Breakneck Ridge

Even though this Blog and my Farewell Tour are dedicated to the glory of New York City, I decided to take a trip up the Hudson River and explore some of the best hiking available to New Yorkers in the river valley just to the north. Small weekend escapes and little getaways are a big part of life in NYC and unless you go looking for it, you may miss some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, less than an hour away.

Yesterday's destination was Breakneck Ridge, named by trails.com in 2005 as the best hike in the country. You can get there by Metro North or by driving to Cold Spring. The ridge is on the almost shear cliffs of Mt. Taurus in the Hudson Highlands State Park. Just north of the ridge are a string of other peaks leading you all the way to Beacon.

The interesting story about this cliff for me is it's location. Across the river is Storm King Mountain and the town of Cornwall, the town where I grew up. All through my teenage years, i spent many hours on Storm King, biking up the world famous rt. 218 (storm king highway) hanging out at "high point" and hiking to the peak. I always wondered about the mountain and cliffs across the river, but never made any attempt to find out what was there. When my buddy asked me to go hiking up Breakneck Ridge i told him that it sounded a lot like the mountain across from Storm King...what luck!

Reading a little about the trail before hand could scare the shit out of any leisure weekend hiker. Every magazine and web-site I found warned hikers of the "arduous and very difficult" level of hike we should expect. Or this little gem from GORP web site :

"If you deviate much from the rock ledges that comprise most of the trail, you'll fall hundreds of feet down the mountain's south face. Utmost care is required on Breakneck and deaths have occasionally been the price exacted for carelessness"

Even after rosy reviews like that, we went out for an early hike. On weekends in good weather, the trail is probably more crowded than we would have liked, but yesterday, on November 1st, a Thursday, on a semi-cloudy morning there was nobody out there but us. In fact we hiked for 6 hours and did not see another person on the train all day.

From the small car pull-off at the tunnel on route 9D, the trail head started at the aqueduct building just north of the tunnel. Immediately, the trail went up, and when I say it went up...it went UP! For the 1st 3/4 of a mile, the hike is almost all a giant rock climb. There were few times in that stretch that i didn't need to use at least one hand to help my ascent and most of the time it was a hand and knees scramble up steep ledges, shear rock face and natural steps heading up the ridge.

It was absolutely amazing. The climbing was exhilarating and challenging to say the least, but what made the physical exertion worth while was the pay off at the lookout points. If you were to design a perfect rock climb, this might be it. Just when you thought your calves were about to explode or your breaths couldn't get any heavier, the trees cleared and the rocks flattened out. There are 5 "knobs" along the path. These are platforms or natural lookout points...or in our case yesterday, resting spots for a sip of water and chance to snap some photographs.

The views of the Hudson Valley are what makes this hike special. Up river you can see the Newburg-Beacon Bridge, Cornwall-on-Hudson and Bannerman's Island. This little island looks like something out of a movie about William Wallace. There are old castle ruins and Gothic structures that make the island a gem for site seers, but visiting the island is a no-no. Bannerman's now owned by the state of new york is thought by both Native American and Dutch settlers to be haunted. Even if it wasn't, there are old weapons and other remnants buried on the island that makes for a dangerous trip.

Looking south you can see the lower Hudson valley and West Point. The most striking view and the one that keeps people climbing the ridge is that of Storm King Mountain. Storm King is the most unique and recognizable natural site along the river and the sheer cliffs broken only by the cut of the highway halfway up makes even the most experienced outdoorsmen stop and appreciate the sculpting powers of the glaciers that once ruled the landscape.

Once on top of Breakneck, there is a trail that takes you down a less arduous trail back down towards the river...at least that's the theory. We missed the turn off!!! We kept hiking up and down other peaks and valleys for the next 5 hours, until we finally came to the highway about 2 miles from where we should have. What should have been a nice 3 hour hike over a 2.5 mile trail, ended up being over 6 hours and probably closer to 8 miles. I looked at some trail guides today and found where we went wrong. We ended up hiking over South Beacon Mountain, the highest in the region. Oh well, we went out for an adventure and we got one. My bad ankle may be a little angry that we went so far off trail, but i am glad we got to see the rest of the area.

Final analysis: Although Breakneck Ridge is not as hard and dangerous as the trail mythology would like to make you believe, it is a physically demanding hike, but on of the best you'll find...especially this close to NYC.

Check out some photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/82369865@N00/