Hike #1264; Finger Lakes Trail; Holiday Brook to Downsville

Hike #1264; Finger Lakes Trail: Holiday Brook Rd to Downsville

10/14/19 Finger Lakes Trail; Holiday/Berry Brook Rd to Downsville with Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Brittany Audrey, and Annika Krystyna

This next hike would be another point to point, and another far away one, the next in the Finger Lakes Trail series, which I haven’t gotten back to in a couple of years.

Finger Lakes Trail at the power line at the start

This hike took place in the seldom considered western Catskills. It’s not into what I sometimes call more redneck Catskills. It’s still forest preserve lands, but further to the west of the more popular Catskill Forest Preserve. But it is at the extreme end of that.
The Catskills are known for the high peaks and extreme ups and downs. This one would not be quite as hard as that. There were ups and downs, and it was a good workout, but it was overall quite a pleasant trip.
The last time we had been out in this section, it was only Tim Kovich, Sandy Westermann, and I wandering through from the last place we’d left off at Alder Lake to the Holiday/Berry Brook Road lot. We really enjoyed the section and it’s seclusion.

Ascending...

This section would be quite similar. There were no other hikers we passed the entire day on it. The linear route had few other side trails and access points, and only one road crossing save for the little bit of road walking at the very end, which was quite lovely.
The meeting point was our end point, in downtown Downsville NY.
There was a nice little store where we could stock up on our supplies for the day. I got myself a delicious Italian sandwich and some Flying Dog Double Dog IPA, as well as some pepperjack cheese.

On the way up

We shuttled to the start in my van. Aaron Young was supposed to come out and meet us, and said his ETA was about 10. I gave him the meeting point, but had no service any time throughout the entire day after getting up there.

Lovely trail through hay ferns

I found out from him later that he changes his ETA to 10.45. I left him a note on my van at what the next road crossing would be, but it was as I left it, so I don’t think he ever found the right place or got it. We did wait for him for a while, but there was no way of knowing when he would arrive, and we simply could not be waiting for him for another 45 minutes with a difficult traverse. The meeting time after all was supposed to be 9 am in Downsville.

Trail intersection, beat sign

The Finger Lakes Trail is an incredible route, hundreds of miles long with all of it’s official side trails. It connects from the height of the Catskills by Slide Mountain all the way to Allegheny National Forest out at the Pennsylvania boundary, in the western part of the state.
On it’s route through the Catskills, it is much superimposed onto other trails. At this start point, it was part of the red DEC tag blazed Mary Smith Trail.
We started walking from the lot after I changed from my pants into shorts. I didn’t want to make the same mistake I’d made in Connecticut and be sweating my ass off all day. I was very glad I went with the lighter layers, because it would have been miserable any other way.

Heading down...

The trail crossed the road we were parked on, and then crossed a power line clearing before starting it’s climb of a peak that doesn’t appear to have a name on any of the maps.
We passed some nice rock formations, and then reached the top, after which the first point of references from my map was the intersection with the Pelnor Hollow Trail.
There was a nicely painted and bold sign pointed to all of the directions from there except the direction we were going. That was a busted ass looking wooden one that looked a decade older than the other couple of posts. I figured that was a sign of the kind of trail we would be following.

Heading down...

From here, the trail started to descend a little bit, through some interesting little rock formations. The leaves made it a bit slippery to pass on through, but we did fine.
From the top of this knoll at Pelnor Hollow, the Finger Lakes Trail is superimposed onto the Campbell Mountain Trail, which is blue blazed. The trail blazing doesn’t make a lot of sense in the Catskills, because they try to have all northbound trails and southbound trails blazed the same color. We were clearly going westbound the entire time, so it’s just a screwball thing.

Descending by rocks...

I remember Ed Goodell from the NY NJ Trail Conference once telling me that he tried to talk some sense into the people up there with regard to blazing, and they just were not interested in listening. Sounds like typical government.
The next point of interest, after heading down a little bit, was the Split Rock Lookout. There was a giant split rock at the end of it, which I could have jumped over to get to the far side of, but I didn’t feel like taking my pack off or putting that much effort out. I had a good enough view from the other side of it anyway.

Split Rock Lookout

The view was heading to the west, toward the next mountain we would be climbing, Brock Mountain. From a distance, these peaks look far more imposing than they actually are when we’re heading up them. We stopped and took a little break here at the view.
I tried my phone again there, since we were still up pretty high, and I was getting nothing.
We headed down hill from here on the foot path, and passed through what looked like a lovely plantation of evergreens. Soon after the trail leveled off a bit, we reached the intersection with the Little Spring Brook Connector Trail.

View from Split Rock Lookout to Brock Mountain

The trail turned to the right here, where there was a really beat looking sign, worse than at the previous trail junction. The trail turned right along some nice old stone rows.

