bull hill (mt taurus) / south beacon mountain / breakneck ridge

when: saturday, october 23, 2010

where: fishkill and cold spring, ny

participants: my friend mike, who i haven't seen in a while / myself.

transportation: metro north (gc to cp $11.25) and mike's buick (classic)

food: roasted cashews (.99) organic applesauce.

trail: dead leaves, gravel, dirt, big boulders, stones, steep in some parts, slope-y in others. [first part: 11:45am - 2:00 pm] hiked the washburn to the yellow lookout trail on bull hill. continued on the yellow trail down bull hill. made a left on the blue trail on the promenade past the round stone thing and past the green house back to the car. [second part: mike then drove me up to the beacon trailhead. the rest of the trip i made myself: 2:15 pm - 6:00 pm] took the hudson scenic, red trail up beacon mountain bypassing north beacon mountain and continuing on to south beacon mountain. junction onto the white trail. walked a mile or so maybe, this was the toughest part of the journey besides the hike up beacon mountain. when i got to the top of breakneck ridge i realized i passed the blue trail's junction. the blue would bypass ascending any unnecessary hills (the same trail with the promenade as before), past all the ruins and past the reservoir, down to route 9. concludes the hike.

thing: i sat drinking water on top of south beacon when two people walked towards me on the white trail. at this point i wasn't sure if the white trail connected to the breakneck trails. they told me the trail was the same that went over breakneck ridge and that it'd take me three hours to get back to route 9 that way. on my way towards breakneck i stopped on a ridge to take pictures. while taking pictures i felt like i had to poop so i hiked down the hill and pooped in this like cave thing and rejoined the white trail further down the hill. some unmarked junction came up and i went to the right, planning on eliminating that trail as a possibility because i felt it might go to the sugarloaf. the couple i had seen on south beacon earlier came from the opposite direction and the three of us went the way i originally headed at the fork. at the top of breakneck where i was drinking water they caught up to me again. they spoke a foreign langue between themselves. the man waved at me as they continued on the white. this is when i turned back to find the blue.

elevation: bull hill is 1,420 at it's highest, breakneck is 1,260 ft at it's highest and south beacon mountain is 1,610 ft. (think i might order the topo-map for the trails and the elevations soon just getting these numbers from wikipedia.)

Mt Taurus (or Bull Hill) / Breakneck Ridge

when: october 16, 2010

where: philipstown / fishkill, ny, usa

participants: peter and myself

transportation: i took a metro north train from grand central terminal to the cold spring station. peter drove his subaru from newburgh, ny, where he works. after the hike he drove me to my grandma's in yorktown, ny.

food: ate a bagel with cream cheese and banana in route to the trailhead. there was a peach but it was kinda rotten. oatmeal cookies. and had an avocado and cucumber in my pack the entire hike but ate those later. drank 2 liters of water.

trail: sort of confusing, we started up the washburn trail from the trailhead nearest cold spring. took the yellow trail out to the lookout on bull hill where i took pictures and found out my peach was shitty. walked back to the white trail and went down the back of Taurus. going up the hill it was pretty steep but the footing is easy and there's a lot of space cause the forest is thin small trees or whatever. on top after the look out the path slopes gently with bushes and trees close on either side. the ground was sort of a wide groove with lost of stones and dead leaves on it. it winds to one more look out and then turns into a few switch backs that seemed great for x-country skiing. eventually a green trail diverts off trail you've been on which in comparison to the new trail seems like a road. this trail decends deeper into the valley, crosses a stream via wood plank and log and leads to the Cornish Dairy Farm / Estate (built approx.1916) ruins (only the stone foundations and metal frames remain. Local fire department records show reports of fires on the property in 1956. The Cornish family ended in 1938. the land they owned was donated to the town to be used as a park. other things happened involved utility companies but it ended up becoming a park of sorts anyway). we then took the blue trail up to the white trail to the back side of breakneck ridge's highest hump. then we jumped on the yellow trail back to the red / blue trail back to the parking area. trail really steep up and down breakneck. some big rocks in the quarrying area. the lower areas covered in fallen leaves. there are really good rocks on this trail. not sure how far the hike was. i felt it was approximately four miles. pete thought it was more than four miles. the last bit is a neat concrete ramp that slopes for a good portion of a mile along rout 9.

elevation: who knows?!................. jk............  Mount Taurus: 1,420 ft; Breakneck Ridge 1,260 ft

Mount Haystack

when: october 9-10, 2010

where: keene, ny, usa

participants: andrew (boozeweather) and myself

trail: a couple miles from the roostercomb parking lot to the garden. 3.4 to john's brook lodge. hiked the phelps trail from john's brook to bushnell then continued on the whatever trail to slant rock. then hiked the trail towards marcy taking left at the fork for hastack summit about 2 miles, from slant rock to summit that is. the trail was cool, there was ice cystals, mud, mud plus ice, flowing water. mostly pine forest after sland rock. we saw a lot of nice foliage on the phelps trail. and the leaves in the valley were all flaired in yellow and orange looking from the peaks. trail from bushnell to slant rock gets pretty tough, steep and the footing is challenging too. i think we walked something like 20 or 21 miles between saturday morning and sunday afternoon.

view/weather: i mentioned the foliage above. the clouds were big and seperated and very high up. you could see far in all direction. moose mountain on the other side of champlain was visible. the dix range, giant, whiteface, skylight and marcy blocks off the stuff to west mostly. seems like i didn't look around that much, my camera was dead by the time we got to slant rock. it was cold at night. i wore all my clothes, a hat, all my socks, and clutched 2 handwarmers through the night. kinda wet and cold at other times. so windy on top of haystack. very clear and sunny during the day. and not a cloud at night. we saw two shooting stars which are just falling rocks burning.

elevation: 4,960 ft according to wikipedia. not sure what we gained and lost over the 10 miles out.

from the slant rock lean-to looking some direction