south, which took us up hill a bit more, but through some pretty wet areas. After we reached more elevation, the mud stopped.

The boardwalk

It was a nice hillside, and once we reached the south end of it, there were some seasonal views through the trees to the open meadow lands to the east of us. The trail descended from there to reach an intersection. We turned hard right to begin a gradual descent on a hill slope to the south.
From here, the trail started to follow the base of a steeper slope with private homes at their top to the west, our right. In this section, we came upon an interesting spot where there was a set of long stone steps coming down hill.

Casper Kill Pond

Next to it, there was a circular stone lined little well area. I figure this was probably some kind of old well source or something, but I cant’ tell for sure.

Causeway

The entire area is just to the north of some sort of water facility from what I could find on Google maps, so maybe it was associated with that.
It’s certainly private at this point, because the whole thing, steps and all, were surrounded by electric fences. They probably weren’t working because I saw trees down over some sections of it, but they clearly don’t want anyone going in there. These electric fences used to continue on further, because I could see the conduits on old posts along the slope as we continued south.

The area where the sewage innovations took place

We continued along the base of the slope to an intersection, where one trail continues south to an access near the aforementioned water department land. My plan from here was to head to the east on the same trail system, rather than walk nearby roads.
We took another little break here, and I spotted a single stone pillar that appears to have been the entrance to some sort of estate or something. There was a recess in the stone that might have once housed a plaque or a name badge of sorts. I can’t be sure.

Old farm equipment

We turned to the left and followed the trail down hill into a more sparse area and crossed a utility right of way. Then, we headed further down and reached a large beaver dam across the Casper Kill, as well as foot bridges which take the trail over the same. This was quite an impressive little area.
We crossed the bridges, and then made our way through a somewhat wet area before the trail entered another more mature woods on a steeper slope above the Casper Kill.

Puncheon

The impounded water was still in view, and Black Maples were on the hillside. I showed Jillane how to tell the difference between Black, Sugar, and Norway Maples..

Wetlands

Sugar and Black Maples are often considered the same species. They can both be tapped for syrup. They are very close in look, but the black maple has three lobes on it’s leaves while the sugar has five.
Norway also has five lobes, but they often appear more pointy, somewhat darker, and the bark is scaly, while the sugar and black maples have more rigid.
We continued along this slope, and there was a large impressive old tree standing dead along the wetland. There were actually several dead old trees throughout the area.

Seasonal view

We crossed a foot bridge over a branch of the Casper Kill, and reached a trail intersection.
We had to choose at this point if we wanted to remain in the preserve heading north, or do a bit of road walking to the rail trail to the east. Jillane preferred we stayed in the preserve, and I’m glad she did. It was much better than what the other way would have been. We continued then to the north along the Casper Kill in hardwood forest.

Seasonal view

We crossed Casper Kill again on a foot bridge in a very pleasant little area, and then came out on a woods road clearing. Somewhere in this area, we lost the official trail.
We continued following the woods road clearing to the north, which took us out quite close to a road known as Zack’s Way.
By this point, I’d figured out that we had lost the trail, known as Wright’s Trail. It was still up hill from us.

The steps and stone pool

The confusing trail colors were bad enough, but this one was not marked where we should have turned. We ended up having to go to the clearing at the end of the road and bushwhack.

Stone lined pool

It wasn’t too terrible; we followed a deer run and got back on the Wright Trail, which in this area was much more improved than where we’d left it. The entire route was wider and had wood chips laid as a base.
The trail meandered through the woods, then through an open meadow area, followed by more woods again. It dipped down and crossed over a prominent spring, then headed up hill to reach a clearing where it turned right along an active sort of farm area. I didn’t want to continue out and around where we’d come from, so we turned right to skirt the farm lands on their east side.

Old entrance block

We left the main trail system of the farm area at this point.
After walking all of it, I now realize that we started on the causeway on Swain Trail, went right on North Trail, continued south from there on Swain Trail again, turned right on Drumlin Trail, turned right on Helen Johnston Woodworth Memorial Trail, then picked up Wright Trail.
When we got to the north side of the farm area, there were people and two trucks at the buildings. I didn’t want to bother them, so looked for a route to the east.

Wetlands of Casper Kill

The Casper Kill was down below us to the east, and it looked like an expansive wetland save for one area just to the north through the woods where we could probably cross over. I cut down through the initial briars, then more easily through woods toward the Casper Kill. It good a little weedy again, but I found a good narrow spot where I was expecting to find it. I could get over it not too terribly, but grabbed a large branch and pulled it across for Jillane.