At the overlook

The route was the long abandoned former route of Little Spring Brook Road, which to the north becomes Berg Brook Road. We passed by the stone walls, and the trail turned to the left between them after descending just a bit. It then continued through more woods with both the blue foot path discs for marking, as well as orange snowmobile trail markers.
I found it curious that the trail would allow snowmobiles through this area, because it was still pretty rugged. Sections of the trail were obviously on old woods roads, but other sections were simple foot path that would be rough with any vehicle.

Brock Mountain from Split Rock Overlook

The trail followed the north edge of Brock Mountain, and then began to climb it more steeply. As we started getting toward the height of the climb, we passed through an area of much more dense undergrowth. Through much of this region, we could just easily walk off trail and be alright, because there’s not much undergrowth. This part had a bit of an open canopy.
Once we were through it, we actually had a pretty good view back toward the previous peak we had climbed.

View from Brock Mountain

We continued through the woods, and somewhere in here we reached a bivouac site where there was a fire ring and a nice flat rock. We decided to stop there and have a lunch break.

View east from Brock Mountain

It was a pretty good break spot, but at this point we were near the top and didn’t have much more before things would get easier. I do recall it being a bit more of a climb than anticipated after the bivouac site.
We continued up over the top of Brock Mountain, and the trail was overall pretty easy. The descent down the other side wasn’t so bad either, until we got toward the end and it was a bit steeper.
Annika said she saw something beyond a stone wall that looked like a big stone coffin, but figured that we were so far in the middle of nowhere that it couldn’t be, but then when she caught up with the rest of us, we were almost to Cat Hollow Road, Rt 206.
There was an old foundation along the trail here just before coming out to the paved road, the only place we would do so for the entire hike. There was no sign of Aaron there, despite the fact that I told him this would be the only road crossing of the day.

View to Campbell Mountain

We continued across, and the trail followed an old woods road at an angle down hill form the highway. I signed the trail register before heading down.
Once at the bottom, there were some old stone foundations. One of them at first I thought was a cemetery, because of how the wall looked, but then it was too flat with some rocks strewn about on top, so I figured it must have been a foundation. There was a spring right by it, and the trail weaved around to the right.
We moved through the woods, and there as more evidence of some kind of settlement there in Cat Hollow. I spotted another old building site well off to the right, but didn’t bother to go through some of the wetland to find it that time.

Ruins in Cat Hollow

The trail took us ahead to a very substantial foot bridge over the brook that passed through. I’m not sure the name of it. The bridge looked like it was situated at a weird angle, like it was broken somewhere. Once on the other side, the trail turned to the left and started to ascend gradually.
It was never too tough. This next ascent we could see from a distance looked somewhat high, but it wasn’t too bad. Campbell Mountain, which this section of trail was named for, was traversed first from the north side by way of mostly old woods roads. The snowmobile trail was still superimposed onto it.

Foot bridge on Finger Lakes/Campbell Mountain Trail

The trail started to gradually climb on a woods road, and then turned off to the left to go up hill more steeply. At a point near a bend, there was a path to the left that led down to the Campbell Mountain Lean To, a nice shelter really in the middle of nowhere with a privy.

Campbell Mountain Lean To

We had a nice long break at the shelter, because by this time we were actually doing pretty well. We had covered a lot of distance, and we were almost to the point where the Finger Lakes Trail turned away from the Campbell Mountain Trail on it’s way to Downsville.
After a little while, we headed back up hill along Campbell Mountain. It was pretty near the top by the time the Finger Lakes Trail turned off to the right. There was a white “FLT” disc on the tree there, and it did continue on an orange blazed snowmobile trail, so we saw more blazes from those than anything else.
The trail followed a woods road for much of the distance. It was just a little used and narrow route for a while, but then all of a sudden opened up into something more substantial.

Along Finger Lakes Trail

The area was really pretty. There were some open areas where the blue of the sky shone through in weird little sections of meadows. This was such a peaceful area.

Finger Lakes Trail

The trail made it’s way to the edge of a steep spot, and then weaved hard to the left. There were always more woods roads coming in through this area, which made it at times hard to figure out where we should be going.

Sing to Downsville

The trail started losing some elevation after a couple of the little peaks of Campbell Mountain. It then left the property of Delaware Wild Forest, which we were in for the majority of the entire hike.
For a bit, it passed through a sort of open area where there were woods roads coming in from all directions. We entered a bit of woods again where there was a wooden sign pointing us toward Downsville. The trail then went back into state land again for a little while.
The route took us along another woods road section ahead, and between some interesting little rock outcroppings. After a bit of time, the trail emerged at a meadow that seemed very out of place on the mountain side. I didn’t see trail blazes, but they apparently went up hill along the meadow to the left. We walked through the meadow on an obvious track the snowmobiles had worn in during the Winter months.

Ruins on Finger Lakes Trail

Annika got ahead of us there, and we checked out some really cool old stone ruins built into the hillsides. I’ve no clue what any of this could have been.

