Sunday, June 10th, 2007
If you are reading this post, you have probably seen Mount Beacon (Beacon Mountain). Maybe you didn’t even know you were looking at it. Just doing a Google Search surprised me…there are so many people interested in this mountain. Here are some interesting links…
- Beauty atop Mount Beacon
- Gateway to Mount Beacon Park
- Save the Mount Beacon Fire Tower
- Mount Beacon Amateur Radio Club
- Mt. Beacon Incline Railway
I always knew there were a bunch of radio towers up on the moutain, but I was not aware of how many people love this place. I once new a guy…yeah, I knew a guy who used to ride a quad up Mount Beacon. Boy, he told me it sure was a difficult ride. The bottom was easy to get up, but once he hit the old ski slopes, it was nothing but huge rocks. That is pretty hard terrain for a quad.
I have heard many stories about Mount Beacon, but I really don’t know what to believe. Here is what I do know…the mountain offers a view over the City of Beacon, NY. There are radio towers, among other towers at the top of the mountain. There are also some old fire towers up there too. It offers some really great ATV riding as well, but you didn’t hear that from me.
Here are the rumors that I heard, which may very well be true. You can see New York City on a clear day. There used to be an old ski lodge at the top of the mountain with ski slopes going down the face. There was a trolly type thing that used to get pulled up the mountain. Who knows…
One of the most interesting things to me is the reservoir at the top of the mountain. I have some photos of that below. Well, what am I waiting for? Let’s see the photos…
See, I told you there was a reservoir on the mountain. This old broken down sign tells us that the reservoir holds 125 million gallons of water.
This is a view across the reservoir to one of the old fire towers. This particular one is towards the back/side of the mountain and is not as well known as the one people generally talk about at the front of the mountain.
This is a photo of the Mt. Beacon reservoir dam. Yeah, this holds all the water back, so don’t jump on it.
This photo is a view from the top of Mt. Beacon. This view overlooks the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and the Hudson River.
This is a photo taken from the same spot as the last one, but looking more North up the Hudson River, towards Kingston, NY.
Do you have any fables, myths or truths about this mountain? I would love to hear them.
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Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
Wow, what a long day! If you read my previous posts about Stephanie and James’ visit, you know what the heck I am talking about.
As I mentioned before, we got a little lost on the way to our destination, but it was worth it. As we were driving to Woodstock, we happened to get a few glimpses of Ashokan Reservoir. When we first saw it, I think I said, “What the…?” It’s is a very neat place. The pass right by the New York State DEC. Their little area kind of reminded me of Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The landscape, not the music. HAHA.
Anyway, I am going to keep this quick, but I just wanted to post a few photos. If you are in the area, stop by and take a break. You can also click the link above to get all the details about this cool reservoir.
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Monday, April 9th, 2007
Every Easter, Laura and I try to go to dinner at “Fife’n Drum” restaurant in Kent, CT and then hiking down at Bull’s Bridge. This has become a little tradition for us. It gives us something to look forward to during this time of year.
Yesterday was pretty fun. We got into Millbrook and took Rt.343 down to Dover, NY. 343 has some of the nicest houses on it! I just love to look at those places…horse farms and all that. Reminds me of one day in the future when I will sit with my feet up laughing at my past.
We took a bunch of back roads all the way into Kent, CT. We made it to Fife’n Drum about a half hour late, but the dude let us in anyway. The people over there in CT are a little different than the people that we live near. I am not sure they would put up with the barking dog my neighbor has. Yeah, they seem like the kind of people that might have a little problem with that, if you catch my drift.
Dinner was good, even though it was at 2PM. The thing that makes this day so much fun, is that we get to go hiking down at Bull’s Bridge after dinner.
Bull’s Bridge is a little covered wooden bridge right off Rt.7. The bridge is nice, but the hiking is nicer. There is part of the Appalachian Trail right next to it.
We go hiking all the way down to a small campground. I think it’s called 10 Mile Campground or something. It’s about a mile down the trail. There is so much to look at along the way…like an overlook and rapids and all that. It’s pretty damn cool.
We spent a few hours hiking and then came back to head up to Laura’s parents house for some dessert. Overall, I would have to say it was a rather enjoyable day. Enjoy the pics!
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Friday, December 29th, 2006
We have a new Christmas tradition in our house. We are going to go for a hike. Now, I completely understand that this may be a one year tradition because this year’s Christmas tempurature was in the 50s, but if this Global Warming thing is correct, there may be a few more years to go. By the way, wouldn’t you just love to see Al Gore and George Bush in a boxing match?
