Camping Trip #2: Woodstock/Sugarties KOA, Hiking at Clarence Fahnestock

We casually drove into Clarence Fahnestock's campground on a Saturday afternoon in May to find hoards of families barbecueing and partying it up with not a site to be had! We were pointed in the direction of Snow Valley Campground up the road but it just...wasn't for us. So thank Apple for iphones we were able to find an open KOA about an hour north in the Woodstock, Sugarties area. I've stated my opinion about KOA's before but the Woodstock/Sugarties Campground was a breath of fresh air! The staff was great and we ended up in site T-8 which was as secluded as any state park site we've found. We set up camp and basked in the quiet as there were only a few large RV's down a few sites for company. I took a minute to snap some photos of the greenery while Charlie Dog chilled out by the fire pit.

It was almost 90 degrees this weekend in the tri-state area so we decided to hang out and grab a beer before building the fire for dinner. (Beware that there's a new law in effect in New York State that states you can only build a campfire for cooking). We went with simple sausages and seasoned black beans for dinner and couldn't resist having at least one s'more. We've been buying precooked organic chicken sausage for camp meals which come in a large assortment of fillings/flavors.

We awoke early and brewed up some coffee while we cooked a woodsy Sunday brunch of organic turkey bacon and scrambled eggs served over fresh baked rye bread I found at a local grocery store on the way up. Breakfast tastes so much better outdoors especially when you're gearing up for a hike, so we were happy to eat our fill.
After packing up our one nighter campsite we headed back down to Clarence Fahnestock. There was a 6 Mile loop I had wanted to try for some time which I had grabbed off of trails.com back in the snowy months. We drove down to the trailhead on Route 301 and began our hike.

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This is a pretty complex string of trails to follow and some parts are better marked than others, the NYNJ trail conference has an excellent description of the Charcoal Burners/Cabot/Perkins/Fahnestock Trail Loop here, and you should get a trail map from the Station, it's very easy to miss markers and we ended up doubling back a couple of times.

The first part of the trail is very slim and skirted on both sides by very heavy brush. After awhile it opens up into a beautiful open new growth forest.But the best part of the trail was yet to come, it's over halfway through the hike, but the trail opens up into beautiful enormous green pastures with absolutely stunning views back toward Jordan pond. Complete with goat...yes...goats. Make sure you close all the gates behind you and pay attention to the yellow blazes here because the trail runs through private property here!

Hudson Highlands, Cornish Estate Trail, The Snow Lingers...

The past few days in the city have been beautiful, sunny and in the mid fifties, so with the hopes of clear trails we set off this morning for Clarence Fahnestock State Park to check out a section of the Appalachian trail, however, as we drove north on the Taconic State Parkway it became obvious that the snow from last weekend was still hanging around, two feet thick in some parts despite three days of sunshine and spring weather. We parked on Route 301 just as a very determined and equally prepared hiker emerged from the northern trailhead armed with trekking poles, dressed in goulashes and several sweaters, and carrying a day pack that was more along the lines of our overnighters. We hid our shamefully unprepared selves (one of us wearing shorts) in the car until he passed and then tested our luck with the snow...which looked something like this...

Swallowing our pride we snapped some shots of the beautiful scenery and headed out of the park on 301 toward the Hudson River, hoping to find a riverside path sans slush. After a quick stop in Cold Spring to walk along the water we headed north through Hudson Highlands State Park looking for a clear trailhead. A few miles up 9D on the right we found an old stone gate now serving as the trailhead for the Cornish Estate Trail.

By Train: Take the Metro-north Hudson Line to Cold Spring Station. From the station Follow Main Street east to Fair Street. Turn left onto Fair Street and continue to Route 9D. Follow 9D until the entrance pictured above appears on your right. According to Google maps walking directions the total distance is 1.3mi. Be careful on 9D though, there's a high speed limit and no real sidewalk!

The trail starts off on an abandoned road formerly used for access to an old estate, and slowly slopes up the ridge. It's a fairly easy stroll and many people had brought their dogs for a quick walk. We were able to get a ways up the ridge before hitting snow again, but it wasn't too deep and we had our hiking boots so we decided to press on. The views across the Hudson to the mountains beyond were spectacular and we could hear and see trains passing on the tracks below.

About a half mile up the trail we reached the stone ruins of the Old Cornish Estate that used to occupy the land now maintained by the park. We'll have to head back to explore inside. After a quick search for the trail on trails.com we learned that the estate had been occupied by a cornish family up until the 1940's and it was later destroyed by fire in 1956. Further up the trail there are remains of the Dairy farm that the family ran as well.

We continued up the trail which is apparently dirt at this point but there was no way to tell as the snow was getting really thick! We walked a few switchbacks and came upon some beautiful views of nearby Breakneck Ridge under a light coating of snow. By this point all was quiet and we took a few moments to pause by a stream and catch our breath. Hiking in snow uphill is not like taking an afternoon stroll! With no one else on the trail but us we could have sat for hours basking in the quiet and clear blue skies. We continued along the blue blazed trail until hitting an unused dirt road. Since we only had an hour to get back to the car and the snow was upwards of a foot deep at this point we promised ourselves to come back and decided to head back down.

All in all a great first hike of the season!