Three days late, several dollars short

Went for a quick day-hike on Saturday with Linnaea and Kiriana (postdoc and grad student, respectively, in the LeDoux lab). After a small set back regarding my ability to read a train schedule, we hopped on to the Hudson Line out of Grand Central up to the Cold Spring stop. After locating a map, some coffee, and a bathroom, we walked to the trailhead at Hudson Highlands (just north of the end of Fair St.). We took the white trail up-up-and-away to the top of the hill. It was a little technical and steep in the first mile (~1500 ft. change in elevation) but that's easily overcome by keeping your head up and moving your feet.



After a brief rest at the summit we headed down the back side of the hill. About half-way down we encountered a herpetologist who works at the Brooklyn Zoo carrying a Black Rat Snake that was about 5 ft. long. Forgot to take a picture though. Once back in town we all enjoyed a frozen dairy treat from a local vendor.

Skytop bop

On a decidedly humid but sunny day, I went up to New Paltz with Maggie, Dan, and Dino to get a little trail mileage under our belts. Our goal was a laid-back 8 mile hike along Undercliff and Overcliff roads and through the Crevice up to Skytop (this was the originally intended route last year before we were foiled by the Mohonk Mountain House's canine policies).

It was a beautiful day, not too humid or hot given the relative shade of much of the path. After huffing and puffing our way up the stairmaster steps from the lower parking lots, we headed west on the wide, comfortable Undercliff carriage road. Lured by the warm weather, climbers dotted the Trapps both at the carriage road and up through the trees (saw a leader starting Double Clutch [5.9+] - looks awesome).


After crossing the back side of the ridge on the Overcliff road, we dropped down and crossed over into Mohonk territory, headed for the prominent outcropping of Sky Top. The trails are a bit of a mess there, but you're not far from the cliff face which is clearly visible through the trees. Easy scrambling up and over boulders led us to the Crevice, a fairly narrow chimney where a large section of the cliff face sits detached from the rocks behind. We negotiated the chimney and chockstones - narrow enough to require shedding backpacks - aided by a series of wooden ladders, finally emerging to be rewarded with a grand, hazy vista of the Trapps across the way.


We hung out a bit on the top, enjoying the views and taking a breather before scampering around and up to the tower. Eventually we made our way back towards the car, headed to the Gilded Otter for a little post-exertion refreshment. Lots of wildlife on the way, including turkey vultures both in the air and on the ground.

1 hike, 2 snakes

On Saturday I went on a hike up a hill called Morro da Boa Vista ("Nice View Hill").
The hike is not particularly special, 1 hour up a pretty steep, closed-down trail, contouring the rock. Although the view on the top of it is nice, the absolute best thing about it is that once you get down, you can just cross the street and get to one of my favorite beaches in Rio, Prainha.

Although the hike was easy, there were a couple of moments of high emotion due to the presence of *snakes*! Our first encounter was on the way up - my friend Fabio woke up a snake hiding under a heap of dead leaves on the base of a tree, we heard some rustling movement. Thinking nah - its nothing, my other friend, Brenda, went ahead and stepped over it, and then it was inequivocal, it was totally a snake. Not wanting to piss it off, I decided to go around it...

On our way back, the encounter was more straightforward - a huge green snake (the same? a friend?) was lying across the trail. Although green snakes aren't poisonous, we decided to keep a distance anyways...

After snakes and heat and sweat (90 degrees, gzillion humidity), the best part - beach and coconut water and grilled fish...

On this same hill there are maybe 4-5 climbs I know of as well - but summer is definitely not the best time to do it as the sun hits the rock almost the whole day... there is some bouldering on another cliff by the beach that I didn't know of though, will check it out next time I'm there.

More pictures of the hike here.

Millbrook Mountain

Since the weather was looking like a clear day at last, Maggie and I drove up to New Paltz Saturday to take advantage of our newly-arrived Mohonk Preserve memberships and go for a hike. We woke up at the leisurely hour of 8 AM and headed up under clear, sunny skies the whole way up. Traffic wasn't bad, but surprisingly crowded in New Paltz and on 299 up to the Trapps - likely due to the ongoing Ulster County Fair.

We had our sights set on heading to the top of Millbrook Mountain, a small peak southwest of the Nears, via a ridge trail with a return along the Coxing Kill. We parked in the stairmaster parking lot and hit the Undercliff Road around noon. The Millbrook Ridge trail starts just west of the steel bridge, and gets interesting right away, quickly gaining elevation up fairly steep rock. In minutes you hit exposed Gunks conglomerate and scattered pitch pines.



Soon you get a view across the valley to the southeast, as well a clear look back at the Trapps. At this time we're atop the ridge that comprises the Near Trapps. Looking northwest, you also are above the narrow valley in which the Coxing Kill runs.


The trail then heads SW along the ridge top, affording clear views to the left across the wide valley (moderate amount of haze today, though). Eventually, the trial leads away from the edge of the ridge, leaning right and leading you into the cooler temps of the shade. Much more variety of vegetation here, and we saw plenty of oaks, acorns, mushrooms, and moss. Most impressive were enormous stands of wild blueberries.

Blueberries (huckleberries?) as far as the eye could see

Cortinarius iodes (not psychoactive, B)

Eventually, the trail heads back to the edge and starts gaining elevation again as it starts ascending the east side of Millbrook Mountain proper. The ridgetop begins to narrow, and the route becomes mostly steeper rock steps between false summits. Near the top, you see large boulder-strewn talus fields to the left, and there's a beautiful promontory jutting out above a 400 ft dropoff that you can perch (carefully) upon.




We saw lots of birds of prey in the air, cruising the thermal currents that rise along the face of the cliff. They were both overhead and below us, often swooping a mere twenty feet away as they circled. Not sure what species they were, there are several kinds that roost along the ridge: turkey vulture, or hawk?


After the peak, you head north for a bit towards Minnewaska then cut back northeast towards Trapps Road. It's much wetter in the forest off the peak, and the trail was often muddy and buggy as it lost elevation to run east again along the Coxing Kill. We saw vast groves of ferns as well as a snake happy on his tree-side perch.

Little fella's a 3+ footer (eastern hog-nosed snake?)

Ground here was way muddier than photos suggest

Wish I had a water filter!

Great hike in beautiful, if a bit hot and muggy, weather - beautiful views, exposed vistas, and multiple kinds of ecological environments along the way. Thought that at its hardest the hike was not quite as tricky as the last hike w/ B and Jade and JK, but the overall sustained level was more challenging (less carriage road, more rock hopping). We brought 2L of water, which in the end was just a little less than we needed. Maggie did awesome on the ~5 mi hike, much of it on steepish rock and edge-hugging trails; we've got to get her out of her tennies and into real hiking shoes soon...

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...