[Journal Entry for April 18, 2013; Landing Road, Congers NY]. I visited the ruins of the old gravity railroad that once carried ice from the Knickerbocker Ice Company’s ice-mining operation on Rockland Lake to barges on the Hudson River at Slaughter's Landing. I parked by the park gate on Landing Road, behind Rockland Lake, and walked down to the river through this notch in the Hudson Palisades Cliffs. The trees in this area suffered mightily from Hurricane Sandy (October 29, 2012), with many having been blown over, their fallen trunks now pointing due west. I mourn the loss of the trees, but their absence opens up the woods, making old ruins easier to view.

The old rail bed is a ramp that slants steeply downhill. It is alternately built up into a raised ramp or dug into the ground as a trough. In both cases, the walls are stone-lined. The stonework is of mediocre quality, compared to the beautiful CCC-era work in the park. The ramp can be divided into four sections: an upper trough; an upper-middle ramp; a lower-middle trough; and a lower ramp. The subsequently-built park access road cuts the structure between the lower-middle trough and the lower ramp.

I walked down the centers of both troughs. The upper one is the more impressive, with some sort of workhouse at its downhill end. The workhouse is partly brick, and has several threaded steel rods protruding from its base. A well (or flooded shaft) is located immediately downhill from the workhouse. The lower trough is better preserved, but lacks a workhouse. I did not climb atop either of the ramps; they are rather overgrown with bushes and quite dilapidated. Their walls are built of very large un-hewn boulders.

The area around the ramp has several other old stone buildings. The stonework is different than that in Harriman and Tallman State Parks, but of excellent quality, with squarer stones arranged in a more regular pattern. I do not know if they date from the era of the ice company or whether they, too, were built by the CCC. One, still in good shape, is being used as the Park Director’s house. It is perched on a terrace well above river level and commands a great view of the Hudson River. A small shed and a large bathroom building at river level are in ruins, their roofs gone.

I walked down the park access road to the Haverstraw Trail, which is at river level. The shore of the Hudson River is cluttered by piles of driftwood brought in by Hurricane Sandy. I took the trail only a few hundred yards northward, and then connected to a woods road that took me back uphill to my car. I passed a Guinea Fowl – someone’s pet, I suppose – near the Park Director’s House.

About an hour.