Monday, February 22, 2016

Hook Mountain hike

Trail
This weekend's hike visited the Palisades north of New Jersey. Having hiked above and below the Palisades farther south, I thought I knew what to expect - trails that were quite flat (except, of course, the few connector trails between the top of the Palisades and the Hudson shoreline). The trails turned out to be hillier than expected, with more variety.

We began in Nyack and hiked north along the bike path along the shore. This trail was mostly flat, but not completely, as it eventually wandered higher than the shore but below the steep cliffs. We stopped at the end of the trail, labelled "Treason Rock" on the NYNJ Trail Conference map, although there was no evidence of said rock at that location. There was a historical marker regarding Benedict Arnold's plans for treason, but we were a bit let down not to find an actual rock.

From there, we headed uphill to the Long Path and then south. This was where the trail was much more rolling than I expected, as we went up and down several hills. We left the Long Path when we hit the highway and circled around Rockland Lake.

The hike ended a bit short by Ramblers standards, at 11.3 miles, but it was a very pleasant hike.

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