[Journal entry for September 7, 2019] Two years ago, I hiked Schunemunk Mountain, from its southern end to the rock formations called the Megaliths, which are about halfway along the ridge of the mountain. Today I decided to hike in to the Megaliths from the north.

I parked at the hikers’ lot along Otterkill Road in New Windsor New York, which is located just west of where a large and rusty train trestle comes off the mountain. I followed the Trestle Trail (blazed in white) steeply up the northern flank of the mountain, through Oak woods with Blueberry undergrowth. The trail is full of sandstone flags, which are loose and difficult to traverse in places. I stopped at a bench in a clearing on a wide, north facing shelf. It offered a nice view on this crisp and sunny fall day across the flat land immediately north of the mountain to Shawangunk Ridge and the Catskill Mountains in the distance. Continuing uphill, I searched for the intersection with the Barton Swamp Trail, but overshot it – happily, for I came to a wonderful overlook. It is just past a set of open rock ledges. I strolled across the ledges, past the occasional Pitch Pine, to a cliff on the western edge of the ridge. It commanded a very nice view of adjacent hills (and of a large quarry in one of them). The capstone of Schunemunk Mounatin is a very distinctive conglomerate that is locally called “puddingstone. It has egg-sized white quartz pebbles imbedded a darker, brown to purple fine-grained matrix. Ice Age glaciers have polished the surface of the stone, cutting right through the pebbles so that one mostly sees them in cross-section.

I then backtracked and found the Barton Swamp Trail. It passed a fantastic overlook, also set on puddingstone with surrounding Pitch Pines, that lowed east towards the blue ribbon of the Hudson River and the steep green hills of the Hudson Highlands (including Beacon Mountain, Breakneck Ridge, Storm King, and Black Rock Forest). The trail then dropped down into the steep valley of Baby Brook. The brook was flowing, but just barely, so I was able to cross it easily by stepping from stone to stone. I looked for Cardinal Flowers, for their red blooms are often found along streams this time of year, but found none. White Roadside Aster, on the other hand, was common.

I then took the Jessup Trail (blazed in yellow) up onto a second ridge, parallel to the one with the Trestle Trail but set further to the east. The trail crosses many puddingstone rock pavements, some flat, other carved by Ice Aged glaciers into smoothly undulating forms, and winds through groves of Pitch Pine and Scrub Oak. Blueberry bushes, some already turning their Fall red, grow from cracks and in low spots that have collected soil. I passed a few Goldenrod with their yellow blooms, but this was not an area of plentiful wildflowers. I spotted one Blue Tailed Skink among leaves beneath a Scrub Oak. Some of the high spots had nice view of the Hudson River and adjacent Hudson Highlands; others looked west towards the ridge off of which I had just come.

I made my way to the Megaliths, a set of huge puddingstone blocks, each ten feet thick and several hundred feet long, that have slumped off the western flank of the Mountain to form an imbricated pile a little below. I found a spot in the sun on a ledge overlooking them, and had my lunch of salami, granola and water. I then took a brief sojourn to the site of the old (and now removed) fire tower, which is a few hundred yards south of the Megaliths along the Jessup Trail. I believe the little rocky knoll on which the tower stood is the summit of Schunemunk Mountain (though the top of the ridge is so gently rounded that no summit is apparent).

I then retraced by path northward along the Jessup Trail, crossing many puddingstone pavements and passing beneath many Pitch Pines and Scrub Oaks until I was able to transfer onto the Sweet Clover Trail (blazed in silver). This trail follows the north side of the valley of Dark Hollow Brook and descends steeply downhill through the woods on the eastern flank of the mountain. I found it hard going, for the trail is rocky and many of the rocks are loose. It took me to the Otterkill Trail (blazed in red), a relatively level trail that parallels the main ridge of the mountain just west of the train tracks. The Sweet Clover-Otterbrook intersection is just north of where the tracks cross Dark Hollow Brook. I peered down into the ravine of the brook, looking for Cardinal Flowers, but spotted none. I then headed north along Otterbrook Trail.

The wooded land through which Otterbrook Trail passes once must have been open fields, for I passed many stone walls. They are well-built of sandstone flagstones and some are five of six feet tall, but many have been knocked apart by falling trees. I concentrated on the groundcover as I walked, enjoying wildflowers such as White Roadside Aster, Goldenrod and a purple flower that I did not recognize. I finally came to the footbridge over Baby Brook and a little later rejoined the Trestel Trail just prior to exiting the woods onto Otterkill Road, just west of the Trestle.

I found a hiking hat on the road and hung it up on a bush awaiting the return of its owner. I stopped at the Sunoco Gas Station, on Route 28 near the Route 27 intersection on my way back for snack. About six hours of hiking.