Tom Rankin
Well-known member
Shunning the shopping malls, we get a late start and headed down to climb the Black Rock Forest Fire Tower. Busted! In hunting season, no hikers allowed, no exceptions! Aren't hunters hiking?! Ok, so off we went to Plan B. We found a trail head for Storm King and began heading up around 11:00 from Cornwall, about here. We started out across a field following little markers on sticks, until we hit real trail markers at the edge of the woods. From here, the mountain goes UP! Fortunately the trail has a lot of switchbacks, and we found the going relatively easy. We chose the South/East approach. There were several great view points along the way. We stopped just below the summit of Storm King for a snack, and some great views of Break Neck and the Mt. Beacon Fire Tower. Continuing on, we started meeting tons of people who came from other trail heads. There is a big network of trails from 9W, Mountain Road, 218, etc.
We made a loop out of the hike, heading over to Butter Hill and coming back down the South/West side of the mountain. From over on this side, we could even see the original goal, (barely), the Black Rock Forest Fire Tower.
There are lots of old ruins up on the mountains. We checked out a few of them.
I did a little bushwhacking but I later found out that is not a good idea, as there could be unexploded ordinance anywhere starting 25' off the trail!
I had not expected Storm King to be much of a hike, but if offers about 1300' of ascent along a 4 mile loop. Definitely a nice place to check out!
We made a loop out of the hike, heading over to Butter Hill and coming back down the South/West side of the mountain. From over on this side, we could even see the original goal, (barely), the Black Rock Forest Fire Tower.
There are lots of old ruins up on the mountains. We checked out a few of them.
I did a little bushwhacking but I later found out that is not a good idea, as there could be unexploded ordinance anywhere starting 25' off the trail!
I had not expected Storm King to be much of a hike, but if offers about 1300' of ascent along a 4 mile loop. Definitely a nice place to check out!