Miles: 9
Time: 4 hours 24 minutes
Year to date miles: 271
Parking: Appalachian Trail Train Station, Route 22, Pawling, NY. Right next to a native plant nursery. Room for 4 cars. There are also 2 large pull outs, one on each side of Route 22, which can handle many cars.
Rest rooms: None
Hike directions:
This was an out and back twice.
We parked at the Appalachian Trail Station, and then headed northbound.
Cross the street, and walk briefly on the wide shoulder of Route 22 (busy road).
Enter pastures, and hike until you reach the terminus of the Red Trail in the Pawling Reserve (our last hike ended here).
We returned to the car.
We then headed southbound (crossing the railroad tracks, until we reached the huge Dover Oak.
We returned to the car.
Map: Appalachian Trail Conservancy New York / New Jersey Appalachian Trail Guide and Maps
Hike description:
We crossed paths with several through hikers - probably a couple dozen. First we hiked north. This portion goes over a few stiles over electric fences. The stiles are not climbable by dogs. At first we tried using their harnesses to lift them over the stiles (quite difficult). Then we let them go under the electric fence (which seemed not to be live). We passed by a water tower. Then, about 100 feet away from the next stile was a herd of cattle - mothers with their young, all grouped in a close bunch (feeding?). Luckily our dogs were on leash, and were perfectly behaved. We gave the cattle as wide a berth as we could, but still needed to get the dogs by the fence. One mother cow, climbed over one of the calves to get closer to us, and stared at us. Lovely. We made it out fine.
We continued to a sign with a map of the Pawling Nature Preserve, which the AT goes through. We noticed on the way back, that dogs are not allowed in the Preserve. Oops. There is a stream close to this point, which we used to refill the dog's water bottles on the way back to the car.
Since we were doing 2 out and backs, we carried less water with us on the first half. We stopped at our car, refilled our own water, and headed in the opposite direction.
We crossed the railroad tracks and walked along a wonderful boardwalk. We walked through more pastures (no cows this time), and ended at the Dover oak (a very large tree).
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| The pull out parking area (next to the native plants nursery) |
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| Starting northbound |
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| It was in this field, we came across the herd of cattle |
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Nice views from the pastures
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| Map of the Pawing Nature Preserve trails (which the AT goes through) |
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| One of the stiles. I think we encountered around 4 (which we had to cross twice). They go over 3 lines of electric fencing. I wish I had taught my dogs to crawl. |
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| On the way back, the herd of cattle had moved to a different part of the field, far away (actually near a pile of napping thru hikers). |
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| I loved this boardwalk portion. |
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| Adirondack chair pointing the direction to Maine. |
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| And Moxie and I on the one pointing to Georgia. |
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| Tree hugger |
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| Metro North train stopping at the AT train station. Both times we saw it, there were people getting on and off at the stop. |
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| It's a tiny train platform. This is about it. |
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