Hike #1273; Cragsmoore to Kerkhonksen

Hike #1273; Cragsmoore to Kerkhonksen

11/16/19 Cragsmoore to Kerkhonksen with Russ Nelson, Ewa Wdzieczak-Smering, Jack Lowry, Sarah Jones, Justin Gurbisz, John DiFiore, Robin Deitz, Diane Reider, and Timothy Kovich

Falls and mine

This next hike would be another point to point, the next in the Delaware and Hudson series, with some more stuff tacked to the front of it.

View toward Ellenville

We only really have three hikes worth of stuff remaining in the Delaware and Hudson series, but I had come up with ways of milking it into many more. I keep changing plans based on what I see and what I think we can accomplish.
This time, we had to get from Ellenville north, but the problem was there was no good parking in the section above, and I did want to do a bit of it we missed closer to the Honors Haven Resort that we circumnavigated.

view along 52

If we started at Ellenville, it would be too far to get to High Falls where there was parking. It wouldn’t quite be far enough to go to Accord. And if we did that, it would be really kind of off on the mileage for the last two hikes in the series after that.
I instead decided we would add some stuff onto the beginning, hit the old O&W Railroad bed, and I would try to get permission from the resort to go through their property to see the sections of the canal we had missed by going around the previous time.

View

We could then continue in the route to the north out through to finish in Kerkhonksen to the northeast.
I had several different variations of this one in mind. On one of them, I considered going through Sam’s Point Preserve and then following the Long Path down. On another, I considered wandering through the resort property more or doing more of the Long Path to the north of there.
The hike really didn’t fully take shape until the week of it, when I heard from Honors Haven Resort that they were not going to give us permission to walk through their property.

Nice view

Or rather, they would give us permission to go through, but we would have to pay $25 each to walk only two miles of the property.

Overlook on yellow trail

I told the girl who was initially trying to help me out that it wasn’t worth it to do that for only two miles, but thanked her anyway. She said to hold on, and she further tried to help me out, but then came back on and said there was no way of using the property for any less.
I figured we could get around the site by going up hill from it if necessary. we would not be able to see one canal lock, except from afar, but that was okay.

View on the trail

I’m thinking maybe one day I’ll try to do a hike out of the area again and cover some of that, as well as maybe more of the railroad grade. There is enough stuff to see in the area.

View down toward old 52 bridge

We met at a gas station in Kerkhonksen. Justin rode up with me, and the timing was looking like we would be good if we left at 6:30, but that ended up setting us behind. We kept getting stuck behind trucks. I was worried that being late was going to screw us up badly.
Once we got to Kerkhonksen, we parked the cars at a larger lot near a store, and then shuttled all squashed into my van out to Ellenville area. We went up the slope on Rt 52 over the Shawangunk Ridge, which has some amazing views along it.

Some cascades

I decided to park at an excellent overlook of the valley, where I’d parked in the past for hikes in my Long Path series. The route I nailed down would take us along the Long Path briefly, and then down the ridge on informal routes, then visit the Horseshoe Mine and Buttermilk Falls, an outstanding old lead mine with a waterfall flowing over the front of it.
That mine and falls had been on my “to do” list for years, and we had passed closely by it on the previous hike. Had I known that it was just THAT close, I would have made it part of the hike then.

Old 52 bridge

After parking, we started walking gradually up hill further on Rt 52. There were occasionally old blazes for the Long Path along the way.

Some cascades on the Long Path

The trail used to make it’s way along the ridge, then head along 52 for a bit, and climb up hill to the right to the village of Cragsmoore and the local park and overlook. I had followed the old route on a previous hike.
The trail was moved from that point to old abandoned Rt 52 below. It follows that now to South Gully, and then climbs that way to get to Sam’s Point Preserve.
I had planned to walk up the road a bit to get to the trail head for a yellow blazed trail, which is probably the old Long Path mostly, and take it down hill to the Long Path.

Long Path on old 52

After admiring the awesome views of the valley to the right, we headed toward the access road, but then I saw an old road route to the right. I decided that rather than wait for the trail, we would try to head down this old washed out road and hit it that way.
We soon hit the yellow blazed trail, and then turned to the right to follow it. This took us back up hill to a higher elevation than Rt 52, and to a bit of an overlook into the valley. It then dipped back down hill and crossed the same old woods road we had just left. I should have just continued down the route rather than try to follow the trail.

Buttermilk Falls

The trail took us down gradually, and then over a small stream. It then turned to the left to go back up hill slightly, which was pointless because I could see the old stonework for old Rt 52 below us from the trail crossing. Rather than go back up, we turned off trail to follow the stream down hill.
The trail was really tough to get down because there were so many dead leaves on it. It was almost all large oak leaves, which were really tough to deal with.

The falls and mine

I carefully made my way down, and to the base of the old bridge. There is no arch, nor is there a box culvert in view, but the stream still flows to the edge of it and disappears. The route for the water must be silted over, but it hasn’t washed out yet.
We climbed up to the old road, which is blazed with the aqua colored Long Path colors.
Once everyone was down, we crossed the stream on the old stone bridge, and climbed just slightly on the old highway route. As it began gradually heading down slope to the east, I watched to the left for another old road route heading down hill.
It wasn’t very far before we reached this point. We turned left, gradually down hill, following this old road route. |
It was a pretty obvious, and reasonably worn route at first. It made it’s way toward the stream valley we had just been down, but then turned hard to the right in a switchback.

