Take a hike!

We started with a little nugget of an idea: to get out of the city on what was to be a gorgeous, warm low-humidity fourth of July and get a a little outdoors in. Maggie, Joana, and I took the subway up to Lincoln center to pick up a rental car and met Brian, Jade, and Buster up in their hood, where they were waiting in their car; despite Zipcar shenanigans, we duly headed north on 87 at our appointed hour of 9 am.

Beautiful day and easy traffic all the way up the interstate to New Paltz, where we parked below the East Trapps Connector Trail (affectionately known as the Stairmaster). Our initial plan for the day was a medium length, moderate hike encompassing the Trapps carriage roads (Overcliff and Undercliff) with a middle portion up to Skytop on the Mohonk Mountain House property. Because parking near the Trapps bridge was full, we started on the Undercliff road and headed wast past the Uberfall; all along the road the Trapps were inundated with climbers, as crowded as any time I've been in the gym - seemed like a great choice to go for a quiet hike rather than fighting the masses on the rock.

Buster rarin' to go

We quickly made our way to the west end of the Trapps and started heading east on the Overcliff road, where things quieted down immensely and we only saw the occasional hikers or mountain bikers. Along the way there were many distractions, particularly for Buster: wildflowers, spiders, Smurf house-like giant mushrooms, and giant slabs just begging to be romped on. Maggie in particular showed off her eagle eye, spotting little details left and right. As the ranger at the start pointed out, blueberries were in full bloom all along the top of the ridge (mmm). Because the Trapps is a narrow ridge, the Overcliff road - in addition to being above the Trapps cliffs to the east/south - also overlooks a valley to the west/north, and as we ambled along this flat shale road we were provided with wide open views of the valley and ridges to our left.

No Smurfs here (we looked)

The Overcliff road ends and makes its way down to the Rhododendron bridge, where picked up the Minnewaska Trail (?), a large shaded carriage road that takes a few bends as it heads away from the Trapps and towards Skytop. Along the way, we paused for a little PB&J refresher (thanks JK!) and to take in a scenic view of the Nears (or the Trapps, I don't remember which). As we pushed on towards Skytop, the coming gain in elevation and rocky prominence was clear through the trees.




Our original plan was to make our way towards the rock and find a suitable trail up to the tower at Skytop, possibly by scrambling up the Crevice route. We accordingly made our way onto Mohonk Mountain House property and headed towards the Skytop wall. However, just as we stopped by the Mohonk Spring, we were stopped by a security ranger on bike and told gently but firmly that dogs were under no circumstances allowed on Mohonk property, leashed or not. Bummer (we love you anyways, Buster), but the ranger was friendly enough and pointed us towards a network of Mohonk Preserve trails just north across the border of Mountain House land. With the trusty help of my spankin' new topo/trail map courtesy of the NYNJ Trail Conference (awesome maps, btw), we skirted house property and headed to find other trails.

We found a great, adventurous rocky scramble over a talus field of gigantic boulders on the aptly named Humpty Dumpty trail (red). It was definitely class 2 scrambling, hands and feet required in spots. Maggie and Jade did awesome and Jojo showed off her routefinding skills. Brian accomplished the herculean task of scrambling with no arms and carrying a full load of squirming rat terrier, as the holes between boulders were large enough to swallow Buster and his skinny little legs whole. We all survived the rocks and continued on the Arching Rock trail, which skirts some small cliffs with *massive* roofs - don't know what preserve protocol is for climbing away from the Trapps, but there are some sweet lines that look like they would go (with the usual caveat for rock quality). We doubled back on the Plateau Path, a trail that skirts the top of a cliff, with more beautiful views to the north. To find our way back to the return trail, we negotiated a rocky downclimb scramble off the cliff, through cave-like openings and steep dropoffs. Finally back on even ground, we headed back to the west towards the Trapps and the car.

Buster-size hole

Back on flat trail!

I can read Brian's mind here...

A dog in the hand is worth...?

We returned to the car by 5 pm on the nose, straggling down the last bit of the Stairmaster - I think I was as tired as Buster looked! G and his family graciously invited us over to BBQ, and we navigated our way to Stone Ridge for some quality country house chillin' and amazing company and food (Thanks for everything, G!). Of course the day wasn't complete without tumbling, headstands, bocce, and some very aggressive rock-paper-scissors ...












It was an excellent adventure! My best estimation was 5 hours, somewhere between 7 and 8 miles. The full set of my photos are here. B (and anybody else with pics) feel free to edit and add. Brian's photos are here.

Oh, and JK, a little advice: never play rock-paper-scissors with a game theorist...