Ruins on the trail

There was a coffee pot that didn’t look too old in a maple tree there. It was just an odd place.
I realized soon that the white Finger Lakes Trail blazes, the color that they usually are when they are not part of another trail, had come up along the meadow, and they went across it at an angle. On the other side, there were even more stone ruins, but they only served to confuse a bit more about what they might have been. They might actually have been nothing more than old farm buildings.
The trail continued ahead on the orange blazed snowmobile trail, but then eventually turned off to the right on it’s own route, where there was a double FLT blaze.

Old Jackson Trail section

I figured Annika might have continued ahead, and she had her head phones on so she couldn’t hear us if we yelled out. I ran the trail ahead a bit hollering for her, and fortunately caught her before she got too far ahead.
We then headed down the Finger Lakes Trail, which followed on or parallel with an old woods road, then turned to the right and descended to another woods road and continued down hill. It eventually picked up a woods road that flanked the edge of the mountain and slowly lost elevation.
This section of the trail was known as the old Jackson Trail, which was closed off at some time, and then re opened as the Finger Lakes Trail. As per maps, the Finger Lakes Trail used to continue on the snowmobile trail, or it went down from it and followed roads for a long distance to the west before coming down into Downsville.

Finger Lakes Trail view near Downsville

The trail made it’s way down until it came out in the back of someone’s back yard. I wasn’t sure where to go at this point, and it looked like it went into their yard directly. The white paint blazes that made up the majority of the turns were sometimes further justified by way of the white discs with FLT written on them, or by white arrows that obviously pointed the way we needed to be going.
The trail then led us to the end of a private driveway, and then emerged onto Mink Brook Road. The trail turned to the left to follow that to the to the west a bit.

FLT on River Road, where the railroad crossed

There were views through the trees at the mountains on the opposite side of the East Branch of the Delaware River. We continued walking and the road joined with River Road.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but the intersection was just about on the point where the Delaware and Northern Railroad used to cross.

The old railroad station at Downsville was just south of where we turned

This was a line that broke off of the New York, Ontario, and Western Railroad in areas we had explored to he east of Hancock, with the Ulster and Delaware Railroad to the east of this point in Arkville. One of these days I’ll have to get around to exploring more of that line between these points.

Old Cemetery

There was a great view ahead on the road toward the next mountain, which had a clearing all the way to the top. It looked so odd, and I’ve not seen one like that before.

View up the East Branch of the Delaware Valley

The trail turned right when it got to Bridge Street, and then passed the Old Cemetery on the left, sometimes known as the Covered Bridge Cemetery.

View up the East Branch of the Delaware

This cemetery is one of the oldest in the local municipality, with the earliest burials dating back to 1736.
The sun was starting to get low in the sky, which made everything particularly beautiful.
It was only a short distance before we reached the Downsville Covered Bridge.
At 174 feet long, it is the longest covered bridge in the state of New York. It was built by Scottish immigrant Robert Murray in 1854, and is a rare example in this area of Long and Queen Post Truss design bridges.

Downsville Covered Bridge

We had a look at the beautiful East Branch of the Delaware at this point, and then walked through the lovely bridge. The Finger Lakes Trail also passes through this bridge.

Downsville Covered Bridge

The north side of the bridge was also a park, where we walked down and had better views of the East Branch. It’s a trip to think that this is actually part of the Delaware River, although I had seen it farther up where it was even smaller.

East Branch of the Delaware River

We continued along the trail route, which passes right through the middle of historic downtown Downsville.
The area of the town was of course settled prior to the American Revolution. It was named for Abel Downs who operated a tannery here.

Downsville Depot

The railroad came in in 1905, originally part of the Delaware and Eastern intended to connect beyond to Schenectady. That never happened, and so it just connected the aforementioned lines. It was reorganized into the Delaware and Northern, and it went out of business in 1942 when it’s lands were bought for the creation of the Pepacton Reservoir, which was completed just upstream from the town of Downsville in 1954.

Historic image of DOwnsville Depot

We headed from the covered bridge into town, and Annika suggested that we all stop in the little Downsville Diner for some dinner.
I wasn’t particularly hungry yet, but figured since it was still early that it would be a nice little stop to make.
We headed in, and the place was completely decked out for Halloween with all sorts of crazy decorations. Aside from that, the place had an amazing retro ambiance that was really quite cool. I had a burger and fries, as well as a cream of broccoli soup that was good.
We hung out there for a bit, and eventually finsished to head back to the end, at the intersection with Tannery Road in the middle of the town.

Downsville Diner

From here, I have been able to scale off several more hikes that look like they’re going to be great. One or two of them I will have to hold off on until the hunting season ends, but others really look like they’ll be fantastic. I want to hopefully get up there again soon.

FLT blaze

As we branch out, it just gets harder to continue doing these as day hikes, but I think I could possibly work three or four more of the in with this series without it being too insane.

HAM