In the mine

It started to get more obscure through undergrowth there, but the grade of the road was still obvious.
We continued to follow it, and I waited up when the others started getting a bit behind. Another switchback came, and there was another old road going off to the right. We kept to the left, and the road became even more obscure. I think it petered out somewhere in here, and when a prominent route was heading to the right, we started going off trail to the left.

In the mine

The stream we had been along before joined with a much larger one, and the gully to the left of us was quite huge. I wasn’t in a hurry to continue down hill. I kept telling everyone to take their time. There were cliff faces coming up, and we would have to find a way down them without falling. With all of the leaves, I wanted to be sure we went down the way that was safest.
I went ahead after a little bit, and found an area that was a bit more worn. I could hear the sound of Buttermilk Falls, also sometimes called the Miner’s Falls, off to our left.

Rails in the mine

It was fun sliding through the leaves, but we had to hold back in this area.
I found a spot where we could scoot along the top of slanted rocks, and then head down along some trees.

View in the mine

There was a cleft in the otherwise smooth rock surface just to the east of the waterfall, which was coming into view to the left of us. I waited at the top of the cleft to help people down, and I think it was Sarah got down the thing first. I asked her to stay there, and then for Justin to stay near the middle of it to help people along.
Jokes about OSHA and safety regulations ensued while everyone made their way down slope.
After the rocky cleft, the rest of the way was much easier. I went ahead of everyone else, and of course I fell down and slid for a bit, after preaching to everyone about being careful.

Rails in the old mine

We reached the bottom and made our way over to the amazing falls and mine.
It was like something out of a movie.
The cave behind the waterfall is like something out of a legend. Whenever we find out about one being real, it never quite lives up to expectations, but this one does just that.
I really don’t know much about the history of this place. I know that the oldest mines in New York state are the Mamakating Mines just to the southwest of here, closer to Wurtsboro. I had been in some of those old lead mines. I don’t know much about this one however. It is said that it was mined some time between 1830 and 1850. It would have first been served by the Delaware and Hudson Canal then, just below. The New York and Oswego Midland Railroad might have served it at some point as well, which was just below.
It was pretty cold out, but I wanted to see in this thing pretty badly. Some of the group started climbing over to the right of it so they could possibly get in without getting wet.

View in the mine

The waterfall flowing over it was clear of it enough that I could get under without getting wet, but there was no way of going in without stepping in the water.

At the mine and falls

I got over to it and waded inside, which looked amazing. The acid mine runoff was bright orange and thick on the floor just inside the mouth. As I walked a little further in, it get somewhat better, but not enough that I could stay dry.
I used the flashlight on my phone to see a bit better, and found that there was something I could step on. As my eyes adjusted to where I could make use of my flashlight, I saw that what I was stepping on was old narrow gauge rail, maybe two foot. That was pretty cool to see.
I went back a ways, and when there was far less light from the entrance, I could see the fast movement of air from the inside of the mine. It was quite warm inside, probably over fifty degrees, and the water was much warmer than anything out there as well.
It smelled pretty bad inside, and I wondered how healthy it was for me to be breathing any of it, so I started making my way back out.
Sarah had taken her shoes and socks off to try to wade in, but I could tell it was too cold for her to be enjoying it. She didn’t end up coming into the mine.

O&W bridge

I made my way out, and was shocked at just how much of the sulfur dirt was in my shoes and socks. I stepped up and down in the muck, and the water all turned orange with every step, and for several steps.
I got a few group photos at this amazing spot, and figured we’ll have to come back here again in the future, probably when it’s a little warmer. I do, after all, need to cover the O&W Railway line to the south of this point.
There was a well worn path going from the mine and falls slightly down hill. It was only a short distance to the old O&W Railway bed.

The group at Buttermilk Falls and Horseshoe Mine

I was surprised at just how close we were the previous time. I had taken a photo of the bridge that carried the tracks over the brook below the mine, and didn’t realize it was that close.

O&W grade

The New York, Ontario, and Western Railway began as the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad about 1868. It was inherited by the O&W, as it’s referred to, in 1880. The predecessor had built some of the branches of the line, and at the time it was taken over, this branch extended only as far as Ellenville. It was further extended to Kingston in 1902.

We started following the track bed right, heading east.
To the left of the rail bed, there was a house off to the left. This was the former lock house associated with Callahan’s Lock, Lock #35.

The rail bed

We didn’t see the house form the previous hike, because we were over closer to the lock itself.
We walked further ahead, and the canal was watered below. We could see right where we had walked on the previous trip, but this way provided an interesting vantage point.
It looks like there might have been a basin in there that we couldn’t see, but it also had a sort of separation from it. The guide book doesn’t indicate anything about this however.
We continued ahead on the rail bed, and soon came to where we could see into the next lock, Ostrander’s Lock, Lock #34, which lifted boats ten feet. As we walked by it, we could see different stuff than we did before, where the towpath was on the opposite side.

Rail bed with old lock house to the left

I could see that when the canal was enlarged, where only one lock wall had to be completely reconstructed, it was the near wall that was done, because the original smaller gate pocket was visible from where we stood.

