that girl who rides the horses that dance

My first hike was at the Silver Mine Lake. It was a short loop, and I strolled along the dam before heading back. Unfortunately, there was a lot of people there so I wasn't really able to enjoy it much. I've learned that I really enjoy hiking alone. 

I got back in my car and drove a few miles down Seven Lakes Drive to Lake Askoti. There, I left my car and headed out on the Arden-Surebridge Trail. It started with a steep climb before leveling off, and I meandered along, crossing a small creek and into a meadow. On a whim, I decided to check my GPS and realized that the trail wasn't a loop, but rather connected to trails leading to Lake Skannatati. Once I got off at Lake Skannatati, I would have a long walk back to Askoti. I wasn't truly okay with walking on the side of the road, even for under half a mile, so I elected to turn around and head back. I'm not sure what the second trail at Lake Skannatati was, but I hiked for a total of about fourteen miles. 

The following weekend, I went hiking with one of my roommates at Fort Montgomery. Fortunately, the Twin Forts trail was right outside where we lived, so instead of turning right (as we would if we were heading to work), we turned left and meandered into the woods. We walked along a ridge overlooking the Hudson, then crossed a small foot bridge. Once we reached the top of the hill, we were at the Fort Montgomery State Historic Site. We popped inside quickly to look around the museum before veering off on the 1773 trail. We hiked to the Brooks Lake Park before heading back. It was a short hike, five miles maximum (if that), but pleasant! 

I hiked a lot throughout the following weeks for work - the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail, an unmarked trail to my sites in the Hudson Highlands, a nice meandering path to the Rockefeller sites, an uphill trek through the woods at Rockland Lake, to name a few. 

Last weekend, on the recommendation of a friend, I headed out again on a hike. This was a long, strenuous hike (rated 9/10 on the Hike the Hudson Valley website) straight up the side of Schunemunk Mountain. I parked my car at the trailhead on Taylor Road, crossed the road, and hopped on the Jessup trail. This trail starts off across a large open field alongside I-87. 

At the trail split, I took the left onto Sweet Clover Trail (that name is a LIE). The trail meandered across another meadow before plunging into the woods. I stayed on the mark trail until I came out of the woods at a MTA railroad tracks. I hurried across the tracks - they're apparently very active and the trains are very fast! Staying on the Sweet Clover trail, it briefly overlapped with the Otterkill trail, but the Sweet Clover trail doglegged, and I followed it. 

The terrain started to change, and it became more of a climb than a hike. The trail followed a ravine where, deep down below, a creek flowed. About an hour after I crossed the tracks, I reached the trail junction, and I took the Jessup trail. From here, it was a slight uphill hike to the megaliths. The boulders here are very different - they're called "puddingstone" and extremely cool! They're pinkish in color and has a lot of rocks embedded. Whenever I trekked across the puddingstone, I followed the cairns to stay on the Jessup trail. 

I took a spur trail leading to the megaliths, and wow. AMAZING VIEWS. I had a great view of the Catskills, and the lower Hudson. Afterwards, I headed back to the Dark Hollow Junction to the Dark Hollow Trail which took me down the mountain to the tracks. When I crossed the tracks, I took the Sweet Clover trail to the Jessup trail back to my car. This hike, hard as it was, was only 6.4 miles!! 

I think if I had eaten a bigger breakfast or had more at lunch, I would've had an easier time with the hike. If I do this trail again, I'll probably try to eat a bit more and definitely bring more water - I ran out of water at the megaliths and had to hike back very thirsty. 

When I'm back in town (I'm heading down to NC this weekend for a wedding - whoop whoop!) I'm taking the same friend's recommendation and heading out to Storm King Mountain. 

Can I just say how cool and funny the names of mountains and trails are here? I absolutely love it.