Anyway, we decided that Sam’s Point Preserve in the Shawangunk Mountains of Ulster County, New York would be the best place to start, because it is fairly nearby.
We drove up RT.52 towards Ellenville and made a right at the sign that said, “Cragsmoor.” After a few miles of crossing the top of the ridge, we found and parked in the parking area. I took a walk over to the big map and saw that there was a lake about one and a half miles up the trail. Ok, let’s go see that.
We walked for a while and could see the cliffs on the right. They were getting lower and lower to the ground as we continued on. When we finally got to the top, I took Holly (the dog) and jumped up on top of a rock for a view.
The first thought I had was, “What an odd place.” Right from where I was standing, you had a 360 degree panoramic view of the Hudson Valley and the Catskills. Also, there was the lake all right…in the middle of this short pine tree forest. I felt like I was either walking on the moon or walking in Florida somewhere. Again, very odd.
I took Holly down to the edge of the water and came across a weird little area. It must be a spill over or something. It seemed a bit out of place because I was wondering how they would get any machinery up here. I guess it must’ve been a while ago. Also, I was wondering if maybe there was any cave entrances around. I kept my eyes peeled.
We totally forgot what the map looked like, so we only continued to walk for about another mile. We walked out and turned back for the two mile trip back to the car. When we got back there, we realized that a loop actually went around the lake and we were closer to the car at the point we turned around. Whoops. Next time we are going to take the trail from the other direction and take some nice pics from the top of the cliffs.
Till then!
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Thursday, November 30th, 2006
I went up to Paul’s house this past weekend to pick up some fiberglass insulation he wanted to get rid of. Perfect! I needed a few pieces to finish up the basement.
We decided to make a half-day of the visit and take a hike to the hidden waterfall in the Ridge. There was a very special little lady who decided to join us. We needed a good guide.
I can’t give you the exact location of this waterfall, but I will give you a hint. It is off a road off a road off of Rt.44/55 going through the ridge. Is that clear enough? It is about the height of Awosting Falls…well, maybe a little higher. I promised Paul I would keep mum about its exact location to respect the privacy of the area. Nuff said.
We started on our way and our guide was doing quite well. I am not sure she used a telescope or any other equipment, but I can tell you that she had a very keen eye for detail and direction.
We made it to a wide open area that is used for part of the Catskill Aqueduct System. There was an opening of a few acres and even a helipad. Some digging had gone on there for shale. Also, on the right side, there were a few exposed pipes…part of the water system.
Just past the clearing, the trail to the waterfall started. It is a really nice area. It reminded me a lot of where I used to hike at Grimes Glen, when I lived in Naples, NY.
I just love waterfalls and creeks. A short hike through some semi-rough terrain brought us to a pretty amazing hidden treasure. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. I also couldn’t believe that this is so hidden. Well, at least now I know where it is.
The coolest part is that you can jump around on all of the really large rocks at the base of the falls to cross the river and look through the caves. The one thing that can kind of freak you out is the steep cliffs that surround the area. You could just imagine if anything ever gave way. Anyway, if you ever find this place, make sure to bring some lunch and hang out for a while…it’s worth the hike.
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Thursday, November 9th, 2006
Since I started writing about the Satan Caves, the posts on the topic have become the most popular on this blog. I started talking to some people about it and thought it might be fun to get some history on mining in the Putnam County area to share. I found some good links here:
There are a lot more great resources on the topic and they can be found if you just Google search for Tilly Foster Mines.
Let me know your thoughts…
PS - the photo above is an aerial view of the Tilly Foster Mine at the Carmel end of Rt. 312. This is the one right next to Simon’s Junkyard.
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Friday, October 27th, 2006
I have decided that a trip back to the Satan Caves would be worthwhile. After looking at Google Maps (satellite view) and typing in “Croton Falls, NY,” a few questions arose. I am telling you, this whole area is strange. Take a look at these photos:
The photo above is the entrance to the Satan Caves. You can see the entrance from the ground here. This is just to give you a reference on what the area looks like from above. Now, my sister Laurie says that there is a lake with more entrances to the caves in the area. It was part of a Girl Scout camp. I found the lake, but I think the Girl Scout camp was transformed into a development.
