Agile Trekker: Tallman Mountain State Park

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
3/25/2018	9.1 miles

Map: NYNJTC Hudson Palisades Trail Map 109
Parking: Route 9W at southern end of park
Directions: Hike northbound on Long Path to intersection of orange trail at Nike Overlook Park. Return back to parking area.

Our goal today was to hike another 9 miles. We are increasing our daily mileage by 1 mile each week. Yesterday, after we got back from our hike, I ate, showered and took a nap. I woke up from my nap and went to bed. This morning I woke up feeling pretty exhausted. My body was sore, and I just wanted to sleep more. I'm training to be able to do longer back to back hikes though, so I woke up. I really need to start foam rolling after each hike!

We seem to be on a trend of hiking the Hudson Palisades area, which we've never hiked before. So, today we started at the southern end of Tallman Mountain State Park. The trail started out as a wide walking path with many walkers. We got stared at in the parking lot. We are carrying full backpacks. Most people don't have any backpacks on. The trail starts out as an easy, very wide path. The path is strewn with some prickly tree seeds - I don't know what tree they are from, but they are round balls. I can't imagine that its comfortable for Trek to walk on.

We turned left onto a trail and left the wide path behind. We didn't hear any peepers today. The trail seemed like it was a berm, above shallow puddles on both sides. We had views of the Hudson River along parts of the trail. The trail is next to a bike path, which I guess is the wide main path. We passed by a picnic area and some shelters before dropping steeply down some stone steps to the town of Piermont. It always feels odd to walk through a town wearing a backpack.

North of Route 9W, we thought we'd be on woods roads, but we actually did a lot of road walking. After passing by houses, we ended up walking next to a cemetery. We continued along a road, and then actually walked through another section of the cemetery. At some point, we re-entered the woods. We continued on until we hit the intersection of the orange trail at Nike Overlook Park. Next time, we'll start at Nike Overlook Park and continue northbound on the Long Path. Glen asked at one point if we are working on section hiking the whole Long Path. The answer is no! There are way too many road walks on the path, that I'm not interested in doing. We're eager to get back to the Catskills, but are waiting for the snow to melt.