Actually the plan is for two hikes of the month this month. This Saturday it's the Fahnestock Park Round Hill/East Mountain Loop trail. 7.5 miles and rated "moderate" by NY/NJ Trail Conference. Looks excellent.
Last month's hike was to be up both North and South Beacon Mountains, and then south over either Sugarloaf or Breakneck, mostly downhill after we left South Mt. Beacon. Total around 7 miles.
We (I) got the first part right - got up both Beacon mountains - South Beacon is the highest point - about 1,600 feet - in the Hudson Highlands. Then we (I) got it wrong - headed off on the correct trail but north! Realized our mistake, got on another trail, but then made another error. Instead of taking the yellow trail which crossed us, we persisted on the poorly marked larger trail. Brigid had it right (go yellow) Tom and Jeanne Marie out-voted her. Bad mistake.
To keep this to less then 5,000 words, we were eventually "rescued" by Karen Riner who picked us up on Lake Surprise Rd., nowhere near where we were supposed to be (we called Mike and Karen - they live ten minutes from where we were). So two little errors - by no means was there ever any danger, but easy to see how in the wrong circumstances little errors can add up to disaster.
A few pictures -
Up North Beacon
Some views from the top of North Beacon. Brigid had never been up and she said the same thing I said on my first hike to the top - "Wow."
Yeah, it was REALLY hot out.
On the way from North to South Beacon Mountain, views east, which is about where we will be this Saturday.
And the south Beacon Tower. Jeanne Marie and Brigid went up it, I stayed below this time and took the picture of them coming down.
Here we are about ninety minutes later, trotting along the nice, wide, wrong path. Looks like the right path, doesn't it?
But happy ending! Rescued by Karen Riner and having a beer at their place! When I called Mike and Karen, Karen picked up and I said "Do you know where Lake Surprise Rd. is?" She said "Oh yes i do. Ahhh, you need a rescue." Haha!
The hike was July 26th - my birthday. The following Sunday I went back on a solo and figured out where I'd gone wrong coming off South Beacon. In hindsight, it was an easy mistake to make, and I'm sure we'll go back up at some point and get the whole hike right.
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