I have to go for a hike to see for myself. Also, from the aerial view, I see some more dark areas that look like entrance ways to the caves. One thing that strikes me is in the photo below. What the heck are these things in the middle of the woods?
After I go for the hike and take TONS of photos, I will post them here to give the full story.
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Sunday, October 22nd, 2006
I thought this might be fitting, since it is almost Halloween.
If you grew up in Brewster, NY and went to Brewster High School, you almost certainly know about the Satan Caves. Ok, I am pretty sure no one from Brewster is reading this, so let me explain. The Satan Caves are actual caves situated in a very strange area between Brewster, Carmel and Mahopac. The area is home to many man-made reservoirs that feed New York City. As such, you can imagine all the construction all those years ago that made the area mysterious…reservoirs and lakes, tunnels and caverns, canals and…well, caves.
Laura and I went to a very nice engagement party yesterday in Katonah. On the way home, since we were all the way over on the other side of the river, I decided to take a little detour. Heading up Rt.22, I decided to pull off onto a dirt road next to a reservoir with a nice stepped overflow. On this dirt road is the old garbage dump that my father and I used to go to when we needed to get rid of stuff. I remember that well…riding in the dump truck full of stuff. It was always an adventure. Anyway, I wanted to show it to her. I know…it’s strange, but it was a nice Autumn day and I was feeling nostalgic. I forgot that there was so much more to look at besides that beauty of a dump. We pulled over on the side of the road so we could climb the hill to get a look at the reservoir.
This next photo is of the single vehicle bridge that you have to pass through to get to the dump. It is old tradition to honk your horn before going through. You can see through to the other side, but it is still fun to honk the horn. I gave it a few honks to show off my mad skillz to Laura.
Right past the bridge on the right hand side is the weirdest, strangest thing. I should mention that when these reservoirs were created, tunnels and channels were made too…to connect them all. In the next few photos is one of the channels that connect this reservoir in Brewster to one in Carmel. I think the building was some sort of a dam. I am not sure. Maybe if someone reads this and knows about these types of things, they will leave a comment explaining what we are looking at. All I know is, it was very quiet and the channel was very creepy. It doesn’t help that Laura gets into this kind of stuff. She likes horror films like there is no tomorrow. I hate that stuff. I am a comedy man, myself. Moving on…
You know, if the wrong type of person came back here at the wrong time, they might try to do some sort of drug. Good thing we were here to keep a lookout. So, you get the picture. Pretty Blair Witch looking.
So here is the exciting stuff. We left the canal area and passed by the old dump entrance. It wasn’t very exciting…just an overgrown dirt path type road. They closed it years ago and covered the entire area with dirt. It looks like a field today. We continued on the dirt road and I got an idea…I would show Laura the hill that leads to the Satan Caves. I read somewhere that these caves are the abandoned Tilly Foster mines.
That is some freaky stuff. We got to the hill and I opened the door to go up the hill. What the heck…it looked shorter than I remembered. It has been a while though…
I used to go up to these caves with my friends Rob, Gary, Pete and Frank. It was kind of like “Stand By Me.” We lived that movie. We used to hear so much about the place, but hadn’t gone up yet. Finally, when Gary got a car, we made the trip. We hiked up the two hills and made a right towards a huge ravine type side of a mountain. There she was…a huge cut out of a rocky cliff, dripping with water…and a small steel double door. It was dark and wet, with lots of green moss. Like stated above, there were beer cans and junk left over from partying. We slowly creaked the door open and inched through to discover there were tracks on the ground. We had to balance on them because there was about 6 inches of water covering the entire area. We continued through in the pitch black, just a small light from one flashlight. There were multiple caverns, divided by large steel walls and a door in the middle. Everything was covered with rust and water. There were smaller tunnels leading to nowhere along the sides of the main cave. We continued through a few more caverns to come to an odd end. There was a large rock dead ahead with a rubber hose hanging from above. We looked up about fifty feet and saw a small hole…about one and a half feet from side to side. There was daylight shining through. We hung and bounced on the hose a few times to make sure it was strong enough to hold us. Slowly, each one of us climbed the hose to emerge out of a large, steep funnel type hole at the top of the mountain. We crawled up the sides of the funnel in the leaves and realized where we were…about a half-mile from where we started. This whole trip was completely different than anything we ever expected…
Ok, back to the present day. I talked Laura (without much effort) into climbing the hill with me to see the entrance of the caves. I thought this would be the perfect Halloween type thing to do. The caves are enough to freak anyone out. We made it up the hills pretty quickly, even though the ground was wet. When we came around the corner, we saw what we came for…only there was a huge pile of dirt covering the steel doors.