The canal

On the towpath, we wouldn’t have seen this. We have seen the original gate pockets in many locations on the canal however.
We continued along the right of way, nice and clear, which took us in and out of a few cuts. When it opened up, I watched to the left to see about the canal remnants.
I was able to point out the site of Lock #33, also known as Youppy’s Lock, which had a lift of ten feet.
This is an odd site because just about all of the lock stone has been removed, presumably for re-use elsewhere. The only bit of it that still remains, curiously, is the old bypass flume.

It stands alone almost like a tower in the middle of nowhere, with it’s curved channel very obvious. Why this section of such a large stone structure was spared I have no idea. Perhaps only to mark the site of the piece of history? I can think of no other reason.

Looking down at Lock 34

We continued on the rail bed, often within sight of the canal, and passed Hang Glider Road. There is one of those flight businesses at the end, as well as one private home. I could see a guy out working in his yard there this time. On the previous hike, we had walked right out through his yard after the canal section became obliterated. I wanted to hurry past this pot just in case we had any trouble.
The rail bed went into a bit of a cut ahead of this point, and when it came out there were some views out over the meadows where the canal used to go.

Lock #34

A small channel of the Sandberg Creek seems to follow it’s route, and it is delineated by a small line of trees and brush all in view.
The previous hike found us following the head waters of the Basha Kill to the summit level of the canal, and then the Homowack Kill for the rest of it. Just south of this area, the Homowack Kill joins the Sandberg Creek, which the canal follows for some time.

The canal trace in the trees

Evidence of ATVs using the rail bed were obvious everywhere, and we soon came to an open meadow area where they were obviously turning off. Yellow no trespassing signs were up slope to the right of us. We were now entering some of the former grounds of the Nevele Resort.
The Nevele Resort is now abandoned, but was once a popular site with a well known 18 hole golf course until it closed in 2009. At this point, the paved golf cart path crossed over the railroad bed, and one ahead actually made use of the railroad bed.

The rail bed

We were able to keep walking through this area, and soon more of the old buildings were coming into sight, as well as a water tower dead ahead.
The railroad through here was abandoned with the rest of the O&W around March of 1957, so it might have served the resort at some time.
The canal remnant was below us, but it peters out into the golf course paths and such ahead.
We couldn’t see much of the main resort, including the Dodecaheronal Nevele Tower, which was added to the resort in the 1960s.

Old resort postcard

The property takes it’s name from the Nevele Falls, which is reportedly so named because it’s “eleven” spelled backwards, and eleven school teachers had been out on the property when they discovered the lovely Nevele Falls on the slopes.

HAPPY!

The golf course first opened in 1901, and Charles Slutsky opened up the first hotel in 1903. He first operated out of an old farm house on the property.

Weird

Mission Revival style architecture was added to the resort much in the style that was popular in the Catskills and Borscht Belt at the time, and more additions came through the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
Since the closure, the Fallsview section of what was originally the Nevele has re-opened as Honors Haven Resort and Spa, where I was trying to get permission to pass through to no avail. There were plans to turn some of the old resort area into a hotel casino, but that has fallen through apparently, and original plans to reopen the place by 2020 do not look at all realistic.
I didn’t want to go too far into this place and have a problem. When I could see more buildings, I motioned everyone to follow me as we made our way up hill.
There was sort of an ATV track that had flattened out underbrush for some of the way, but then we found our way to the porch of an abandoned building.

Old ski lifts

The door was wide open, and there were mirrors and such everywhere. It looked like people had been partying hard in this place.
We had a look around, and then made our way to the paved roadway on the other side. This took us up hill a bit more, to the right. More ATV trails went all over, and and I chose one that was up hill a bit more. We took to the woods off trail briefly, and then turned left on this route that led us to the top of an abandoned ski slope.
There was a building at the top of the slope, and a small one at the far right. Ski lift chairs were stuck in place, and there was a view down hill toward the rest of the old resort.

Nevele Falls

I checked out this stuff quickly, and then we moved to the woods on the other side. I could hear the rushing water of Nevele Falls close by.

Nevele Falls

There was a grown over old trail dug into the slope to the right at the end of the ski slope, and we were able to follow this directly to the edge of the creek, which is South Gully.
There was a stone building on the far side of the falls. We don’t know what that was originally for. We thought maybe an old water pumping station, maybe for the earlier ski lift operation, or maybe for the hotel itself. I just don’t know.
I was a bit nervous here because there were people at the base of the falls. There are official hiking trails in the resort area, but I didn’t know who these people were.

Maga Tree

We hung out at the top of the falls for a bit to weigh out our options.
We could have gone up stream a bit, because we could see the old Rt 52 bridge.

120 steps

We could cross and then come down the other side. Or, we could go back the way we came and descend to the falls.
The people down below were waving hello to us, so we figured there would be no problem. We backtracked, and then carefully made our way down through the slippery leaves to the far side of South Gully. There were a lot of stones at this point which meant it would be an easy spot to cross.
Justin and I immediately climbed up onto the falls for some good photos, and I stood on the water again.
The people who had walked to this spot seemed shocked that I would do such a thing. One guy started talking all protective about Justin to me, and I told him not to worry about that guy.
I walked across the creek through the water without even trying to use the stepping stones, an the people looked even more dismayed. They were certainly not hikers by any means.

