Hiking the 26 Westchester miles of the OCA

When putting together the Ramblers winter schedule, we are always challenged by the variability of the weather. You don't want to put a rock scramble on a day that ends up icy, or a long trudge on a day with six inches of fresh snow. But then if you put in a lot of easy city walks, the weather ends up being temperate and everyone would rather be in the woods instead.

So when I proposed to do the 26-mile Westchester section of the Old Croton Aqueduct, I thought I'd hit upon a flexible hike for all weather. The hike is almost entirely flat. If the weather were cold or snowy, we would cut it shorter and add any remaining miles to a proposed summer hike of the NYC portion of the aqueduct. I didn't anticipate perfect sunny weather, with no excuse not to do the entire thing.

We set off from the Croton-Harmon train station, and (unlike in my scouting hike) walked via Quaker Bridge, which meant a bit of doubling back on the OCA trail. We lunched at Scarborough Park. This is one of the places where the trail detours from the route of the actual aqueduct, towards the water, and the park is just off the trail along the banks of the Hudson.

At Tarrytown, three of our 12 hikers dropped out. I would have been one of them, if I wasn't the leader ... but peer pressure kept me going.

About 5:30 we had to turn on our headlamps. So I really don't have any good photos after that point. It's a shame, because as darkness was falling we had some nice views of the Palisades. By the time we hit Yonkers and the trail swung east, nearly all of us were feeling the struggle. We passed through the northern end of Tibbetts Brook Park and looked for where the trail head south, near the weir, and another hiker left us there. So close to the end!

Finally, we left Tibbetts Brook Park, crossed the last few streets, and reached the border of Van Cortlandt Park. In this spot, unlike most of the park, there is no road at the border. Suddenly you go from a narrow greenway between two streets to being surrounded by park - but at night, you don't so much see the park as no longer see the houses. There is a NYC Parks sign on the rock, and that's it, although you still have to get back to transit. I had planned for us to walk to a bus stop. Most of the group did that, but one of the hikers planned to take an Uber to his girlfriend's, and as she lives just a few blocks from me, I took him up on his offer of a ride.

The hardest part of the hike? Getting out of the Uber at the end. I walked the three blocks more slowly than I ever have in my life.

All told, we hiked about 30 miles - the trail is officially 26, plus it's about 3.5 to the start from the train station. It's the farthest I've ever hiked in a day, coming in a little shot of the Great Saunter.