Casper Kill wetlands

Once I got across, Jillane went to the wider wetlands to try to find a way over. There really wasn’t a good way, but she managed to jump between bases of trees.

The wetlands

She got almost out to Zack’s Lane, but there was just too large a gap missing for the last bit without getting wet. I walked back to the spot that I’d crossed, and dragged the big branch out of the woods and back down Zack’s Lane, then threw it over to her so she could cross this spot on that.
Once over, we took a break near a man hole cover just off of the road’s other side. It was only a short distance from that point to the intersection with Route 376/New Hackensack Road where we could climb down to the next trail.

The wetlands

We made our way to the north, and then I found a somewhat worn path along the road heading down to the Casper Kill.
This trail wasn’t prominent like the other ones. It’s not maintained, probably not official, but it was visible on google maps.
I found a spot where there was a little foot bridge over some water, and then a bit of a clearing through high grasses that would get us through an opening. It was much clearer on the other side. We started walking from here to the north along the Casper Kill.

A nice boardwalk along Casper Kill

The trail terminated at the dam of Sunset Lake, which is part of the Vassar College campus.

Boardwalk

I took a couple of photos of it, and then cut to the right on the other side. We headed up hill from the lake through grassy areas toward the Vassar Golf Course. There were some nice benches and a good view to the lake in the area.
I dropped my camera somehow on this slope, and only realized it when I got to the top, so I had to retrace my steps to go back and find it. Fortunately it wasn’t too hard, and we headed back to the top of the hill.

Casper Kill wetlands

At the near top, there was a weird concrete bench made of natural materials by one class, I forget which year. There was a little plaque in the ground I should have taken a photo of. We took a little break here.
I think it had something to do with the moon, or was supposed to have something to do with a moonscape, as it was on the road to the Class of 1951 Observatory. We left here to head to the east across the golf course.

Casper Kill Wetlands

The day wasn’t all that cold, but there was no one out playing. It’s probably not open yet for the season. No one told us not to be out there either. We kept to the southeast side of the course, and then headed slightly north past their maintenance building.

Wetlands

From there, we headed to the far northeast corner of the course. There was a sort of draining cut from a natural spring just inside the woods back there, which bubbled straight up out of the ground in a little pool. We went into the woods there, and then around the pool heading sort of east. I should have continued around through the course just a little bit more, because we soon came to the old woods road that used to continue through.

Wetlands

It had been my hope that we could get from this woods road directly out to Manchester Road, Route 55, and then walk up to the railroad bed, but when we followed this good road almost to that point, there was no good connection out.
We ended up cutting back to the west a bit, which took us behind the houses of a development.
There was no good way of getting out. Several of these houses had their own accesses to this road, but I wouldn’t dare try to go out through someone’s yard.

Wetlands

After passing behind several houses, the woods road emerged near the other end of the golf course again, at the dead end of Thelberg Road. We continued from here along the road heading to the west.
We ended up walking this road pretty much all the way out to Manchester Road. From there, we headed to the right, and dashed across when traffic wasn’t too bad. We continued on this road to the east, past a pond at the entrance to another development, and then turned to the left on Manchester Circle.

Casper Kill

There was a Stewart’s shop there on the corner, and we decided to stop and get some food there.
There was actually a pretty good selection in this one. There was some sort of mac and cheese thing, and soups and such as I recall. I think I was ready to eat something at this point, but I don’t remember what I had.
Jillane got a couple of different little things that were pretty good. There was so much stuff it was kind of hard to decide what to go for. We had a seat in one of the booths and enjoyed a pretty good break.

Art bench on the way

From this point, we headed out and further up Manchester Circle toward the railroad bed. This turned out to be a good way to go, because it had an informal path at the bend in the road, just past a place with some trailers, which took us right up to it.
The route is now the Dutchess Rail Trail.
This section was originally part of the Dutchess County Railroad, which built southeast from the Highland-Poughkeepsie Bridge to Hopewell Junction where it made direct connection with the New York and New England Railroad, giving that line access to the Hudson crossing.

Casper Kill Bridge

These railroad connections were among the most important in American railroad history, because prior to this, slow car float operations ferried trains across the Hudson.
There was an earlier plan for a railroad to be built across the Hudson at about the point of the present day Bear Mountain Bridge, but it never materialized, and little work was done (although there was reportedly part of a tunnel dug through).