On the trail

After everyone had gotten their photos, the next leg was to walk the trails of the resort.
The people who had just left the falls were moving as slow as molasses, and had barely reached the entrance to the trail system, which read “Healing Park” over the entrance. They started up the trail a bit, and I just had to hurry by them because it was basically a single file route, and they were just taking way too long.
One guy asked me if I knew where the trails went. I had already gone over the maps, so I knew where I was going. We reached a junction where yellow and red trails switched around.

Swings in the woods

The upper route was red, and I was originally going to take the lower yellow one. When I saw their entire slowpoke group was going that way, I decided to take the upper red.
The youngest girl in the group, there with her metrosexual boyfriend, was insisting that they do the yellow trail, when the guy behind them asked me about doing a loop. I saw at the end of the thing that there was a spot reading “120 steps”. I figured that was a down hill from the upper red, and so it was better to do it down than up. Either way, the red went along the upper end and headed down.

120 steps

The girl wouldn’t listen, and sounded on the verge of having a fit when she was insisting to the other guy they do yellow. The Metrosexual boyfriend then asked me if the trail colors correspond to the difficulty of the. I kind of wanted to laugh. Of course they do not, although in this particular place, the red one would be more difficult.
We moved on along the trail, which had some nice steps up and down through the woods. The red trail became kind of indistinct, and there were metal arrow blazes affixed to trees somewhat foolishly. Some of the trail was well constructed.
Where the red came back to the yellow, the entire woods was full of swings. They were affixed to poles that were secured to nearby trees, which was neat. Justin and I immediately got on the first two we reached, an then I noticed they were all around us.

Healing Park entrance

Just ahead, the largest tree in this forest was what appeared to be a Sugar Maple, which the map calls the “Mago Tree” meaning “Mother Earth”. It was surrounded by cut rounds of logs.
We continued on, and soon approached the 120 steps referred to on the map.
This was a large observation platform to a rock with a little cascade on it called ChunSu Falls. There was also a little pavilion at the top.
This was a pretty cool site because it had all sorts of uplifting statements on routed pieces of wood affixed to the railings on the way up.

Nevele Falls

“I’ve Decided To Live 120 Years”
“What Is Humanity’s True Path?”
“How Do We Achieve Completion?”
“Reflect on the First Half of Your Life, Design the Second?”
“Physical Power is Life-Just Move”
“Discover New Sources of Happiness”
“Cultivate Yourself Continuously”
“Give Your Brain Hopes and Dreams”
“Don’t Fear Solitude-Enjoy It”
“Share and Give”
“Be Close to Nature”
“What We Leave Behind”
The group of other people had turned another way when we were on the swings, probably because they couldn’t figure out how to read the map, and were heading toward the 120 steps. When I saw them, I figured we had better get out of there because there was no way we would be able to get down them while they were walking up.

Old stone building at the resort

We headed own, and the trail seemed to end close by. There was a seating area to the east of the platform, below, and so we walked to that.
There were no more trail blazes, but we kept moving on because it was good and clear.
The clear access road, which I assume is just the construction road used to get materials in place for the 120 steps (it appears to be pretty new wood), led us out to the edge of their existing golf course with a large fence separating us from it. There was vegetation on the fence, so we weren’t all that visible.

Looking out to the site of Lock #32

We were also almost out of the property.
I looked out over the golf course, where somewhere is the former site of Delaware and Hudson Canal Lock #32, which was also known as Sam Taylor’s Lock, with a lift of ten feet.
The lock was alongside the Sandberg Creek reportedly, and in an area this is now grassed over.
We passed an abandoned stone building on the right, and then came to the corner of the golf course with a wide open road coming into it. There was some sort of pumping station or something along the Sandberg Creek, and a foot bridge that looked like it was made for pedestrian connection, but it was fenced off.

Historic image of a canal dry dock

There was an access to the right out to Pine Street out of Ellenville as well. We continued past the fenced building onto an ATV trail parallel with the Sandberg Creek.\

Is it a station? It sure looks like a railroad depot...

I could not tell what was the canal or what was the O&W Railroad bed yet at this point, but they were pretty close together. We just followed the path, which took us over a little knoll, and then to where a homeless person had been camping. I peered over at the tent, which had duct tape holding the near side of it together, and there was what looked to be feet in a sleeping bag when I looked in briefly. I chose to just move on.
When I looked back, Justin was messing around with something by the tent. If there was someone in there, it’s fun to wonder what they might have been thinking about this posse descending upon them.

North Gully Aqueduct remains

We continued to walk the clearing, and some remnant of canal was visible to the right, although somewhat eroded.
We came out of the woods, and ahead was a chain link fenced in area, with a building inside that looked to be some sort of old railroad depot. It was directly beside where the tracks would have been, but I’m not sure what it was. It was up on a platform, and was definitely old enough looking to be railroad related.
Both the O&W station still exists in the middle of Ellenville, as well as the original Oswego Midland line station which sits near it. Maybe this was a secondary freight depot.

Center St. Ellenville approaching Lock 31

We walked around this on Clinton Avenue, and then I turned left immediately on the other side. I walked down to a little store building, and then turned right on their access road which led through to some other warehouse building or something.

View from Center St. today

There was a vacant area on the other side, and gravel roads going off to the left and the right. I chose to go left, which turned out to be closer to the old railroad route, while the canal would have been to the right.

