Bull Hill loop, Hudson Highlands

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
3/24/2019	5.6 miles	3 hours 22 minutes	1,363		58.6

Map: NYNJTC East Hudson Trails, Map 102
Parking: Route 10
Directions: Lone Star Trail. Turn left on red blazed Split Rock Trail. Continue straight on green blazed Nelsonville Trail. Turn left on white blazed Washburn Trail. Hike to Bull Hill summit. Continue hiking on white blazed Washburn Trail Turn left on yellow blazed Undercliff Trail. Turn left on Green blazed Nelsonville Trail. Turn right on red blazed Split Rock Trail. Turn right on blue blazed Lone Star Trail.

We were hoping to do 2 hikes today - one with each dog, but we both didn't sleep well and were late to get moving. I'm trying to get more sleep in to get over this bronchitis that is plaguing me. So today we took Trek out for a longer hike, and left Krummholz at home. I haven't hiked up to Bull Hill for years, and we took a different route than we've done before. We are starting to train for harder hikes, so we felt that today we should go for elevation gain instead of distance. We are out of shape, and I'm still not breathing great due to the remnants of bronchitis. But every hike makes us stronger.

There were only 2 cars in the parking lot. However, we saw a ton of people on this hike, mostly as we got closer to the summit. Trek was thrilled to be out hiking, as we've left him behind a lot when we've been focusing on training Krummholz to hike without him. Trek got to hike off lead despite all of the people. He's super good - when people approached I mostly asked him to hike directly behind me (which he does on command), rather than bothering to put him on leash. He's such a good dog.

At one point we missed a turn on the yellow trail and started following an unmarked trail.. I have to laugh. 2 other groups followed us. So they missed the trail as well. This has happened before to us...the blind leading the blind, lol.

This hike has nice views of the Hudson River, the Catskill mountains, and West Point. I can't wait to get back to hiking in the Catskills. Its a longer drive though, and we might wait a bit until we are ready to take Krummholz and Trek hiking off leash together. I would want to put a GPS collar on Krummholz when we go there - its a heavier collar - but maybe he's big enough to wear it now. One of the nice things about the Catskills is fewer people on the trails.

I felt guilty about leaving Krummholz home alone, so in the evening while Glen was picking up some groceries, I waslked Krummholz around the shopping plaza to meet people & practice some tricks.

Split rock

Catskill Mountains in the background - still snow covered peaks

Hudson River