Casper Kill Bridge

The Poughkeepsie span was chartered in 1871, and the first train rolled over it on December 29th, 1888.
The bridge was a pinch point. It was relied upon by all of those railroads we’ve hiked that siphoned in to the Hudson. The New Haven Railroad and it’s predecessors relied on the bridge from Hartford and areas east, and the lines we had followed for years, such as the Lehigh and Hudson River and Lehigh and New England made connections to this bridge via the Maybrook Line.

Puncheons

After the mergers and the formation of Penn-Central, the bridge was burned by an arsonist on May 8th of 1974. Many people believe it was the railroad company itself, because Penn Central had a competitor in the Erie-Lackawanna which used it also.
After the fire, about seven hundred feet of the bridge was wrecked. Tracks and ties were removed from that part because pieces were falling below.

Wright's Trail

The bridge never re-opened for rail service, and spelled the end for the Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad. It also led to the removal of the former Dutchess County Railroad and it’s bridges in 1983, and the Maybrook connection on the west side as well.
The bridge opened to pedestrian traffic in 2009, at which time it was the longest pedestrian bridge in the world. It has since been surpassed, be believe by a foot bridge in Russia.

Frog listening station

We started walking the trail to the northwest. The pavement is really rough on the legs, so I often went off of it and followed through on the parallel grass.

Dutchess Rail Trail

We soon descended to where there used to be a bridge and passed parking at Overocker Road. We continued north and passed under Route 44.
This area was known as Brickyard Hill, in the section of Poughkeepsie known as Arlington.
In the 1790s, there was just a swamp in this area where the Casper Kill flowed through. By the early 1800s, clay mining and brick manufacturing had taken over most of the swamp lands. Brickyard Hill was originally the Rogers Farm.

Wrights Trail

Carbofrax bricks, made with carborendum, which included silica, were produced here, and good for making high stress bricks such as those used to line kilns.
The different brick manufacturers at the site produced 4.5 million bricks per year.
The last brick undustry in the area here closed in the 1940s.
Also at about the point of the brick yard property, the earlier 1992 alignment of the New York and New England Railway broke off of the later route to the right. I’d missed it the previous time here.

The original rail grade

There were some cat colonies along the edge of the trail, and we saw a pretty long haired one a short distance off. All were too scared to accept attention.

Kitty

The last time I was out in this area, I had missed a lot of the earlier alignment of the railroad below. Google maps shows it as if it’s a secondary, parallel trail, so I wanted to try to follow it.
When we got up on a fill, the lead in to the crossing of the Casper Kill, I decided to bushwhack down and see if I could get on the older grade.
I certainly found it. Where I got on it, it was very obvious, but it was most certainly NOT a trail yet. It was pretty badly overgrown, but I could still get through at first.

The old grade

Soon, the right of way became completely mined away. Either it was washed away or used by the newer railroad for it’s fill dirt. I could see where it was supposed to go, but not much left.

The old rail bed

I bullied through the stuff as best I could, and the fill started to appear again briefly, but not for long. By the time I got closer to the later grade, there was nothing left of it save for a tiny berm. There was also no sign of an earlier crossing of the Casper Kill that I could see.
On the other side of the crossing, there was a recycling center built over where it would have been I think. I climbed back up, which was a chore and a half at this point because the fill was so steep and high compared to where I went down.

The old grade

Jillane got ahead of me while I was screwing around below, and I caught up on the fill beyond. We crossed Van Wagner Road and took a break on a bench on the other side. I took the time to run to the top of a hill adjacent to the railroad to get the view.
It was pretty nice. I came back down and we headed to the west.
The next crossing ahead from here was the “CP Grand” light crossing. It’s a well restored old signal light from the crossing.

The view from the hill I ran up

We continued ahead through a section of woods that switched from cut to fill.

The old rail grade approaching Casper Kill

Soon, we crossed the Salt Point Turnpike. Some of the railroads that ran to the Poughkeepsie Bridge passed through Salt Point, but many of these were abandoned early on. The first one, the Poughkeepsie and Connecticut, was abandoned in 1910, and the others in that area were all abandoned by the late 1930s I believe.
The rail bed remained on a good height fill, higher up than the original 1892 right of way to the east. To the north of us was the lovely St. Peters Cemetery.

Dutchess Rail Trail

The cemetery had a giant cross in it, and Jillane was interested in it. I remembered reading about it in the past, about the park style cemeteries, but couldn’t remember it all. Fortunately, there was a kiosk there that told us about some of it.
The St. Peters Cemetery was an example of a “rural” or “garden” cemetery. By the mid 1800s, burial space was getting scarce, and so new cemeteries were designed as civic institutions, really the first area parks, where people could go and enjoy nature among the monuments.

