Agile Trekker: Trestle / West Ridge Barton Swamp / Jessup / Dark Hollow / Sweet Clover trail loop, Schunemunk Mountain State Park

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/8/2018	8.9 miles

Map: NYNJTC West Hudson Trails Map 114

Parking: Otterkill Rd.

Directions: From the parking area, turn left onto the road following the white blazed Trestle trail. Turn right off the road onto the trail. Hike steeply uphill. When you hit the red blazed Barton Swamp trail, turn left. Turn left on blue blazed Western Ridge trail. Turn left on yellow blazed Jessup trail. Turn left on white blazed Megalith Spur. Return back to the Jessup trail and turn left. Turn right on the black blazed dark hollow trail and take it to the end. Turn right onto the red blazed Otterkill trail. Turn right onto the white blazed Sweet Clover trail and cross over the Metro North tracks. Turn left onto the yellow blazed Jessup trail. Cross over the railroad tracks again. Turn right on the red blazed Otterkill trail. Turn right on the white blazed Trestle trail and return to parking area.

We decided to another hike in Schunemunk Mountain State Park. We had a great hike yesterday, so wanted to try some other trails in the park. We started out at a different parking area. Again, we started out with a steep climb uphill. We had problems today trying to stay the right temperature - too warm climbing uphill, too cold on the windy ridge, just right in the valley. Early in the day we were switching our layers a lot. After a while, we were just pretty cold all the time, so kept most of our layers on. It was supposed to be around 46 degrees in town, but in the park, I think it was in the 30's with wind chills in the 20's. It was bitter cold when we were on the ridge, and more comfortable when we were in the valley. Glen had left his warmer gloves in the car and just had glove liners with him. He ended up using a spare pair of socks as mittens. Our faces were pretty wind burned by the end of the day.

The red blazed Barton Swamp trail is in a valley between the two ridges. It doesn't have the views that the ridges have. The trail needs a lot of maintenance. We did spend a little removing large branches from the trail, but it needs a ton of work. The nice part, was that we were comfortable temperature-wise as we were protected from the wind.

We actually just applied to adopt a section of trail in Harriman State Park. We both feel really strongly about giving back to the hiking organizations that create and maintain trails. We get so much enjoyment from hiking. We've been on a couple of trail maintenance work parties and realize how much work it is to maintain trails. The trail maintenance outings make you see trails in a whole new way. We want to give back. We are members of the NYNJTC and the Catskill 3500 footer club. We can also help out by adopting a trail and maintaining it. I've always wanted to adopt a section in the Catskills, but it is less ideal being further away. On the AMC website, they listed a couple places in Harriman that needed new maintainers. Glen checked them out on a map, and immediately chose one of them, because the section has lots of views. He is super stoked and is actually going out hiking on that section during the week without me to check out our section before we go out with a trail conference member for training.

Back to our day's hike....we visited the Megaliths today, which we skipped yesterday. We had hiked out to this spot before on a warmer day and had lunch on the massive rocks. Today was too cold to stop moving, so we just took a short stop to enjoy the view. Today's hike had a number of stream crossings. There was plenty of water for Trek. A couple of stream crossings were challenging to do without getting your feet wet. I really also enjoy the meadows on the Sweet Clover trail near the Shaw Road parking area. Areas like this make me want to be a "meadow-bagger", lol. I don't think there is such a thing, but if there was, this meadow would be on some list. I'd love to bring a chuck-it, and throw balls forever for Trek. There is also a huge beautiful tree in the meadow. Just lovely. Like yesterday, we pretty much had the trail to ourselves. We only saw one other hiker today until we got to the meadow. It was bitter cold though, and when we've been here in the summer we've seen more people.

I originally considered some alternate paths for our return back to the car, but one of them had another 1,000 foot elevation gain followed by another 1,000 foot elevation loss. Glen wasn't too excited by that much gain and loss right after each other. We also weren't making good time - maybe 40 minute miles on average. By the end of the hike, my feet were getting sore from walking on such rocky terrain. I'm still experimenting with shoes. My size 7.5 Salomons work pretty well as long as I wear very thin socks, but have less cushion than my Altras which are too small. The Salomons are getting pretty beat up with less than 6 months of wear. The stitching in the front is starting to fail. I've just ordered yet another pair of Altras in a larger size to see how they work. I checked out Trek's pads after both days this weekend, and luckily they looked fine despite the rocky terrain & rock scrambling.