This is the entrance to the Satan Caves from below. The photo below I took from the top of the hill, right at the doors. I guess the town or someone came and closed the entrance off.
You can see a little closer in the photo above. It looks like the entire cave system is filled with about ten feet of water.
The building on the right is totally ruined and full of beer cans. I have no idea why anyone would want to be in there drinking beer. Laura loved the caves and I bet she would’ve gone in, if it wasn’t filled with water. I have to watch this one…
So there you have it…the Satan Caves in Brewster. They do exist, but you won’t be able to go inside unless someone goes up there with a backhoe to move that dirt and drain the water.
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Monday, October 9th, 2006
We waited and we waited, all year long, and then came time for Oktoberfest 2006 at Hunter Mountain. And then it rained. We kept looking out the window and checking the weather report last weekend, but there was just no way we were going to get a good day of drinking German beer and riding the skyride, It actually cleared up later in the day on Sunday, but still, by the time we got there would’ve been time to leave. We also would’ve been beating ourselves up for not going yesterday, because of the perfect weather we had.
Yesterday was the day. It doesn’t happen too often. You know…those days that just couldn’t be better. It was 63 degrees all day, it seemed, and half of New York was on Rt. 28 driving through Phoenicia, NY. When we drove through that little town, there were Harley Davidsons lined up and down both sides of the street. Again, it just couldn’t be better.
We took Rt.3 from Kerhonkson, so I could show Laura what I discovered when I went up to get the bluestone for the pellet stove. It wasn’t what I discovered really, but what we were missing every time we took the Thruway North to Kingston and then onto Rt.28 West. It is probably the best Catskill country road I have been on yet. It follows the valleys of mountains and passes beautiful farms…and not to mention the patches of crunchy leaves to drive over while watching out of the rear view mirror at them being tossed into the center of the street. Lots of shade and lots of White Pines and Hemlocks. You know what I think of Hemlocks…
We made it to Hunter Mountain and just passed the mini-golf place at it’s base, when I saw the first shot I wanted for this entry. I kept laughing and telling Laura that this whole day was a blog post and she was living it. I am not sure that went over too well, being Autumn and romantic and all. Yeah, a guy with a camera and his blog on his mind…Hmmm.
So there it is. If you haven’t been to Hunter in the off season, now becoming the on season, this is what it looks like. Personally, I like it in the Summer better. Grabbing your mountain bike and cruising down the mountain is more of a rush, I bet.
We parked the car and went inside for one thing…the beer. We come for the beer. It just tastes better up here. I have this illusion of steam boats leaving the docks in Germany loaded with wooden barrels of dark Oktoberfest beer settling for the ride. It takes weeks to get the ports of Boston, where they place the barrels in horse drawn wagons for the trek to the Catskills. I think that’s how it works, right? Well, that’s how it works to these people…the die-hards who make it every year, just like us.
They dance and dance and dance. These guys love to dance and love to be watched by all the folks sitting at the tables drinking their dark German beer. This is one tradition that will be with me for life, and I’m sure for these guys too.
So we had our beer and had a stroll around to see what the vendors were offering. Some nice sweaters, candles, fudge and jewelry. Ok, what now…well let me tell you. It’s something that I have been waiting to do for years. Good thing I am a patient person. Take a look at the next photo and take a guess.
I have always wanted to go to the top of a ski mountain without the snow, just to hike around. I always thought that we would be the two people going up, because it wasn’t that popular. Well, remember all those people I told you about that we passed in Phoenicia? They arrived here right after us and hopped on the skyride too. What a cool thing to do. There were so many people and so many smiles and the best day of the year.
We got near the top and the guy asked us if we were getting off. To tell you the truth, I never even gave that a thought. I just assumed we would ride up and ride down, until I saw everyone up here walking around taking pictures. Sure, we hopped off to enjoy the view…and to pose for some pics. By the way, my sister Steph saw this photo and called me granola. Can you believe that?
There was one thing that disappointed me…there were none of the wooden barrels of Oktoberfest at the top of the mountain. We would just have to make do with that we had. We took a bunch of pictures and hiked around to every possible point we could, when we started heading towards some sort of action near a cliff with a cable handrail.