Dutchess Rail Trail

St. Peters Cemetery was founded in 1853 by Father Michael Riordan (maybe relation of Red Sean), and had the world’s largest Celtic cross at one time.
We moved ahead, and sooon reached the crossing of the Fallkill. This creek had a bridge abutment further down below us, more of the original 1892 New York and New England Railway route.
When we crossed the Fallkill, we were crossing both the New York and New England Railroad, as well as the Poughkeepsie and Eastern, which closely paralleled one another.

Morgan Lake

A lot of this merits much further exploration, because there are a lot of parks along the way that would make them pretty well accessible.
We continued across the Fallkill, and then crossed over Creek Road. Just after this, we reached the lovely little outlook point over Morgan Lake Park.
We headed on to pass beneath Route 9G, and then at grade over Buckingham Ave. We continued and crossed Fairview Ave on a bridge, and the fill began on the approach to the bridge over the Hudson.
Just ahead, we crossed a cleared CSX right of way on a decked bridge. I had assumed that this was anotehr railroad the last time I was up, but wasn’t completely sure. I know now that this was the “Hospital Branch”, which served the Hudson River State Hospital. The facility was in operation from the 1870s (first patients were accepted in 1871 long before grounds were complete), and closed in the early 2000s.

Dutchess Rail Trail

I’ve never explored the facility, but seen it from afar and on maps.
A lot of it is supposed to be saved for it’s amazing architecture, which I’ve been following to some extent online. I don’t have high hopes for these facilities however due to past experience.
We walked on ahead, and soon came to the main parking area for the Walkway Over the Hudson. I was originally planning that we would cross this, and then come back across on the Mid Hudson Bridge, but by this time, we’d covered more than anticipated ground.

Dutchess Rail Trail

We would be able to turn back just about anywhere from the bridge, and then still make at least fifteen miles heading back. I had another route I wanted to follow anyway.
When we reached the lot, construction was still under way for the new railroad station like visitor center they were putting in on the east side of the bridge. Ground had just broken the last time I visited the site. We had to go around it to the left. We took a break at the fence lines, where there was a cop sitting there guarding, while Jillane put some layers back on.

The rural cemetery cross

It was getting quite a bit colder, and the sun was beginning to go down. I wanted to reach the bridge just before that happened, because I had several historic photos to compare.

Morgan Lake Park

I had a few photos taken by a man named Austin McEntee of the railroad before it was turned into a trail, and so I wanted to try to get now versions to match his then shots.

Hospital Branch view

Jillane took a break, and I headed toward the front of the bridge. They were starting to get ready to close it for the evening, so I was worried about making it on time earlier.
It turns out it didn’t matter at all anyway, because the photos I wanted the comparisons of were all taken from the west side of the bridge. I’d have to make another visit anyway. I felt a little upset about this, because these historic photos feel like they’re burning a hole in my phone at ties. I keep them saved there until I can finally get those comparisons, and who knows how long it will be before I find myself in Poughkeepsie again.

Underpass

I didn’t let it bother me for too long. I went back, and we headed the direction we’d come, around the fences, and then to the parking lot.
There, there was a spur railroad that used to break off to the right, which connected to the Hospital Branch. I could tell by the maps that it used to continue on a bit further, but I didn’t know to where or why. All I knew was that it looked clear, and that the first bit was now trail.

Underpass

It turned out that this line was farm ore substantial than I had previously thought.
This was the right of way of the Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railroad, which was first chartered in 1866 to connect the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie to Ancram in Columbia County, and then to the Connecticut state line to make connection with the Connecticut Western Railroad. The line was opened in 1871, but did not receive the success that was anticipated.

Looking from junction with former Poughkeepsie and Eastern

The railroad went through a receivership a number of times, and was renamed, taken over by other lines, but never seemed to find much success.
In 1907, it was taken over by the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, and merged it into the Central New England Railway.
The Central New England Railway was a former rival, which already had built a closely parallel railroad known as the Poughkeepsie and Connecticut Railroad because the former refused to sell.

Approaching Walkway Over the Hudson

The parallel line was installed in the 1880s, and the Poughkeepsie and Connecticut was abandoned starting in 1910. The northern portion of the line remained in service when Poughkeepsie and Eastern’s northern section was abandoned in 1925, but both lines were abandoned at that point in 1932. The remainder of the Poughkeepsie and Eastern line was abandoned in 1938, save for the stub in Poughkeepsie that apparently survived many years later as a short industrial spur.

