Tom Rankin
Well-known member
Sunday we had half a day to spend, so we went to Black Creek Preserve, a part of Scenic Hudson. The parking lot has a big huge kiosk with lots of information on this hike and others. The trails are all in great shape. We crossed a very sturdy foot bridge, and took a sort of figure-8 trail down to the Hudson River and back. There are tons of flowers out right now, here are a couple, a Trillium, and a flower Laurie is working on identifying.
We stopped at the river for lunch. It was cold and windy down by the water, but the Lake Placid IPA was still great!
While we were eating an eagle was fishing on the other side of the river. Suddenly it turned and started heading more or less towards us. We caught him as he went over with something in his talons!
Pretty cool!
After this, we drove to 'Mighty Joppenburg'. It took 4 minutes from our house to drive to the trailhead. We tried to climb the cliffs of this little bump near our house once, but got turned back when it got too steep. Today we used our brains and walked down the railroad grade and started up where the cliffs were ending. We skirted the cliffs and kept working our way up a network of faint herd paths. Sometimes it was just bush-whacking. It turned out there were 3 cliff bands we had to skirt. At the top of the second, we could see the Catskills. Eventually we came to an ATV trail and then to an old road that looks like people walk on it a lot.
The road leads to the summit, which was covered with about 2 dozen ruined TV antennae! There was a large structure that had long since fallen apart, still holding some of the antennae. The rest were strewn on the ground. It looked like the entire village of Rosendale had their TV reception rigged from up here!
A short walk down and south along a herd path lead to the cliff face. From here you can see down to the railroad trestle, and the Rondout River. Several vultures took off when we arrived and departed in ever higher and wider circles until they disappeared. We sat here for a while admiring the drops and the views of Mohonk. On the way back down the old road, we met a couple who informed us that the path goes right down to the village of Rosendale! "Good to know", I said! Next time, we'll try that way!
We stopped at the river for lunch. It was cold and windy down by the water, but the Lake Placid IPA was still great!
While we were eating an eagle was fishing on the other side of the river. Suddenly it turned and started heading more or less towards us. We caught him as he went over with something in his talons!
Pretty cool!
After this, we drove to 'Mighty Joppenburg'. It took 4 minutes from our house to drive to the trailhead. We tried to climb the cliffs of this little bump near our house once, but got turned back when it got too steep. Today we used our brains and walked down the railroad grade and started up where the cliffs were ending. We skirted the cliffs and kept working our way up a network of faint herd paths. Sometimes it was just bush-whacking. It turned out there were 3 cliff bands we had to skirt. At the top of the second, we could see the Catskills. Eventually we came to an ATV trail and then to an old road that looks like people walk on it a lot.
The road leads to the summit, which was covered with about 2 dozen ruined TV antennae!
There was a large structure that had long since fallen apart, still holding some of the antennae. The rest were strewn on the ground. It looked like the entire village of Rosendale had their TV reception rigged from up here! A short walk down and south along a herd path lead to the cliff face. From here you can see down to the railroad trestle, and the Rondout River. Several vultures took off when we arrived and departed in ever higher and wider circles until they disappeared. We sat here for a while admiring the drops and the views of Mohonk. On the way back down the old road, we met a couple who informed us that the path goes right down to the village of Rosendale! "Good to know", I said! Next time, we'll try that way!
