Hiking In Nature: March 2011

I went on an 8 hour hike on the weekend with daylight savings time ending. I went with Cliff, Amy and Cori. We left at 5:30am, which was really 4:30 to my body. Got up even earlier. We drove up to Breakneck Ridge outside Cold Spring New York, a favorite of ours. It was an overcast day. It rained a little when we started, but it didn't the rest of the day.

From Drop Box

Breakneck Ridge is a steep start, and I became quadzilla to get up it. Before we knew it we were at the flags.

From Drop Box

You can see Cold Spring on the left side of the Hudson, and farther down on the right is West Point. Before Cold Spring is Mount Taurus.

We didn't go up Mt. Taurus. One time Cliff and I went on a mongo hike, up Breakneck, up Mt. Taurus, and all the way to the lookout tower. Today we just went to Sunset Point. If I can find the story I wrote about that I'll post it here.

I had a bit of a panic attack when I slipped a little near the plunging cliff you climb around, where supposedly cows used to fall off and how the ridge got it's name. I had to sit down for a minute. I quoted the movie Withnail and I, "my heart is beating like a fucked clock!" I think that's the quote. I'm not going to fact check that. It's something like that.

Cliff knows me all the way back to my first wife, who hipped me to Withnail and I. Cliff is the one who first brought me up here. I've been hiking up here a million times and I love it. I've been alone and with many friends. I've done it all seasons, in all kinds of weather.

We forged ahead with large birds of prey gliding on the updraft. I like the bit where we get to three pine trees and it's a scramble up a steep rock that's largely unbroken. It's fun to climb up that when it's snowy. I've done this hike a few times in the snow.

From Drop Box

Looking down on the valley, between Mt. Taurus and Breakneck Ridge, I imagined it was made by Manjurshri's sword.

I was feeling like telling tales, myths, but Amy looked at me like I was a little kooky.

Then there's up and down along the ridge. After a bunch of that I felt a little tired. I wondered if we would get to Sunset Point.

From Drop Box

We crossed some snow. We finally arrived at the platform that marks the "Sunset Point". It was too windy to eat the excellent feta and asparagus sandwiches so we took shelter off the platform. We would have lingered, but the wind was cold, so we turned back.

You could see the Beacon Bridge along this ridge.

From Drop Box

The unknown ridge that led to Sugar Loaf warmed up and we ended up napping beneath this tree. Refreshed we set off the for the end of the hike.

From Drop Box

We soldiered on to Sugar Loaf, and down. It got crowded at Sugar Loaf. Of course one person was surprised while urinating in the great outdoors, but for the most part it wasn't too busy on the trails. It can get a bit crowded at times, but the further you go the less people you see. And the earlier you hit, the better.