Walkway over the Hudson

I started looking at the maps after the hike was oven, and I realized that both of these competing railroads either connected with or crossed the right of way we had been following.
The Poughkeepsie and Connecticut connected with the Dutchess Railroad just to the east side of Morgan Lake, as per the historic maps. The Poughkeepsie and Eastern passed beneath the Dutchess Railroad just on the west side of the rural cemetery we stopped and admired just a couple of miles back.

Dutchess Rail Trail

I had not noticed another right of way in this area, although I was aware that one existed at some point. I just didn’t know how substantial it was.
We descended from the old Maybrook line and followed the paved right of way down to cross Parker Avenue. The paved trail continued a short distance to another crossing of Garden Street. To the left of this point, the Hospital Branch went to the north, left, and we could see where it passed beneath the trail where we’d seen it from before.

The rail bed approaching Hospital Branch

The main route however turned to the right, now no longer paved, onto a right of way owned by CSX today.
We turned to the right to continue on the old main line of the Poughkeepsie and Eastern, and skirted the edge of the Fall Kill briefly. To the left of us was the barbed wire topped walls of the Dutchess County Jail.
The right of way had one tree fallen across it, which we crossed and reached Hamilton Street.

Poughkeepsie and Eastern

The rail bed from there was clear to an underpass of the next road, Clinton Street. It was fenced off so we couldn’t get under, so we followed a path that went up to the street to the left. We tuen turned to the right.

Poughkeepsie and Eastern bed

Ahead, the right of way was flooded out and looked like shit. We decided to just follow parallel roads as best we could from here.
We turned right over to Cottage Street and turned to the left. There was music blasting in the rather rough looking neighborhood, but the only people we really saw around were people wearing their St. Patrick’s Day green stuff. We walked by the Blue Collar Brewery, which the railroad used to go behind, and continued down Cottage through a neighborhood with industrial stuff on the left, and homes on the right.

Weird wall we passed...

We turned right before reaching the Fall Creek, on Winnikee Ave. We followed this to Mansion Street and turned to the left.

King Street Park

The houses through this area were really interesting. They were all standard three stories rather than two, with the types of windows that jut out and overhang a bit.

Poughkeepsie and Eastern

They all must have been built around the same time, maybe by the same architects or developers.
Mansion Street led out to Corlies Avenue, and directly across was King Street Park. My plan was to cut across this at an angle to get out to the intersection of King Street and Innis Ave.
I went up hill steeply in the park, and then cut to the right. The topography of it was rather surprising, because it went up and down so much. I then cut across a tennis court by walking through the openings in the fences on both ends.

Looking toward Walkway Over the Hudson

Jillane had walked up the street as if to follow the road around, but then cut through. She didn’t go the way I did, and I went back where she decided to take a break on a bench.
The area was quite pretty, with two trees growing close together providing a lovely view as the sun set. We were at a higher elevation now, which made it easier to appreciate.
At this point, we were much closer to the hotel where my van was. We didn’t have to push too hard.

Poughkeepsie and Eastern

We turned to the right on Innis Street and headed gradually downhill to cross the East-West Arerial, then continued to the Rite Aid on the left. We crossed the lot and then turned to the left to follow along Main Street.
We were both hungry at this point, and we were passing places to eat. There was both a Taco Bell, always hard to resist, as well as a KFC. Jillane couldn’t decide if she wanted one of these or something else. We opted to just move on, and we could come back if we wanted.

Poughkeepsie and Eastern

We turned to the right when we got to Raymond Ave, passed between some buildings, stepped down through some weeds between parking lots, and then came out to Route 44 from which we could see the Days Inn.
We headed over, and there was a Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen across from it. I’d never eaten at one of those, although it sounds somewhat interesting. We walked over and looked in the windows from outside trying to decide whether we wanted to go in, when Jillane remembered the more upscale looking neighborhood and eateries we’d passed closer to the college.

Junction with the Hospital Branch

We opted to head over there to see what we could find.
There was a place that sold burritos, which were were first inclined to get, but there was really no seating, so we instead went a door or two down to a burger place called BurgerFi. It was actually quite good, and we were on our way home after.
I could do an almost entirely different variation of this hike in the future. There’s just so much else to see out there, and I’ll certainly have to one day come back and look for remnants of the other railroads, as well as do the waterfront walkways, and the Mid Hudson Bridge.

Postcard of the Poughkeepsie bridge

HAM