Historic Ellenville canal scene

The road took me to the former North Gully bridge site. I could tell by the concrete that the first one was the railroad, and then to the right of that I could see the old abutments to the North Gully aqueduct from the canal.

Historic image of dry dock in Ellenville

The stone work was in reasonable shape, and I could see where the wooden trunk would have fit into it. This was also called the Mountain Brook Aqueduct, however there is another Mountain Brook closer to Kerkhonksen, not to be confused.

Canal office in Ellenville

Rather than try to get across here, we turned to the right and made our way back out to Clinton Ave.
North Gully to the right of the road looked surprisingly dry, and strew with round types of rocks.
We turned to the left on Center Street, and reached where the canal had crossed. It was weedy on the left, and to the right it was now Towpath Lane. I got a photo here for my then and now series, and we continued on Towpath Lane to Rt 52.
Just beyond was the site of the Ellenville Lock, Lock #31, with a lift of ten feet.

Historic view of the lock at Ellenville, #31

The lock is covered over by grassy lawn today, but the canal and towpath come out from under it just barely beyond.
There is a small canal company office building still standing here, which had been relocated from one side of the street to the other, closer to the edge of the canal, and apparently turned slightly from the way it was originally oriented. Russ and Ewa were out there as we approached.
I went back and tried to figure out the configuration of the site to take some then and now photos.
We moved on from there then, and I climbed down into the canal prism to get across to the towpath while the others continued to walk parallel on Berme Road, which is aptly named because it follows the berm side of the canal. Some variation of Berme Road continues from this point all the way to High Falls.

Ellenville Lock, #31

There was a sort of causeway over the canal leading to a ball field on the other side of Berme Road ahead. I’m not sure what this was; maybe it was a sort of thing created for towpath access after the canal was abandoned, or maybe it was used as an industrial spur for the railroad to reach a now abandoned business just ahead.

There was a large brick building off to the right of Berme Road that looked to have been vacant for some time. I could see it having rail service up until the 1950s.

The old canal in Ellenville

Just ahead of this point, we came to Lock #30, which also had a lift of ten feet. This one was in pretty good shape, with just the towpath side wall slightly shorter than the other side. I found an historic photo which labels a lock at Ellenville as Young’s Lock, and I think it might be this one.
We crossed over the canal prism on the down side of the lock, and began hiking the towpath.
This took us out to Graham Place, a paved road, which had one of those stone culverts that was probably made with the abutments to the earlier bridge.

D&H Canal lock #30

We turned left on the road briefly, which then paralleled the canal, and then turned right back onto the towpath. This took us past a house, and then into a pleasant section below a slope.
The issue with this area was that it was so full of litter and junk that had been dumped.

D&H Canal view in Ellenville area

We see dumping and such wherever we go, but this bit was absolutely awful. People have been dumping stuff through here a lot, and often.

The canal in Ellenville

The amount of trash we encountered at least quadrupled from what we had seen on the rest of the canal when we got to Ellenville and remained bad.
We continued on the towpath until a point where it just got too bad to follow any more. Russ and I were in the front, and we cut over to the right because it was just too overgrown. Fortunately, we were still pretty close to it.
We headed out to Berme Road, and then soon turned to the left on Conner Road, which led back down to the canal before a junk yard.

Lock #29 with old gate pocket visible to the right

Conner Road crossed the canal over the east end of Lock #29, also known as Shirley’s Lock, which had a lift of ten feet. The lock was mostly in pretty good shape, and where the road crossed it, the end of the lock had been walled in.

Old weir site

This was another one where we could see the original gate pockets on the towpath side of the canal. It was a good spot to compare the older and new recesses for gates.
The canal ahead looked kind of rough, and the junk yard was right next to it. We kind of decided we would go back and walk parallel Berme Road. Justin said he wanted to walk it, and I was thinking just that too. On many of the past hikes, I scooted down and followed the canal route when everyone else walked parallel, so I was prepared to do that again.
Everyone was back to Berme Road, and Justin and I started turning back. No one else wanted to go with us, so we just pushed on through rather quickly.

Part buried Lock 28

There was soon a good berm side wall, and a lot more junk thrown into the canal again.
In only a short distance, we were to the end of the junkyard, and the towpath was clearing off. The O&W Railroad bed was moving in from the left, and it looked as though the canal went right across to the other side.
I was confused about this for a while. I thought the railroad and canal coexisted, but that did not seem to be the case when the towpath went right across and there was no evidence of there ever having been a bridge.

Canal and rail bed

It turns out, the railroad and canal from here and through the rest of the hike did NOT coexist.
When the canal discontinued service around 1898, it was taken over by the O&W Railroad, and the Kingston Branch was extended from the old Oswego Midland line to Kingston in 1902. For the rest of the hike, the canal and railroad were pretty much
one.
I followed the towpath to the far side of the railroad, and Justin continued following the railroad bed. I soon came to an old waste weir in alright shape, and the towpath soon started to weave back toward the railroad bed. There was an abandoned shell of a building up slope from us to the right.

Old building along the historic routes

When the two routes were one, I caught the left side upper wall of Lock #28, also known as Chris Grinniel’s Lock, which had a lift of ten feet. The railroad was built right through the center of the lock, and filled it in. It moves at a slight diagonal, so that the ends of either of the lock walls with gate pockets are visible.
I didn’t realize it yet, but every bit of what we were on after the railroad joined was now a trail, the O&W Rail Trail.
I found this to be quite interesting, because typically it’s the canals that take precedent over railroads in trail naming. To a great degree, that drives me nuts.

