Hike - second shakedown for tentative CT hikes - Beacon to Breakneck

So on Saturday I left my car at the south end of the Wilkinson Trail - across from the Breakneck Ridge weekend train stop. Tim then drove me to Mt. Beacon (actually two peaks; the highest in the Hudson Highlands) with my goal of going up to the two peaks and then south on the trail past Sugarloaf and out to my car. I figured it would be an 8 - 9 mile hike.

It turned out the actual distance was more like 7.3 miles, but I added on about another mile and a half so it came to 8.86 miles.

This is the fourth time I've gone up Mt. Beacon and done both peaks, but it looks like the last time was in 2015. If you go here Up Beacon Mountains ...  you'll see a great July 2014 trip up with hiking buddy Jeanne Marie.

The reason for doing this is the same reason for the prior weekend trip -Appalachian Trail - my shakedown hike for bigger efforts later this summer. Practice for my hoped for section hiking of the Connecticut Appalachian Trial which I will probably do with three overnight trips. Still working on the timing for it, and other stuff. The CT section of the Appalachian trail is 52 miles, so that breaks down to about nine miles a day - so three overnight trips on the trail .

Here I am at the North Mt. Beacon peak - elevation about 1100 feet.  That's the Newburgh Beacon Bridge in the background. It took me almost exactly 50 minutes to get up.

A view of the terrain on the way up - a wide path but rugged enough. Other parts on the way up were trickier.

A few more views from North peak and then over to South Mt. Beacon, the higher peak and with the fire tower. You can see the weather was beautiful and clear.

I walked the mile over (and up another 500+ feet!) to the South peak and fire tower.

This was some sort of hiking club. I spoke to a couple of them.

I did not go up the tower - go here if you'd like some pictures from there from past trip with JM.

I did take some pictures from the base of the tower. I have a new phone - Samsung S22 plus and the camera is terrific.

This view is north and across the Hudson.

Then looking south with no zoom. Great visibility all the way to NYC but you probably can't make out the silhouette of Manhattan.

Then I zoom in and surprisingly clear.

Then this! Maximum optical zoom, not digital. The phone must have image stabilization - I cannot hold it that steady. Manhattan about 35 miles away.

The rest of the hike had no high views - I will post a few pictures in a day or two. 

Overall I was very pleased with my hike. I didn't fall down - very important as I previously noted here. And my pace was reasonable considering the terrain. It took just over 6 hours, which included 45-50 minutes of stops to admire the scenery, eat some lunch, etc.

Here is data from the "MapMyWalk" app on the phone. I've used this software for several years and it's very accurate.

Here's a little bit better map. I Start at the green dot in the north and finish at the red dot on Rte. 9D. Can you see where I added on the extra mile and a half? It's the squiggly bit that looks like it comes to a dead end - I walked in and then retraced my steps. If I'd zoomed in for this picture you would actually see the two lines.

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[MR]

Great photos - surprised to see Manhattan. Also, impressed by the 32K steps.

[tom faranda]

Not so sure about the accuracy of the steps. Wile I am good with time and distance on the MapMyHike, the step count is high compared to "Samsung Health" on my phone. That had me at 28,351 for the day - it's always lower than MapMyHike.

[the Potentate of Plunge - SWEAT]

GO FARANDA GO ! ! !

If you keep on doing these shakedowns, pretty soon you may be better at it than the Democrats !

[the Potentate of Plunge - SWEAT]

Dear Faranda - That face looks kinda youngish. Have you been in the gym lately, or something???

[tom faranda]

Youngish? Better get your eyes checked.