We started down the path and asked a couple what that engine revving noise we heard was. They said it was the statue. What? The statue. Neato. We continued on the path and made our way to…well, the statue. Right in the middle of the woods at the top of the mountain, there were two guys carving Rip Van Winkle out of a large stone.
This is undoubtedly going to make for some good stories for the snow boarders. I can hear it now, “Yo, did you see the old man in the woods?” “What old man?” “You know, the old dude up near the double diamonds…” Yeah, this was going to give Hunter some buzz.
We stayed on top of the mountain for quite some time and I really wanted to get a picture of my favorite trail, “Belt Parkway.” So, we wandered over and took a few pictures of Hunter Mountain’s longest trail.
This will change your perspective come Winter. We needed to get down and head back towards Rt.28, because I saw a vegetable stand on the side of the road and I really wanted apples. I wanted to be sure we got their before closing, so we headed back down the lift…
…and left Hunter to get some apples. What a view. We couldn’t get enough of it.
Just to let you know, we did make it before they closed and got some big, beautiful New York apples, but will hopefully have an entire apple picking post up soon…Cheers!
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Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
When you think you are getting in a rut with your life, one way to climb out of it is to go for a walk every evening. Make sure it lasts an hour or more. You don’t have to power-walk or do it for exercise…just do it for the pleasure of getting out of the house and having a decent conversation with your significant other. It’s amazing how much stress you shed off and how much of the town you live in becomes noticed and enjoyed.
When we lived back on the Eastern side of the Hudson River, we used to walk around the neighborhood, on the track up at the Trinity-Pawling School and at the Pawling Nature Reserve. By far, the best place to get away from it all is the Nature Reserve.
You get their by heading north of Pawling on Rt. 22 and making a right on N. Quaker Hill Rd. Continue East until you make a left on Quaker Lake Rd. Continue on this road, past both lakes until the road turns into dirt. You should see a sign on the left side shortly thereafter.
A short description of the reserve is here:
“The Pawling Nature Reserve covers 1,050 acres ecomapssing almost the entire 1053′ high western side and top of Hammersly Ridge in the northeastern corner of Pawling. South of Pawling, the topography is considered a part of the Hudson Highlands. From Pawling nothward, however, the topography and geology is the very foot of the Berkshire Mountains. The Pawling Nature Reserve contains many of the geological features of the Berkshires with deep ravines, sheer cliffs and rock talus slopes.
Much of the Preserve is covered with second growth timber as the area has been settled beginning in 1728. Sheep and cattle grazed the Nature Reserve land from 1750 until around 1930. Logging also played a major role in the area’s history. Remenets of an old sluiceway can still be found near the main entrance, along the Yellow trail. Foundations and stone walls dot the entire reserve.”
The feature that initially attracted me to this trail system is the Hemlock trees. I just love the shade of huge hemlocks!
When we start the approximate 5 mile loop, we immediately pass the little wooden map holder and donation box. We usually look through this for things that people write. You can find very interesting comments there. Then we continue through to the coolest ravine and waterfall. There is a wooden bridge set up that crosses the river and bounces when you walk on it. It is extremely fun to cross first and then jump up and down on it when someone else gets to the middle. It makes then hop up and down on it uncontrollably. Just don’t fall off while laughing at them. Remember, this is not a nice thing to do to someone. They may begin to walk away without you.
After you apologize and pass the river, you bear to the left and follow the trail markers. It is pretty basic hiking for a few miles, until you get to a little area with a very small pond on your left. Be sure to stop there to look for frogs. They have been there every time we visited.
Right after that, you will see a sign for the Appalachian Trail. This is very exciting because you can say that you walked the “AT” while hanging out at parties. People will think you are really cool. Just be sure to stop the conversation there, before they start to ask questions. You skirt the AT for a while and the landscape becomes a bit swampy. The people who maintain the trail built a wooden path that hovers above the swamp about two feet.
Continue walking and when you arrive at the big hillside, you will know that you are on the back half of the trail. It becomes kind of rocky, but really neat because everything changes to smaller trees and mountain laurels. Follow the hillside down and you will connect back with your starting place at the bridge, river and waterfall.
The hike usually takes about an hour and a half. I would say that the best time to go, like all hiking, is in late September and early October, but it’s nice year round. You will notice that when you hop back in your car to drive home, the conversation will have changed from everyday work talk to hiking and what you want to do with the rest of your life. Ahhh….what nature can do for you.
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