Lock 26 remnant filled

The Bel Del Railroad in New Jersey is always referred to as “towpath” or the D&R Canal Trail, even in places where the canal never even reached. In Connecticut, the Farmington Canal Trail is often far away from the canal, sometimes by considerable distance, and yet the rail bed is still called the canal.
So, having this trail, which is obviously on the old canal, just referred to as rail trail was quite surprising.
In this case, I kind of side more with the canal, because this is a rare case where the canal was in service for more years than the railroad (70 years for the canal versus only 55 years for the O&W at this location).

Along the canal

After Chris Grinniel’s Lock, the railroad is literally just built on the towpath for a good long while. The D&H towpath was built at such an abnormal width; it was perfect in some spots for the rails.
As we approached a little bridge over what might have been an old spillway or something, there were two hunters sitting there. As we were going by, one of them said to me that we shouldn’t be out there, and that these were “huntin’ trails”. I said that we usually only do stuff that’s within safety zones during hunting season, and pointed out that there were houses within sight. The guy argued and told us that they were allowed to hunt there.

Lock House approaching Lock 27

As we were talking, there was an old lady walking toward us pushing a baby carriage, with another little girl running alongside of her. As we started on our way, the guy asked me if I could tell the lady that they were hunting there. I did just that as I walked by the lady, and she didn’t care. She continued walking toward them. The fact that those guys were hunting off of a rail or canal trail, close to houses just tells me that they are lazy asses and they need to bugger off.

Proof of trail

We continued walking, and I saw some spots where it would be good for the others to come down and join us. I got Russ on the phone, and they connected with us just ahead.
We soon approached Bennett Lane I think it was, a driveway. The canal just before this started turning off to the left, and the railroad bed continued straight. The driveway soon was following the route of the towpath and we were on the rail bed, which were both in an area of wide open cut grass only a few feet apart.
The driveway served an old house, which was originally the lock house associated with Lock #27, also known as Bob Decker’s Lock, which lifted boats ten feet.

Lock #27

Just past the house, we came to the lock site. Again, the railroad passes right through the lock site, but this time only the right side lock wall is visible.

Lock 27

The left side is filled, cut down, and covered by the railroad bed. There were reportedly many buildings on the river side of the towpath in this area.

Napanoch Station

The creek to the left was now the Rondout Creek, which flowed from the north and joined with the Sandberg Creek nearby. The canal would follow the Rondout from here to it’s end.
We continued walking through the woods, toward the jail at Napanoch.
I had parked in Ellenville once before for a hike and did a hike using some of the trails and the Long Path, then some canal, but it was dark by the time I went through then.
The big concern ahead was that the canal once passed through the Napanoch Prison.

Walkin by the prison

There never used to be a way of walking through this site on the canal. The only way was to remain on Berme Road.
Tim didn’t want to do this at all, and so he walked all the way back to Ellenville and went out to Rt 209.
He really missed out, because it turns out all of it is now public trail.
In this particular case, I do have to give credit to one guy I’ve not been able to stand regarding rails to trails.
Mike Hein, who was the Ulster County Executive that pushed hard to have the Ulster and Delaware Railroad corridor torn up for a trail and would not entertain any rail with trail alignment had pushed for this section to be open. He’d been pursuing the project since 2012.

Jail!

Apparently, something worked here, and the old canal and rail route through the prison grounds is now a path of crushed stone. After we got past the last lock, I thought we were going to have to bushwhack back out to the road.
Up ahead, and above us to the right, there was a lovely old passenger station as well as a freight station from the O&W. I tried to sneak a few photos. There was a guard just ahead sitting along the road, and so Russ went up to him to ask about taking photos of the station. “Make it quick” the guard told him. So I guess we were good!

Jail trail!

We continued walking this route out to Institution Road. There, there was an historic marker about the Napanoch Station, and we continued straight across around the outside of the prison grounds behind a chain link fence. I actually am surprised that no one stopped to ask us what we were doing here.
We continued beyond the fence to an open field area, and what I believe was the canal was a sort of prism going off through the open area. To the left of that was the old cemetery associated with the jail.

Prison graveyard

Some of the stones were rather obscured, well into the pine woods close by. We walked around the entire thing and checked out some of the old stones. They certainly date back to the earliest days of the prison.
The jail itself is quite historic.
It first opened as Eastern New York Reformatory in 1900. It was a convenient location for transport and labor because it was directly on the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and I understand the canal was involved in the building in the prison through moving materials.
It makes me wonder if this section of the canal was kept in service slightly longer than others, because of the time the prison opened. The railroad didn’t take over until 1902, so I suppose it’s possible.
The main building with its medieval style turrets and pyramid shaped roof was designed by architect John Rochester Thomas on this site mostly because of the abundance of available stone.

Napanoch prison graveyard

The prison had multiple names over the years, with variations of being a reformatory for “defective and delinquent men”.

The canal at Napanoch prison

The place has been a maximum security prison since 1973, and Ulster County built its jail on the site around 1990.

The above scene as it looks now

Times may be changing soon for the Napanoch location. The governor of New York announced plans to close down three upstate prisons, and the facility at Napanoch was one of them.

