7.2 miles | 453 ft gain | Difficulty: Easy | Rating ★★★ The Old Croton Aqueduct trail traces the waterway from Croton Dam to Bryant Park, and provided clean water to New York City in the 1800s. In 2019, we finished our 3-part hike of the Westchester trail and this month, we opted to start the remaining 15 miles of the urban trail, likely also done as 3 parts.
summer hike
Hike 34: Sandy Hook
8.3 miles | 92 ft gain | Difficulty: Moderate | Rating ★★★ There's a direct ferry from the bottom of Manhattan, 30 minutes to Sandy Hook, NJ. We've known about the ferry for years, but this year, we finally tried it out. Landing right at Fort Hancock, you're immediately immersed in the history that was once there. Shuttle buses will take you to the beach of your choice, but we wanted to wander and explore.
Hike 33: Old Croton Aqueduct Part 1
6.6 miles | 240 ft gain | Difficulty: Easy | Rating ★★★ The Old Croton Aqueduct trail traces the waterway from Croton Dam to Bryant Park, and provided clean water to New York City in the 1800s. There are still remnants of the aqueduct on the trail, like stone ventilation towers that now skirts between suburban backyards and unassumingly down city streets. Over a few years, we hiked the more common route, from Yonkers to Croton Dam, approximately 26 miles. This time we decided to finish the remaining 15 miles.
Hike 32: Iron Mine Pond Loop
3.2 miles | 469 ft gain | Difficulty: Easy | Rating ★★★ After our trip to the Adirondacks, we took a few weeks off from hiking. Partly to recover, partly to make way for Hurricanes Henri and Ida's wrath. We had a great camping trip planned for Labor Day weekend at Rudd Pond in Taconic State Park. And some big plans, including the highest point in Connecticut and the NY-CT-MA tripoint. Unfortunately the consistent rain on Sunday forced us to pack up a day early. Luckily we still got a quick loop in on Saturday, leaving right from our campsite.
Hike 31: Belfry Mountain
0.7 miles | 138 ft gain | Difficulty: Easy | Rating ★★ After a week of moderate but intense hikes, 6000 ft gain and 30+ miles, we wanted an easy trail to end on a high note. Barely a hike, but part of the Adirondack Fire Tower Challenge, we decided to quickly run up Belfry mountain on our way home.
Hike 30: Pitchoff + Balanced Rocks
5.1 miles | 1,394 ft gain | Difficulty: Moderate | Rating ★★★★ Pitchoff is one of the Lake Placid 9ers. The west trail climbs though the woods, first moderately, then much steeper. Though there are a few nice view points along the way, including the Cascade Slide (people hike that?!), but the summit is marked by a large boulder, deep in the woods. A bit of an anticlimactic ending to our 9er journey. Luckily, Balanced Rocks more than makes up for that.
Hike 29: Hurricane Mountain
6.7 miles | 1,493 ft gain | Difficulty: Moderate | Rating ★★★★ Hurricane Mountain is often touted as one of the premiere non-high peak hikes in the High Peaks region. While a great climb and potential views for miles, the recent abundance of wildfires has covered much of New York state in haze. At the top of the fire tower, we could see the direction of mountains, like Vermont's Green Mountains, but we had to use our imagination to really make them out. That's the only reason I knocked the stars down to four.
Hike 28: Cathedral Rock
1.8 miles | 246 ft gain | Difficulty: Easy | Rating ★★★ After two days of moderately intense hikes in the Adirondacks, we needed a recovery but still craved views. The Adirondack Fire Challenge was on our list, consisting of 24 towers across the park and 5 in the Catskills. Many of the towers are spread widely across the park and involve a few miles and/or thousand feet of elevation. Not quite recovery. Luckily, we discovered Cathedral Rock was only a bit past Cranberry Lake and a short hike with plenty of payoff.
Hike 27: Indian Head
10.5 miles | 1,847 ft gain | Difficulty: Moderate | Rating ★★★★★ Not a high peak, but what I would consider one of the premiere hikes in the high peaks region. Many do this a quick stop on their way up (or down) Blake and Colvin or Dial and Nippletop. We orphaned Blake and have to do that pair again, but we always find ourselves too exhausted for just another half mile or couple hundred feet up. With the Adirondack Mountain Reserve's (AMR) newly created parking reservation system, this felt like a low stakes way to test the system.
Hike 26: Catamount Mountain
5.6 miles* | 1,572 ft gain | Difficulty: Difficult | Rating ★★★★ The hike to Catamount Mountain, a Lake Placid 9er, offers all the hallmark features of a high peak in a much smaller package. Rock scrambles, slides, cliffs, a false summit and beautiful forest trails. The trail head claims 4 mile round trip but with our zigzagging, we recorded 5.6 miles. And I can guarantee that extra 1.6 mile is completely real. This was the longest little mountain I ever climbed.
Hike 25: Buttermilk Falls
4.25 miles | 250 ft gain | Difficulty: Easy | Rating ★★ The plan was to drive over to Buttermilk Falls just before dinner on Saturday night. Google gave us one set of directions, Waze another longer route. We assumed Waze knew something Google didn't about traffic or obstructions (it usually does, regardless of them being the same company) and went with it. 30 minutes later we arrived at a blocked road. So...we drove around to the other side. Also blocked. Apparently the direct road to the falls was blocked with "covid restrictions" according to the Delaware Water Gap's website. We learned later that they were rebuilding the parking lot.
Hike 24: Normanook Tower
3.9 miles | 650 ft gain | Difficulty: Moderate | Rating ★★★ We camped. And I survived. Besides glamping on the Inca Trail, I've never really camped before. Unless sleeping in a tent in my friend's backyard counts. It's something we'll have to do as we get to the more distant Adirondack High Peaks - we're just not fast enough to conquer 20+ miles in a day - so decided to start small with car camping by the Delaware Water Gap.
Hike 23: Corbett’s Glen
2.5 miles | 148 ft gain | Difficulty: Easy | Rating ★★★ We spent the July 4th weekend road tripping upstate for our cousin's covid-delayed graduation party in Rochester. To extend the trip a bit, we stopped by the Finger Lakes for some wine, cider and hiking. Unfortunately, conditioned by the heatwave in the city, we didn't properly prepare for milder temperatures. Our planned hike to Taughannock Falls would have to wait. Luckily, we found a few hours to check out a local spot in Rochester while there.
Hike 22: Hartshorn Woods
6.0 miles | 614 ft gain | Difficulty: Easy | Rating ★★★★ I'm not a beach person, but somehow being near the beach on a 90 degree day felt like the right hike option. We ventured down to Atlantic Highlands, a mile or so from Sandy Hook. Starting from the Rocky Point entrance, we followed the black diamond trail for most of the hike resulting in a long loop around the park.
Fifty-Two Hikes 