Old aqueduct or culvert site at Napanoch

We continued walking around the cemetery, and I was reading some of the stones that were back in the woods. Just after the last stone, we got along the edge of the Rondout, and I could see some towpath remnants. We were able to follow that pretty easily, but it was interrupted by an outflow from the waste water treatment. I took care to go down and hope across that spot without getting into it.
There was a foot bridge over this to Berme Road just above, but I came out another way. The rest of the group was very obvious about where they were. I knew there was supposed to be a trail through here, however I did not see a sign for it in this area, and I figured someone would get a leery about us being there.

Old falsework from the railroad at washout site

As I walked along the next section, just alongside the road, a cop car drove by. He looked over at me cautiously, but continued on.
The clear trail went into a little wooded swath next to the road, and the canal prism was very obvious. Here, the towpath and the railroad bed were again one. I think they separated for a time on the jail property.
To the right, on the berm side, there was a stone inlet from a stream that was flowing. That stream had a stone laid curve to it before it passed beneath the towpath and rail grade.

Falsework from old rail filling the canal

This was according to David Barber’s book a culvert that carried the stream under the canal, but it was taken apart and turned into a railroad bridge when the railroad took over.
We continued out of the woods from there, and I found the spot where historic photos of a canal boat were taken floating away from the state prison. The image is reportedly the last boat to pass through the canal.
We continued through a grassy area in front of another building known as Unity Hall, and there was a parking area across from us on the right. We had seen a guard a bit further back that was in a little guard shack, and he came out of it to watch us walk by. The guy in the parking lot looked at us cautiously, but no one from the prison ever said anything to us.
As we pushed away from the prison, Berme Road started moving off to the right a bit, away from the canal. I didn’t want to miss a section, but there was a house on the right with a guy working in his driveway. I didn’t see any posted signs, but I also didn’t want to have any problems. I was about ready to walk the road.
At the last minute, I decided to just ask the guy if it was alright.

Old Wawarsing station

“Excuse me sir…is it possible to walk the old canal out to Port Ben from here?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, there’s a washout out there, but you can get through” he said.
I worded it in such a way that he did not have to give us permission by asking if it was possible. There didn’t seem to be a problem, and so we were on our way without missing anything.
This section might actually be public land. More and more of it is being opened in Ulster County as the O&W Rail Trail, but there’s a long way to go to get it all cleared.

This is apparently the original Wawarsing station. Might have been a slightly different location

We had an easy walk until we got to the washout. It revealed some of what is probably the wooden falsework put in place when the railroad was created. It was probably laid right in the canal here.
Wooden framework was built in the old days when fills were made, and then back filled afterwards.
There were two hunters, appearing to be father and son, on the other side of the breach. They were nicer than the previous two we had met. I kept quiet and just said hello to them when we went by.

Wawarsing station at Port Ben

I commented quietly that I hadn’t really seen anything living at all. He agreed that it had been quiet.
As a friendly gesture, I mentioned to him the only place that I had seen any deer, back near the start in the meadows south of the resort property.

Wawarsing Station historic image

We moved on ahead, and walked right in the canal prism, which seemed to get wider. That is because this section was filled wider, presumably for passing tracks when the O&W was built in it. Through the trees, the former East Wawarsing Station came into view.
The station was built on what would have been the towpath originally. It is vacant today, but in quite good condtions.
This was apparently not the first station to serve Wawarsing. There was originally, according to photos, a smaller one on the site at first.

Port Benjamin Lock remnant

The railroad took the name of Wawarsing for the town on the north side of the Rondout Creek, but the name of this site from canal days was Port Benjamin.

Port Ben lock site

We climbed up from the canal prism to Towpath Road, and I was surprised to see the aqua colored blazes of the Long Path.
When I had walked the section here before, none of it was blazed there yet. Other sections were only blazed on Berme Road, but I had read that it was to be moved onto the towpath and rail bed. So, for the next little while, we would be on a section of the Long Path I had never done also. Three birds with one stone on this bit.
We continued past the station, and crossed Port Ben Road. The canal and rail bed was right along to the right. It was easiest to walk Towpath Road, but I chose to get down into the prism and look for remnants of the next lock, which I knew was coming up.

Canal, rail bed, and Long Path

In a short bit, just below a house on the towpath that is probably the modified lock house, I found the only remaining bit of lock wall visible. The berm side has been cut down and buried by the railroad, but a little bit of the towpath side wall is in place of the Port Benjamin Lock, Lock #26. The lift of this one was also ten feet.
We continued walking from this point along Towpath Road, which came to an end at a house, and we were able to continue on it as a trail into the woods.

Canal, rail bed, and Long Path

The route continued very pleasantly through the woods, well cut back as part of the Long Path. There was a bridge spanning one of the former waste weir sites, which had been modified into a railroad culvert. Eventually, the Long Path southbound turned off to the right (the northbound followed Towpath Road to Port Ben Road north, then Lundy Road into the Catskills. A new relocation off of back roads is planned for up there, and is one of the few missing pieces of the Long Path I’m missing).

Feeder canal

The rail bed continued as a trail, which we knew when we came to the next weir site that was also turned into a foot bridge.
It was a good long stretch, and we came into a wide flood plain with marsh land to the right. To the left, it looked like the canal left the rail bed and was headed out along the Rondout Creek. I had to consult the book better to figure out what I was looking at.
It turns out, the canal to the left was a feeder canal. At this point, there was once a dam that spanned the Rondout Creek, and fed water into this little canal, which had a gate for allowing water in when needed. The gate site is still intact with stone walls, and bridged with a side trail, and a picnic bench rests on the wide area on what was the south abutment to the Rondout dam. The stone work out here is quite impressive.
We took a break here to check things out. The historic name for this site is Port Hyxson.

Dry dock lock gate at Port Hyxson

Just beyond this point was a lock into a dry dock on the right side of the canal. The railroad bed obliterated some of the canal remnants in this area, but the dry dock seems to remain almost completely intact.
We started walking past the dry dock site, and to the right we could see all that remains of the Port Hyxson Lock, Lock #25, which also lifted boats ten feet. The towpath side wall has been cut down and covered over by the railroad grade, but the berm side wall is okay and the gate recess was visible. Up hill from this point was an old white house, which might be the former lock house.

Remnant of Lock 25 at Port Hyxson

The trail ended at this point. We had to turn to the right on a path that led us out to Berme Road where we turned to the left. We came to a crossroads with Foordmore Road just ahead.

At Port Hyxson

I called up Tim to see what became of him. I didn’t realize that he had walked all the way back to Ellenville. I knew you could legally walk Berme Road, but he didn’t want to walk anywhere near the jail, so he went out to Rt 209. That was quite a distance out of the way. I told him the entire thing was mostly a trail so far. It was only at this point in Port Hyxson that we were forced to get on the road.
I told him to turn right to get across at one of these roads, but he was still pretty far behind us. There was really no way he was going to catch up with us at this point.

In other words stay out?

We continued ahead on Berme Road, and watched the old canal to the left. The rail bed sometimes deviated form it a bit, but for the most part was on the towpath side of it. To the right, there was an old dairy barn that had been converted to a restaurant supply store, which also no appeared to be abandoned.

Little Stoney Kill Aqueduct site

The road took us pretty much alongside the former canal and rail bed for a good while. There was a spot with some masonry where a creek flowed in, and a driveway crossing that read “Harm’s Way Private Road”, which seemed to be kind of humorous.
The road and historic routes entered a wooded section after some fields, and then we crossed the Little Stoney Kill. To the left was the site of the Little Stoney Kill Aqueduct, which still had some abutment remaining.

The canal and rail bed route toward Kerkhonksen

We continued ahead a bit, and soon reached where Berme Road was coming in to combined Rts 44 and 55. I climbed down the slope to the canal and rail route, and then crossed the highways at the same point the historic routes did. On the other side, it continued a well cleared and signed trail. It was a great home stretch for this hike. We moved ahead and crossed an access road to a ball field.
Just after the ball fields was the site of what must have been another aqueduct over the Trout Brook. There was a masonry building remain on the downstream side of where the aqueduct was, crumbling but beautiful. This was part of a mill of some sort.

Aqueduct and mill site

There was also masonry of what must have been part of a sort of aqueduct, but I do not know if it was a culvert or a trunk structure here.

Creamery and/or ice house ruin

The trail remained nice and clear until the section where we ran parallel with Mill Street. There was a ruin of a creamery as well as what used to be an ice house to the right, which was built on the canal prism after abandonment. Just past this, someone had extended their back yard out over the canal and rail bed. I was questioning what was going on, because there was a sign that this was the rail trail at the last crossing, but nothing saying to stay out on this side. I would suspect that the land owner probably did this even though they didn’t own the land.

The group on the trail

I still cut to the left out through their yard onto Mill Street and followed that to main drag in Kerkhonksen, which is shown on maps as 42nd Street. South of town, it’s Minnewaska Trail.

Trout Brook crossing in Kerkhonksen

We were parked just on the other side of the bridge in Kerkhonksen. Directly across the street was an island of grass with road on both sides. This is supposedly the filled in former Middleport Lock, Lock #24, which had a lift of eight feet.
Middleport was the historic canal name for the settlement. To the right, there are stones that are supposed to be part of the canal’s old berm wall. On the hill, there is a white house that was supposedly the old Canal Grocery store.
I managed to put together another then and now compilation to finish out the day on the canal, and we turned to the left to cross the Rondout Creek on the road bridge.

Middleport then...

It was about 4:02 PM when we got to the parking area, which seemed nearly impossible.

Middleport (Kerkhonksen) now

True, we did not stop for lunch in Ellenville, but we still finished far earlier with the entire planned route than I had anticipated.

Rondout Creek at the end

Tim was not back yet, and I think Robin went back and picked him up on Rt 209.
We all headed down the street to get a delicious dinner at a Mexican place called Don Juan.
This was some great service. They were friendly, the food was awesome, and they gave us all free shots as well as appetizer cheese quesadillas and dessert.
I was very happy with how well this hike went. We saw quite a lot, and it looks like we can get away with completing the Delaware and Hudson series in only three more hikes, depending on a few situations.

Mmmmmm fooooood

We might wait until March before we get back out there, just in case there are any issues with stream crossings or something. The next hike will connect us to High Falls, and I am sticking a section of the O&W Railway bed where it deviates on the end of it.
There will be some more planning as the time nears, but it’s looking pretty great!

No night hiking this time....

HAM